The wine-oriented website Snooth, which recommends wines for specific users based on a database of around two million ratings, has added a blog category dedicated to pairing wine with music. We've been into this idea seeing a restaurant menu that described wines with albums (sample description: "Deep and dark with flagrantly catchy overtones. Overall bright. Think The Clash's Sandinista).
But Snooth's music and wine blog takes this concept further, with extended wine and music descriptions and links that let you download a full-length MP3 of the song or research the wine in question.
Here's an example:
I caught up with one of the blog's writers, Adam Rabinovitz, a 20 year music industry veteran and senior marketing director at IODA who has been "obsessed" with wine for the past four years, for an email interview:
Wired.com: How did the idea to pair music and wine come about, was it the studies you cite on the blog, or was there some sort of "eureka" moment you can tell me about?
Adam Rabinovitz of Snooth's wine and music blog: I have beenworking with music for over 20 years, but it's been just over 4 yearssince I had a powerful "eureka" moment with wine. That specific momentwas unrelated to music, but from that point onward I have been more orless obsessed with wine. The more I have learned about wine, the more I
have found tangible connections between the wine experience and themusic experience.
The more I researched this connection between wine and music, the morepassionate I became about the idea of pairing wine and music and themore I started talking to other people about it. I discovered Snoothwhile looking for wine recommendations and I enjoyed the site so muchthat I wrote to Philip (James, Snooth founder) to share my idea. Snoothis definitely on the forefront of wine discovery, so I was verypleased when Philip invited me to post my wine and music pairings onSnooth's blog.
In regard to the pair of studies – I discovered those in my research.
It was an exciting moment for me when the Heriot Watt University paper
was published because until that time, these ideas were merely theory,
not scientifically proven. That study has brought a lot of positivemedia attention to the concept. I also like to give reference to ClarkSmith and what he is doing at Vinovation. Clark and I have met up a few times and it has always been a treat.
Wired.com: What are the challenges associated with doing this? And which do you start with first, the wine or the music?
AR: So far, I have started with the wine first. I find that it is mucheasier to choose music once I have the details of the wine worked out.
That being said, the biggest challenge has been selecting the wines foreach pairing. There are so many different options to choose from andadmittedly I am not (yet) a wine expert to the extent that I am a musicexpert.
Another challenge has been finding the time and resources to test thepairings directly or "live," as I like to call it. I enjoy a lot ofmusic and a good amount of wine each week, but not always in tandemwith one another. With the blog, I have focused primarily on pairingsthat I have actually tasted and listened to at the same time.
I have started to buy at least two bottles when I shop for wine in thecase that if I really enjoy something in a setting that does not havemusic, I can then have access to the same bottle at a later date andtest the concept further. As I continue to experiment with the idea, itwill be interesting to see how this "live" element develops.
Wired.com: Do you intend to keep this up on a regular basis?
AR: Yes, absolutely. Right now I post every two weeks and I plan to continue on at least that level.
I have also started to invite others to the join me for the testing. I
find that the pairing process is even more enjoyable with other people,
and that it inevitably lends to more diversity of opinion in regardeach pairing - and of course, more people = more wine! I am planning amonthly event with the intention of exploring the "group" conceptfurther. Details for the event will be announced soon.
Wired.com: Which areas of music do you focus on (like, can we expect this music to be from a certain genre)?
AR: So far on the site I have posted on the Rock, Folk, Dub, Pop andPsychedelic genres by pairing them with a few Chardonnays, a Rose, aPinot Noir and a Sauvignon Blanc. I will definitely keep adding newstyles and genres as I continue. There are hundreds of music and winestyles out there and there is a no shortage of "Long Tail" that appliesto both music and wine.
Pairing by region is also a fun angle to take. One of my earlier postswas called the "Terroir of the Tune" and commented on that idea. Forexample, there are some incredible wines and incredible music comingout of Oregon these days.
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