At a similar time, another was finishing an honors degree in genetics (don’t worry, it’s really only about 4 or 5 letters) in Adelaide, that’s part of Australia… not to be confused with a smaller country in Europe (not a country). She went on to publish in Nature (that’s a scientific journal, not just somewhere outside).

The other, finishing high school, in Orange (that’s a fruit, but more importantly a city in New South Wales, also in Australia).

Insert some witty repartee about a plethora of degrees and postgrad courses, extolling the pedigree of institution and their exemplary scholastic abilities (scholarships, awards, at least a Bafta and/or a TONY). Travel to exotic and some not so exotic lands, vintages a-many and fast forward 10 years and you have the start of Some Young Punks. A trio otherwise known as Jen, Nic and Col.

The year was 2005, the internet was slow, downloading porn took an age. As fate would have it, these three friends were broke. On a booze-fuelled afternoon, the notion of making a bit of wine together seemed like a good idea. Things were a little more parochial then, they didn’t fit the typical mould, wine labels were safer and it’s well before the time people mascaraed as natural winemakers despite using fruit from herbicided vineyards (woooooo). The trio had access to some fruit, the plan was to make it and whack it together. And that they did.

That was then and things change, there are only two now and both are aware they’re no longer young. In their short tenure as winemakers for punks, they have honed skills and learnt things. Lessons like, DUI’s are expensive, tattoos are expensive, sweating profusely in TSA attracts unwanted attention, winemaking is 7% cleaning and 103% telling people you’re a winemaker.

Despite the constant of aging and now a duo, nothing else has really changed. On inception, it was often quipped that vineyards were too expensive for a small company that already couldn’t afford to drink as well as they would like to. The penchant I believe these days is for Burgundy and Barolo which explains as to why they are still devoid of vineyard holdings. Fruit is sourced from conventionally grown vineyards throughout SA. Winemaking is still pretty chill, not minimalist etc… see above for vitriol on lauded educations. Regional, affordable, fun wines are still the MO.

That is the story of Nic, Jen and Col… most, some or all of that is true, it’s like Dungeons and Dragons, you choose your own adventure.