Enjoying our Sonoma Cabernet Wine with Music

Wine and Music

Wine and music are two topics very close to my heart. I have been into music longer than wine, probably because I have loved music since I was a toddler. Through years of classical music training, vocal and instrumental, I have come to love all sorts of music, classical, jazz, rock, House, EDM and more. I really love opera but also to let loose in some great rock song.

So how to combine music with my passion for wine? Well, wine is a great companion when listening to music and the other way around. We often discuss what music we should play in the tasting room. This is when it gets tricky. Some people will like soft jazz, others want more upbeat music and according to experience and research different music makes you like different wine.

There has been some interesting discovery around which wines you prefer depending on what you listen to when drinking it. This article http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-music-change-the-way-your-wine-tastes-1428071632 discusses the topic but does not really talk about how the senses are affected, yet brings up some interesting examples. More to the point, Clark Smith has done some interesting experiments checking out how wine and music interact for people, you can read about it here: http://www.sfgate.com/wine/article/Music-to-drink-wine-by-Vintner-insists-music-can-3235602.php

The problem is that it seems very subjective. If music you do not like is played, you will not like the wine. If you like the music, you will like the wine!  In a tasting room we have very varying tastes. You cannot please everyone, so at the end of the day, we just play what we like.

We make sure we have music at some of our events that is upbeat and fun. At Passport Weekend at the April every year, we like to get a band playing according to our theme for the event. We have had a 70s ABBA-style band, a jazz pianist/singer, and a Beach Boy surf music band. Jazz seemed to sell a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon and Beach Boys a lot of our Viognier as well as our dessert wine. ABBA appealed to all sorts of wine lovers.

Now I am looking forward to the Steel Band playing at our Passport event this year April 25-26. It will be interesting to see which wines people seem to like the best with that music in the background.  Our stainless steel fermented Sauvignon Blanc s maybe?

And if you have any experiences with wine and music, let me know at info@westwines.com.

Katarina