Secret Sherry Society Guardians of Wine's Best Kept Secret
Sherry (wines from Jerez, Spain) were suffering in obscurity in the U.S.—no one knew them or cared about them. And what they did know was that it was only for cooking and old people. But the truth is they are incredibly diverse in flavor, rich with variety and are really different from anything else out there.
We wanted to appeal to the emerging food culture in the U.S. and leverage Sherry's obscurity as a fun mystery to be discovered and played with. So we created an ironic secret society as a platform for the culinary curious to get involved in the enjoyment of these wines without the confusion of wine stores or the snobbishness of foodie mags and books. It gave us the freedom to create our own culture and history from the ground up, flipping the wine world on it's head imbuing something so old with a dash of modern fun, making the complex easy to enjoy.
Since it's inception some of the most advance and celebrated chefs, mixologists, tenders, bloggers and wine critics have joined the society. Tens of thousand of others have sought out the events. The NY Times and other media sources have been picking up the Sherry discussion. And most importantly people are enjoying enough Sherry to increase import sales to the highest numbers in over a century.
We wanted to appeal to the emerging food culture in the U.S. and leverage Sherry's obscurity as a fun mystery to be discovered and played with. So we created an ironic secret society as a platform for the culinary curious to get involved in the enjoyment of these wines without the confusion of wine stores or the snobbishness of foodie mags and books. It gave us the freedom to create our own culture and history from the ground up, flipping the wine world on it's head imbuing something so old with a dash of modern fun, making the complex easy to enjoy.
Since it's inception some of the most advance and celebrated chefs, mixologists, tenders, bloggers and wine critics have joined the society. Tens of thousand of others have sought out the events. The NY Times and other media sources have been picking up the Sherry discussion. And most importantly people are enjoying enough Sherry to increase import sales to the highest numbers in over a century.
Case Film
The Founders (styles)
Head Quarters
Mobile H.Q. (Traveling, secret tasting event)
Secret Announcements
Book of Knowledge
Host Your Own Secret Party (with El Toni)
Down-loadable party guide
Blog and V.I.P Guest Webisodes
The Museum of Secrets
Aonce-a-year, live art event for the society. The idea is simple: trade a secretfor a Sherry-based cocktail, and then watch as your secret is added to the museumsarchives and put on public display. The archiving process is a live feed tovisual artists monitors as they process hundred of secretes into typographicpieces that the guests can walk out with as souvenir of the event. (Note: Theprocess was a great chance for me personally to collaborate with one of myfavorite graphic artists, Mike Cina. We created over 80 pieces live during theevent, averaging no more than three minutes a piece.)
