Can music help produce better wine? Can listening to music while drinking help us enjoy wine better?
Wine & Music Pairings
A while back, I wrote a post about how I pair wine and music. In it, I mention some studies about how certain music can enhance wine tasting much like food pairings can enhance wine tasting. There have been studies about the psychology of listening to music and drinking wine, and some show that certain frequencies, tempos and rhythms go better with certain types of wines. There are even examples of producers creating playlists for the wines they sell for this reason. You can find more information about these experiments here.
Music in Winemaking
The post also sparked some discussions about other roles music can play in wine, especially winemaking. Some winemakers are using music in the vineyards to improve the quality of the grapes. This has some scientific support as there have been several studies about how talking to plants can help them grow. Low level vibrations have been shown to be beneficial to plant growth. For example, Domaine Comte Abbatucci in Corsica is one producer that plays music in their vineyard and cellar. There are also major Chilean producers doing something similar. For instance, Montes uses Gregorian chants to serenade their top wines like Purple Angel while they age in barrels in the cellar.
Then there’s Viñas Ineditas ‘Terroir Sonoro,’ whose winemaker, Juan Jose Ledesma, is a musician. He composes, plays and records a special soundtrack for some of the wines that he ages in barrel. Each of these wines receives direct vibrations from the music by placing speakers in the barrels. The music for each barrel plays without stop throughout its aging. Although you can describe his music as rock/jazz, he uses different pieces for each cuvee based on the style of the wine itself (you can listen to the music for each wine here).
Few studies have been done to explain how music affects wine in barrel. However, it is well-known that constant vibration can negatively affect bottled wines aging long-term. Experts say this is because vibrations cause sediment to move (rather than settle at the bottom) and mix with the rest of the wine, which can change the flavor. Some also theorize that the kinetic energy created while moving increases propanol, isoamyl alcohol and the refractive index (which means more direct light can pass through it). The increase of these things can cause a wine to be too sweet and less aromatic with increased volatile acidity. On the other hand, kinetic energy can decrease tartaric and other acids which can cause the wine to taste dull. There are even studies showing that constant vibration can change the flavor of a wine in less than 18 months. This can be due to vibration from appliances or nearby public transport.
On the other side of the coin, during the winemaking process, winemakers often circulate wine in various ways to improve the wine. For example, battonage is used to stir lees into suspension to get more influence from the lees rather than letting them settle to the bottom. Plus, to increase extraction winemakers sometimes do punching down or pump-overs to submerge the cap of skin, stems, seeds and pulp. Hence, perhaps vibration during the winemaking process can be a positive thing. In addition, premature aging from certain storage conditions such as vibrations might actually improve how a young wine tastes in the short-term since there’s little to no sediment in young wines and some wines are austere while young. As soon as we open a wine, we swirl it around in the glass or decanter to get more oxygen in to open the wine up, so it seems it’s ok for a wine to move around a lot except in storage. All this is just my speculation though.
A marketing ploy?
It’s also possible that all of this is simply a marketing gimmick, which is what many people think about ocean-aged wine too. Much like a placebo, we may think the wine is better because we hear some cool stories from the winemaker about the history of the wine or Gregorian chants in the cellar. The winemaker themselves may believe it too, so it’s not necessarily a conspiracy to make money. For example, so many winemakers follow biodynamic winemaking these days. Some clearly do it to put things like “organic” on the label because it helps sell the wine. At the same time, some follow it religiously, and whether or not all of it is scientifically provable, the passion manages to come through in their winemaking and marketing. Both for biodynamic winemaking and music in winemaking, it generally means the winemaker spends more time in the vineyard and cellar which is generally a good thing.
The Experiment
Rather than just speculating, I decided to conduct my own wine tasting and music experiment for the sake of science =). I even got the help from an ethnomusicologist studying the connection of music and wine in Chile to help me design playlists. Plus, I invited a few sommeliers and wine lovers to be our guinea pigs. Finally, I contacted Juan Ledesma of Viñas Ineditas ‘Terroir Sonoro’ to buy several of his wines.*
Part 1: Music’s Influence on Wine Taste
The first question we attempted to explore was how music affects wine tasting. Obviously, this was not a perfect experiment because there are so many other factors such as wine glass shape, lighting, food pairing, company, personal taste (in music, wine, food), personal mood, speaker quality, bottle variation, etc. However, one thing we were able to eliminate was bias based from the labels, which can indicate the variety, vintage, region, winemaker, etc. because we conducted all the tastings blind.
Although we tried to play music that was theoretically a good pairing for each bottle we drank throughout the night, for this part of the experiment we intentionally played music that was supposed to be a contrasting or bad pairing for the wine. Basically, we drank two bottles of 2019 Viñas Editas Acabodemundo blind back to back. The first one had the theoretically ideal music while the second one had the bad music pairing. We wanted to see if the different music affected the taste of the same wine.
Part 1 Results
Acabodemundo is 50% Malbec from San Rosendo, 50% Pais from Itata. Traditional winemaking such as zarandas were used. Although everyone thought the wines were similar or perhaps the same wine (with one perhaps being older or younger or made with music or no music), they were still surprised to see that they were the same wines. However, there’s still the possibility of bottle variance, the influence of expectations and the influence of food for me since one was drunk with food and the other after I had finished eating. With the 5th wine (the one drunk with the “bad” music pairing), people thought it was smoother and a little darker. Someone even commented that he liked the music while drinking #5 even though it was supposed to be music that clashed with the wine. The music was chosen based on the winemaker’s description. With #4 (the bottle drunk with ideal music) some people detected volatile acidity (VA) at first. Maybe since we drank #5 20+ minutes later, the VA had already gone away in #5 or there’s bottle variance or the music variance. Someone guessed Carignan for #4 probably because of the VA.
