Kooks is a Melbourne-based company that started with three friends and one champion winemaker. The idea: to create a wine business that is about doing good as much as making great wine. Every month they support initiatives that help change the world. I got to sit down with two of the boys and ask them about their labour of love.
You talk about creating a new generous generation. How do you do that with wine?
CT: There are all these generous people with a certain attitude to life and we thought maybe we could start a wine company with the specific focus on being a good product. It wasn’t our intention that our wine make people do something, more that it helps them come together.
Your wine label is “Labour of Love.” Is Kooks that for you or is it a catalyst to something else?
AL: “Labour of Love” means doing something for love not money or reward. So in that sense, by making this a social initiative, our wine helps support other people’s labours of love–and that’s our passion.
CT: Brie, our winemaker, this is her labour of love too. This is her passion. If we didn’t have people doing their labour of love, it would be a much blander, more horrible place to live, don’t you think?
How do you provide good wine without the stuffiness that comes with it?
AL: Kooks is about enjoying a good drink and knowing someone else is benefiting. Both make you feel warm and fuzzy. You’ll notice we don’t use any “wine-y” words anywhere. Our wine is for people who like a good drink and want to do good in the world. We want to support good-doers and not do-gooders.
CT: People often buy wine with hesitation because they don’t know whether it’s good or not. There is anxiety about going to a dinner party with a bottle of wine that you might be held accountable for. If you can remove that anxiety then you can relax, unwind, loosen up to talk more openly.
Tell us about some of the initiatives your support.
AL: Bottle Boat project. It’s ingenious, uses our wine bottles as part of the craft, takes a shit lot of effort, does good, is fun, creates content. I love Playground Ideas and also STREAT. We have an ongoing relationship with all three that’s not just about giving but creating new things together.
Describe the world you want to live in.
CT: In its simplest form: a world where you treat others the way you want to be treated.
AL: I would like to live in the film “Her.” It looks like a nice future to me.