Flight pattern: Wine flights at GoodFunk
When your natural wine bar is named GoodFunk, Bonhomme Director of Wine & Education Colin Hofer didn’t have to look far for names for the Loop spot’s wine flights. It didn’t hurt either that Colin is a collector of vinyl and a music lover in addition to being a grape nut. "The names have an origin story from a funk song, album or band that I like, and I just tried to have as much fun with it as possible," he says.
Before the flight names took, um, flight, Colin thought hard about whether to offer them. He recalled his early days as a wine newbie where he would buy a bunch of bottles and blind taste them alone in his apartment. (Sounds like fun to those of us who haven’t done it, but Colin assures us it’s hard work.)
"I've found that most guests don’t have a frame of reference of what they like and don’t like and get stuck in a rut of what they've heard is popular or what they tasted when they were younger, but they never have really developed their own preference in taste," says Colin. "The flights allow you to compare and contrast different wines next to each other and in real time."
To create GoodFunk’s six different flights, which range from a trio of funky whites (Not Your Average White Band) to a selection of skin-contact wines (“Skin Tight” Wine Flight), Colin asks himself one very simple question: Is it cool? If the answer is yes and it meets all his business-related criteria, one more question remains. Can he envision the GoodFunk wine-tenders and patrons interacting with the wine in a positive way?
For those who want to push their wine-drinking boundaries, Colin recommends the five-wine Funky Ad-Libs flight in which the wine-tender pours what they’re interested in. "I always find it cool to see the dynamic of building a five-wine flight in real time," he says. "It's kind of like wine jazz and it should stretch both wine-tender and guest alike."
What Colin is drinking now
"I love any of the orange wines from our venues, but I think the Las Jaras "Superbloom" Skin Contact Rosé/Orange wine is really one of a kind. Everything from the label to the aromas — it just feels like summer is here and I know I'm ready for that. I also am on a little mezcal kick because I think it's so poorly understood and the range of what it offers is really unlike any other spirit. For that reason, I like a Mezcal El Guapo from Beatnik or any neat pour of a Tobaziche or Tobalá that I can find on the back bar."
