I had a fantastic conversation with Jed Wolf from Luneta Spirits yesterday, a label that I think is doing a fantastic job of curating the complicated world of uncertified agave spirits for the masses.
When your agave spirit is neither Tequila, nor Mezcal, you’re already talking over the head of 90% of spirits customers. When you have to call it Aguardiente de Agave because it falls under no legal classification due to where or how it’s made, you’re getting geekier. When your price tag is well over $100 for a 750ml bottle, you’re really pushing it.
Given its unbridled expansion and plethora of new labels, the uncertified agave spirits market needs more customers to survive. In my opinion, brands like Luneta are the gateway.
While I do consider myself a Bay Area refugee, with no real desire to ever return to my homeland, I do have my memories. And when I was a kid, there was no bigger force in the Bay than Digital Underground. Their videos played on the now-defunct Jukebox TV station 24/7, and we never got tired of watching them.
My wife and I gasped when we heard the group’s frontman Shock G was found dead in a hotel room last night. News reports will contextualize his importance with the discovery of 2Pac, but I’ll tell you this: more than twenty years after his death, most of what I loved about 2Pac as a teenager doesn’t hold up.
Whereas everything about Shock G and Digital Underground has only gotten better with time.
No matter where I am, no matter what mood I’m in, I will stop whatever I’m doing and start dancing if someone plays The Humpy Dance or Doowutchyalike. No matter how many times I’ve heard either song, which is thousands upon thousands at this point, they never get old.
R.I.P. Shock G.
-David Driscoll