“Joy Without Restraint”

Hebru Brantley x Brown Estate 2019 Duppy Conqueror Rosé

This painting by Hebru Brantley grabs your attention with bright colors streaking across the canvas. You feel the playful intensity of these two kids immediately because you are witnessing them in the middle of an adventure, and they did not wait for you to catch up.

The rocket speeds through a sky that is more dark than light. Charcoal storm clouds and stars are scattered across the canvas, interrupted by a small paper airplane drifting somewhere in the upper left corner. It's whimsical and funny, but it's also an important detail that holds your focus longer than you expect.

All of those details matter, but the thing that puzzles me most, or maybe intrigues me most, is that neither Flyboy nor Mama are holding onto the rocket. They are in open space, on top of a rocket, and they are purely relaxed. I find myself asking: have they traveled the galaxy before? Is the altitude even an issue for them? How did they become so comfortable in a space that most of us feel is so unknown?

Brantley built these characters as a homage to the Tuskegee Airmen and to the future.

The Airmen didn't just break barriers, they broke them with a joy so visible and complete that it looked like courage coupled with inevitability. Brantley took that confidence and gave it to children, because children understand something that adults spend years trying to remember. Adventure is natural. That the sky was never off limits, especially when you move through it in your own way, with style. Note the fabulous goggles.

Now open a bottle of the Brown Estate 'Duppy Conqueror' Sparkling Rosé.

Watch the pour. Salmon pink at the core bleeds outward into apricot at the rim, and the bubbles rise in fine, persistent streams. They don't rush. They steadily entice you to slow down, to smell, to sip and let something beautiful move at its own pace.

You're reminded of a garden at peak bloom, and of strawberry preserves that someone's grandmother always made from a recipe that she refused to write down. The flavors keep coming. Layers of vivid joy hold your attention while the vibrant acidity holds everything in place. It has the same balance and ease that Flyboy and Lil Mama carry while sitting on that rocket,  fully present, relaxed, going somewhere at full speed.

I don't know if Brown Estate had Hebru Brantley's work in mind when these Bubbles were made, but in my opinion, they tapped into the same artistic wavelength.

The Wine(Bubbles)maker, David Brown, ventured into the unknown when he started out in the industry. He heard that grapevines could grow on the property and decided to try it out. Now 30+ years later and the adventure continues, over the last few years it is clear that this Sparkling wine is a testament to joyful exploration with no boundaries. The Duppy Conqueror takes its name from Jamaican folklore: a spirit that returns not to haunt, but to reclaim and conquer what once tried to defeat it. It is a deeply intentional name for a wine made with this much assurance. Nothing here is tentative or timid. Balance and confidence keep these Bubbles rising.

Brantley's painting is about what it looks like when joy gets to simply exist no matter what the environment or how dark the sky may seem. The possibilities for the journey are endless.

The Duppy Conqueror is that same argument in a bottle. A Sparkling Rosé from California with every note present and vivid from the first pour, unbothered and fully itself.

Pour it while you look at the painting. The paper airplane in the upper left corner will start to make more sense. It's not a joke, it's a playful wink from two kids who left the ground to explore to their heart's content.

No boundaries or constraints, just like this Rosé.