I hear this story on NPR about the effects of music on perceived wine flavor:

Music Alters Wine's Taste, Vintner Insists

Then I looked up the vintner's website, and found that he has a whole section devoted to his research (if you want to call it that).

What do you wine aficionados think? Have you ever noticed that you enjoyed a particular wine more or less based on what you were listening to?

No question! I've found that nothing goes with the Ramones quite like Thunderbird.

Agreed! You can't listen to the Ozark Mountain Daredevils without some moonshine or Homemade Wine! Well unless you're listening to Jackie Blue, then it's okay to drink strawberry wine and listen to The Band.

But, when you listen to Elton John, you gotta be drinking Elderberry Wine.

If your listening to Neil Diamond, you need to be drinking Red Red Wine.

With Peter Frampton, it doesn't matter what kind of wine as long as you know where you're dining...

Then again, if you're listening to the Atlanta Rhythm Section, you need to be drinking Champagne.

Cream is all about Sweet Wine.

Oh and then there's Tommy James & the Shondells and you need to be drinking Sweet Cherry Wine.

And be careful not to Spill The Wine when you listen to War.

Bruce Cockburn deserves to turn Water Into Wine.

If your listening to the Eagles, you need to be drinking something from 1969. [Okay, for you know-it-all's pink champagne on ice is acceptable...]

Little Feat fans are into www and then you be willin' as well!

Billy Joel's all about Dom Perignon... [Okay...a bottle red and a bottle of white... Cabernet, Beaujolais,...]

3 Dog Night is all about might fine wine!

Grover Washington, Jr was into Wine-light.

Sister Hazel's prefers a Champagne High.

When listening to the Alan Parson Project, go with Beaujolais.


I know you guys can come up with more!

with the majority of the bands on that list (other than cream, cockburn, little feat ond some old billy joel), just pass the wine and hold the music.

Surely you jest!

Elton John (#1 artist of the 70's with at least 7 must own CDs), Eagles (definitive 70's band with at least 4 must own CDs), War (the best funk band of the 70's and the album Why Can't We Be Friends is a personal favorite), ARS (how can you like Little Feat and not like ARS?), Frampton (Frampton Comes Alive considered by many to be one of the greatest live albums ever), Ozark Mountain Daredevils (dissin' this band in Southern MO is like dissin' OTR in Ohio...the've been having reunion concerts for the past two years that are drawing fans from around the globe--no joke!--I'm on the chickentrain list server and I'm blown away by the number of International fans that have flown in to the Steelville shows. Yeah, Steelville is so small I don't even know where it is? Their first two album are phenomenal, they just didn't get the press the Eagles got back in the 70's.), Tommy James (are you kidding me? Crystal Blue Persuasion, Crimson & Clover and Draggin' the Line--I'd give anything to have written one of those songs), Grover Washington Jr (the first CD I purchased was Winelight--Grover Ruled!), Alan Parson (how can you dis the man that produced Dark Side of the Moon and created Tales Of Mystery And Imagination? Yeah, he may have been hit and miss, but the man's still a legend), 3 Dog Night (before Kyrie Eleison there was Eli's Comin', before Roxy Music's whispery voicings there was Never Been To Spain and before EMO was called such a stupid thing, one of greatest voices in Rock gave us Pieces of April--say what you will, but I'd give my, er...well let's just say I wish I could sing like Danny Hutton--what say you ladies?), and finally Sister Hazel (they have a fan base that takes them on a cruise once or twice a year. How many other bands can fill a whole cruise ship year after year? I keep telling myself one of these days... The first two CDs are great, especially the first one, which still ranks in my top 10-15 of the 1990's. It was my #1 pick for 1997 [...somewhere more familiar] And, the song "Wanted It To Be" is in my top 10 songs of the 1990's. With your country leanings, I'm surprised you don't like this CD?) Oh wait, I forgot Neil Diamond. Yeah, if you look at the bulk of his career I can understand why you might not like him. However, all you have to do is look at the number of people who remade his songs and it quickly becomes clear what his real genius was--a song writer:

Kentucky Woman - Deep Purple
Red Red Wine - UB40
I'm A Beliver - The Monkeys
Solitary Man - Johnny Cash
Holly Holy - Manfred Mann
Sweet Caroline - Chet Atkins, Jimmy Buffett, The Gap Band

And you can't tell me you didn't love most of these guys growing up...you wouldn't be listening to music today otherwise!

Okay, I'm testing out the whole flavor-variant theory with (part of) a bottle of the pinor noir rose Jame$ and I both love so much. Maybe it's just the effect of the wine, but I swear it tastes different depending on what song I'm listening to!

For example, I really taste strawberry and a stronger, dryer finish when listening to, say, "Poses" by Rufus Wainwright. But switch to "Get Lonely" by the Mountain Goats or Sufjan's acoustic version of "Chicago," and everything becomes more delicate, with hardly any aftertaste at all. I swear that listening to Tori Amos made it taste sweet--and the wine is marketed as a dry rose. But so far, it's been most nicely balanced while listening to--I kid you not--Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You."

I'd be curious to know what other Orchard wine-drinkers conclude after trying their own taste test with their favorite wines!

Watch the rat movie (Ratatouille), when Remy tries to explain to his brother about combining foods. I'm guessing it's similar the way the brain mixes a certain taste when drinking wine (taste/aroma) and they combine into magic combinations.