Instead -- as heard at a youth-skewing wine-tasting held inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the sizzling South of Market district here -- it is this:

Thump thud tha thump thud tha thump thud tha thump -- followed immediately by that thoroughly modern rebel yell, "Wooo hooooooo!"

"This is great," 29-year-old Jonathan Wright shouts between sips (gulps?) of an Australian Shiraz, his eyes darting through a sea of stylish young winesteins who look like a Kenneth Cole catalog come to life. "It's a totally hip party."

Then, showing off a set of teeth that are beginning to turn purple, the former beer fan and newly converted "cork dork" Wright adds: "This sure ain't my grandfather's wine event."

Right.

Welcome to the San Francisco stop of Wine Rave '99 -- a decidedly atypical wine-tasting tour that's sort of a Lollapalooza for the under-36 Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc set.

Set to a pulsating, booming electronica-music backdrop and featuring plenty of food and plenty more free-flowing wine, the traveling, bimonthly (or so) Wine Raves have become the trademark events of the Wine Brats. For the last six years, leaders of the group have been preaching the gospel of fermented grape juice to Generation X -- a suddenly crucial market that the wine industry will have to capture as its baby boomer customer base begins to dwindle.

At first, the Brats themselves seemed to be drowning in ambivalence, as they had trouble attracting even 50 people to an event in San Francisco.

At the recent Wine Rave '99 stop here, though, 1,400 people showed up -- and hundreds more had to be turned away.

"Last year, it was "trying to do'; now it's "doing,' " says Joel Quigley, the Brats' executive director. "The following is getting pretty large. It's gotten kind of amazing."

The Wine Brats were founded in 1993 by a trio of actual wine brats -- the progeny of three different Sonoma County vintners.

Jon Sebastiani of Viansa Winery, Michael Sangiacomo of Sangiacomo Vineyards and Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach-Bundschu had grown up around wine (and each other) but came to realize in college that generational and cultural barriers were keeping most people their age away from the wine world.

So they set out to knock wine off of its pedestal, down to a more accessible level and to change their peers' perceptions of wine. Playing the role of Wine Brats to the hilt, the three even took to (playfully) terrorizing fresh-faced diners at restaurants, demanding to know why they weren't consuming wine with their meals.

"We'd love for people to see wine as something they can just open up and drink and enjoy -- even with potato chips," Quigley says. "And we'd like them to see it as a staple of meals and not as a special-occasion luxury item."

Far more self-deprecating than self-indulgent, and definitely more silly than snobby, the Santa Rosa-based Wine Brats now boast 14,000 members -- about 85 percent of whom are between the ages of 24 and 36.

The members are spread out across the country in 45 chapters, with the obvious areas covered: the Napa Valley, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago,

But there are some surprises on the chapter list, too: Fernville, Mich., for instance. And New Brunswick, N.J.

A Sacramento chapter came and went a couple of years ago but is expected to be re-formed over the next few months, says Quigley, who blames a leadership vaccum for the demise.

The Brats hold regular regional tasting events ("Your Mama's Grape Juice Never Tasted Like This" was one), and also have a syndicated radio show in development, along with a national cable television program. Already, they've written the Gen X wine book: "The Wine Brats' Guide To Living, with Wine."

And they'll also be producing an ongoing series of tastings at the California State Fair this summer, including one that will match fair fare with a few of the medal-winning wines.

"We're really rockin'," Quigley says. "And the industry is finally starting to wake up to us."

That's because the wine world badly needs the help.

Surveys have shown that people under 40 account for only one third of wine consumption in America -- bad news for the domestic wine industry, with baby boomers edging toward retirement and accompanying fixed incomes.

At the same time, domestic wine production has been steadily increasing in recent years, although consumption has remained relatively flat.

If Generation X doesn't take to wine, the industry will soon be stuck with a glut of expensive grapes and, Quigley says, will be in "a state of serious hurt."

No wonder, then, that so many wineries have thrown their financial support behind the Brats, including Beringer, Sutter Home, Kenwood, Gallo Sonoma and Korbel.

"The Wine Brats," says John Schwartz, the senior vice president of international operations for Wente, "are definitely doing something good for the industry."

Taking a break behind the Livermore-based winery's bustling Wine Rave table, Schwartz says: "You've got to be foolish as a winery not to be here to influence the next generation of wine drinkers. It's crucial that we figure out how to sell wine to the next generation."

Quigley, the big Brat in charge, thinks it should be an easy task.

After all, he says, the kids are more than all right when it comes to palate development, having already embraced everything from handcrafted microbrews to designer teas and gourmet coffee.

Wine, he says, is the next, naturally fermented step.

"The next generation of consumers has been drinking bitter ales and mud for coffee for years; it won't hurt to put a Cabernet Sauvignon in their hand," he says. "I think this generation is predisposed to fall in love with wine. We just have to give them that opportunity."

Already, they've been given their own magazine: Wine X -- the attitude-laden antithesis of the upscale and uppity American wine-scene stalwart, the Wine Spectator.

Where the Spectator celebrates "the good life," regaling its readers with stories about century-spanning tastings of world-class dessert wines that are priced for the upper class, the wildly designed Wine X recently ran a story on cooking with a clothes iron . . . "pressed" cheese sandwich recipe included.

Wine X also eschews the flowery prose that's often used in describing wine; instead, it uses irreverent and often-obtuse notes loaded with pop-culture references. The Sonoma Creek 1996 Rancho Salina Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, then, is "Barbara Walters on an acid trip in Baskin Robbins -- mature, flavorful and all over the place."

But attitude isn't everything.

There's also that little matter of quality.

"There aren't very many good wines here," says Wine Raver Michelle Liebhart, a 31-year-old San Franciscan with an apparently demanding palate. "I only found four that I'd buy."

Nibbling on a piece of olive oil-swathed sourdough bread, Liebhart adds: "But this is still pretty fun. I enjoy wine, and I'm enjoying this. I think it's a pretty good idea."

Ashlyn Slone, however, isn't sold.

Standing in a courtyard beside a blueberry-colored, floor-model Audi TT sportscar that's been rolled in specially for the Rave, Slone looks at some of the obviously drunken revelers around her -- the ones who are letting loose the occasional "Wooo hooooooo!" -- and shakes her head.

"I want to taste and learn and appreciate, but this isn't the place," she says. "This obviously isn't a tasting; it's a party. And a lot of people are here just to get drunk."

Slone -- celebrating her 26th birthday at the Wine Rave -- adds: "Hey, I was young once, too. They'll learn."