OK, this is weird although I suspect you’re going to like it! If you suddenly find however, that you’ve expanded your repertoire of musical knowledge 100 fold and discover yourself up to the eyeballs in corks then you’ve taken the following way too far!
We all know that eating food with wine (particularly salty or sweet foods) plays a huge part in our appreciation of the red and white stuff, but now there’s evidence that suggests music (and in particular the choice of music) plays a large role in how we appreciate the taste as well.
According to Heriot Watt University in Scotland, music by artists such as Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones goes very well with a nice Cabernet Sauvignon. If opera is more your thing then you need to be supping on a Syrah! So it’s wine enhancing music. I like the sound of that!
This research has been done in collaboration with the Chilean winemaker Aurelio Montes, who even admits to playing monastic chants to his maturing wines. It indicates that different types of music stimulate different parts of the brain, making us appreciate the taste of wine in a corresponding way.
For example, when you listen to a bold piece of music such as Carmina Burana, a Cabernet Sauvignon is perceived as being 60 percent more potent, rich and robust than when no music is heard at all. By contrast, Chardonnay is enhanced by the light strains of pop group Nouvelle Vague. Still with me? Good.
“This is the first time it has been scientifically proven that music can affect perception in other senses and change the way wine tastes,” said Professor Adrian North.
David Williams, editor of Wine and Spirit Magazine, said, “I love the idea that music has such an enormous effect on the way we taste wine, and I love the idea that people in the wine trade might make use of this information. Maybe we’ll start seeing buy-one-get-one-free offers replaced by free Mozart, and maybe one day there’ll even be music lists in Michelin-starred restaurants.” Maybe, but only I guess if we’re all drinking the same wine! And if they start rolling out Jimi Hendrix while I’m tucking into my £100 Belly of Tuna with White Truffle I might get a bit depressed!
The research involved 250 university students who donned headphones and were served a free glass of wine in exchange for their views. The appreciation of red wine was up 25% when listening to ‘mellow and fresh’ music such as Otis Redding singing “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay” but it was up a staggering 60% with Carmina Burana.
It’s interesting to note that Mr. Montes believes there is a positive affect even when music is played to maturing wine…hmm. So the wine itself has taken on something from the music. It’s also interesting that not only does listening to music enhance our appreciation of the wine whilst it’s being drunk but it also can determine our choice of wine at the shops. Professor North also conducted supermarket research, which suggested people were five times more likely to buy French wine than German wine if accordion music was played in the background (these were the few who hadn’t been tempted to strangle the accordion player beforehand of course). If an oompah band was played, the German product outsold the French by two to one. Verdi and Puccini no doubt would potentially cause panic buying of Pinot Grigio.
What do you think?