Overall, this experiment was inconclusive. There was a difference between the two bottles of the same wine with different music, but not necessarily for better or worse. Those differences could also be explained by bottle variance or other factors.
Part 2: Music’s Influence on Winemaking
The other question we tried to answer is how Juan Ledesma’s use of music in winemaking affects the quality of wine. I bought 3 of his cuvees that receive musical vibrations in barrel, and we had two other of his cuvees that were aged in silence to compare.
Part 2 Results
The first wine that we drank with music aging was the 2019 Vinas Ineditas Terroir Sonoro Reptiliano Singular Orange Wine Itata. It’s made from Muscat de Alejandria from Florida. Fermented with skins in an open tank for 15 days then lightly pressed, put in foudres to develop a veil of flor (a layer of yeast) along with vibrations from a soundtrack made for this wine. Unfiltered and unfined.
This one obviously stood out as the only non-red, so this wasn’t really part of the experiment since it’s not easy to find another Muscat Orange wine aged with a veil of flor as a control. A couple thought it reminded them of Manzanilla sherry on the nose, which makes sense given that ‘veil of flor’ is most associated with Manzanilla and Fino sherries. However, it also had a typical orange wine vegetal, leafy side but not overly so. There’s good acidity with a citrus peel aspect. Medium body. Apricot. It’s an orange wine that’s approachable for non-natural wine geeks. It may have actually been my favorite wine of the night.
Next we drank the 2017 Tinto Nitanto from Itata, which is a blend of 45% Pais 45% Cinsault 5% Cabernet Sauvignon y 5% de Malbec. They use traditional winemaking with zaranda but no wood aging at all and no music. People compared it to Beaujolais, and the light, fruity and natural side makes it taste like some traditional Beaujolais. Some tobacco and pepper. There are some floral notes too. Medium-low acid. I wanted to compare it to the 2016 Vinas Ineditas Terroir Sonoro Apellinao Pais Ancestral in Re Mayor Itata since it was similar stylistically as the Tinto Nitanto with lots of Pais from Itata with traditional winemaking like the Tinto Nitanto, but it was kept 6 months in Rauli (wood) with music unlike the Tinto Nitanto. In this case, the wood aging could be a factor in addition to the music and the difference in blend and vintage. Unfortunately, the Apellinao was corked, so we couldn’t do the comparison.
Finally, we finished the night with the most controlled experiment of all of them by comparing the 2015 Vinas Ineditas Terroir Sonoro El Perseguidor Malbec Centario en La Minor Bio Bio to the 2015 Vinas Ineditas Terroir Sonoro Tartufo Bio Bio. By this time, we had all finished eating. The playlist was the same for both wines. Both wines are made exactly the same except the El Perseguidor was aged with music in barrel and the Tartufo was aged in silence in barrel. They both come from 150 year old vines in San Rosendo from the same vintage and spend 12 months in French oak, but with the El Perseguidor Juan says the lees are suspended by the vibrations of jazz music. They were both opened at the same time and served at the same temperature. It was completely blind tasted by all the tasters including me.
Everyone seemed to agree that the El Perseguidor was better: more elegant, integrated, expressive with oak notes showing more than the Tartufo which people thought was unoaked or with neutral wood. The Tartufo got a little better and closer to the El Perseguidor with time, but the El Perseguidor had more going on. Overall, both were dark fruit, plums oriented, with some chocolate, spice and medium-low acid, but the El Perseguidor had more vivid flavors and a seamless feel.
Although we still haven’t proven anything with this experiment, in this particular case the wine aged with music was definitely different in a better way than the same wine without music aging according to 7 blind tasters.
*More information on Viñas Editas
Juan Ledesma is essentially a natural winemaker who leans towards traditional Chilean methods that locals use in the countryside for homemade wines, but obviously there’s a step up in quality making the wines far less rustic than some of the other natural/traditional producers in the region of Bio-Bio and Itata, where he sources his grapes. The reds we tasted of his were on the lower acid side for my palate, but part of that has to do with the varieties he uses too.
Viñas Editas has several wines in its portfolio. Besides the ones we tasted (see above), he also makes another cuvee using music in barrels called Cronopia, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon. In addition, Juan makes a fizzy Cinsault called Imposter and a chicha called Libertina. Juan is also famous for reviving old, lost varieties. Since many of the traditional Pipeños are actually Pais dominated field blends, sometimes lost, lesser-known varieties remain hidden for years. Juan has decided to test the identity of some of these unknown vines and isolate them as varietal wine. Hence, he makes a wine called Infiltrado from the variety Amaron, La Soberana from the variety Isabella and La Otra from the variety Moscatel Negro. Unfortunately, he exports almost all of them, so I still can’t get my hands on a bottle of any of these. In fact, a large percentage of all his wines are exported. Mainly the Tartufo, Acabodemundo and Tinto Nitanto can be found in Santiago.
