How Does it Feel to Knock Out a Giant?

We are knee deep into World Cup, and the surprises are coming in strong. Yesterday, two giants were knocked out. Germany was eliminated by Paraguay and Morocco smashed the Netherlands. BOOM! Just like that, in on single day, two futbol giants were sent home.

Are we living in an alternative reality? Or has FIFA orchestrated the game ‘para engancharnos’, to hook us, to get us to believe even deeper? The underdog is at the top and it feels so good. Mexico has passed to the knockouts with a perfect score of 3-0, so has Colombia. Cabo Verde, a tiny African country no one knows about is still in the game and two giants are out as we see Europe disappear from the World Cup right before our eyes. Today I woke up to the idea of an ‘AmericAfrica’ world cup rising up, and I got ecstatic. I’ve always loved going for the underdog and now I am staring to wonder, what happens when the underdog actually wins?

The idea of the underdog must be in the air. I recently was interviewed by Nate, the founder of Swurl Media (more coming soon and I am so excited!). He asked me why I thought people steered away from drinking Spanish and Portuguese wines and instead go for classic French. It really got me thinking about why that is, as I’ve always championed the underdog wine regions. They drink really well, with soul, with ‘ganas’ (willingness). It’s inspiring. They usually taste as if they have something to prove and showing up like that on your glass is always exciting. And I like to take it even further, by going deeper into the subregions within the under dog regions, the ones that have it reaaaally tough. Take Canary Islands for example, basically the Cabo Verde of the wine world. The Canaries are part of Spain, yet no one really visits or knows about them. The wine region is built by lava, active volcanoes and is cursed by the Mistral - A strong, cold, and dry northwesterly wind. These winds are so strong they knock out the grapes. Wine makers in Lanzarote are known to make ‘hoyos’, aka holes for the vines in order to protect them from these winds. It’s a region that’s got all odds against it so when you drink wines from Envinate, Pablo Matallana’s Taro Vinicola, or Inaki’s Las Toscas to name a few, their victory to create taste extremely different than anything else out there.

Back at the interview while talking to Nate, I found myself placing Austria as one of these underdog regions I supported full heartedly and continue to do so. These days though, I find it even silly to think of the region as one of the underdogs, with stars like Gut Oggau, Christian Tschida, Sepp Muster amongst my favorites. It is now us drinkers who seek THEM out. We jump to that section of the menu at restaurants and fill our glasses with Gruner at wine bars. Proof that things do change, the under dog does and can take the lead.

You have to just dream it, and you have to assume that your victory has to look, taste and feel different. Have you tasted Sauvignon Blanc from the Austrian wine region, Styria? It truly is perplexing. It’s got nothing to do with our expectation when we stick our nose in a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. When I am doing a blind taste, I usually can almost always pick up Styria Sauv Blanc because of how bizarre and intense it is. The smell is stapled in my brain. Like all things when you taste, it is absolutely subjective. For me, pineapple, herbs and blue cheese come up. The nose is known to be explosive - An axis of ripe fruit, herbs and earth. It is quintessentially its own thing and absolutely fearless. It steals your heart. Austria came up in the wine map because it embraced being its own thing.

I was recently at the Rosalia concert in Madison Square Garden. A Spanish woman who sold out at MSG for two consecutive nights. Her performance was passionate, fun, sexy and spiritual, producing a set of emotions I couldn’t quite catalog in my heart.

I am consumed by these big time, unusual creators, the ones no one was expecting to get there. They push their work forward by knocking out all expectations from us of what their success looks, feels and taste like. I am following this sentiment, and it is following me. I was able to lock eyes with this feeling once again, at the Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. Iris is a fashion designer unlike anything that comes to mind when we think of that role. The exhibit shows over 140 of her haute couture creations, alongside her artistic inspirations ranging from other works of art that portray emotions such as fear, all the way to the most elemental specimens such as coral, fossils, and skeletons.

There is a room in the exhibition where you actually walk into her mood board. Its filled with artifacts, textures, colors and fabrics, brining the entire dream to life and letting her and us, visualize what’s called ‘synesthesia’ - A perceptional phenomenon that can manifest as a bridge between the five traditional senses. All of a sudden we are in her room, awaken to something our hearts, our eyes and our minds have never quite seen before.

Tonight, Mexico and the other underdogs will be playing and perhaps they’ll show us another kind of victory. In the meantime, I am on my way to Colonia Verde, on a mission to fill the summer wine list up to the bream with all the underdogs who dreamed big, and taught me how to do the same.

Vamos Mexicoooooo, que SI SE PUEDE.