The joke comic that turned into a sincere dramedic epic, today we tackle the first third of the series as collected in the BIG HARD OMNIBUS Vol. 1
Today we cover the origins of the series, the super fun stories about its launch party at a Canadian sex club, discuss the story's merits, and of course tell you which wines you should pair with such an outlandish yet strangely grounded work.
The Wines
Dallas’ Wine
An Austrain and an Italian started up a Canadian winery with an Irish name in 1974 and was granted the first winery license by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario since prohibition. Cut to 1991: they bring Canadian wine into the international limelight by winning the Grand Prix d’Honneur at Vin Expo, France for Karl Kaiser’s 1989 Vidal Icewine.
Icewine is made by allowing grapes to overripen then freeze on the vine, so that when they’re crushed with the juice still frozen most of the water is left out of the high-sugar grape must that remains, creating a highly concentrated, sweet wine with complex, concentrated flavor.
Inniskillin makes icewine from the Vidal grape, Reisling grape, and Cabernet Franc grape. Prices range from $40 - $100+ depending on the vintage and style.
Dave’s Wine
2021 Ludovic Montginot Cote du Py Morgon Beaujolais
Morgon is considered one of the premiere areas in the Beaujolais region, and Ludovic Montginot is an actual one-man show tending to his 3 hectares of vineyards and working in his cellar completely unassisted!
His Morgon Cote du Py contains all the freshness and vibrancy of a Beaujolais while also sporting a rustic, meaty quality rarely found in this style of wine. A perfect harmony of the frivilous and the serious, much like the Sex Criminals comic, plus Montginot's solitude represents where the comic begins - being alone in the world before finding another to share it with.
Wine and...Comics: SEX CRIMINALS Omnibus Vol 1 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky