In this month’s Wine Spectator, Matt Kramer’s column includes a keen cultural observation as he bemoans the lack of grace in so many new reds. Is this trend the fault of the hipster, who values weird over good?

“Is this yet another instance of wine geekery, a topsy-turviness where, by the standards of hipster wine culture, esoteric means good and familiar means bad?”

And:

There’s long been a cultural contingent (call them hipsters, bohemians, decadents, or what have you) who have rallied to the cry of épater la bourgeois, to use the French phrase–to skewer the conventional sensibilities and complacencies of the middle class. Modern-day wine hipsters would rather be caught drinking a Bud Light than be seen with a Cabernet Sauvignon.”

A nice encapsulation of the hipster ethos there. But Kramer goes on to suggest that perhaps the other reason that “weird” wines are gaining popularity is that so many full-bodied reds are becoming too full-bodied. These statement pieces are “too much of a good thing,” and wine enthusiasts want a break.