Winesthesia: The non official art of pairing a song or an album to a wine based on completely speculative and affinity driven decision-making process and a hint of musical background to associate musical tone with the drinking experience.
I haven’t had this wine in a while but I do remember the first few times I encountered it. One of them was at an event called Puerto Rico Top Wine Cellar 2014 at the St. Regis Bahía Beach Resort in Río Grande Puerto Rico and I was blown away by it’s complexity.
Gal Tibor Egra Bikaver Superior 2009 was the wine. Without a shadow of a doubt this is a complex wine. The thing that hit me the most was the guava notes I got from it’s bouquet along with piercing spices that were well received by my olfactory pathway. Definitely medium body going on full body, rich dark fruits on palate and not too high on tannins from what I wrote on my notes. It’s 14% level of alcohol and it’s a blend of five grapes, some of which I had not heard of before this wine meet-cute . They are: Kékfrankos, Kadarka, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Portugieser.
The Gal Tibor winery (@galtiborwinery) was established in Eger in 1993 and by 1998 it was already the Hungarian winery of the year. The owner, Gal Tibor passed away and his son, of the same name, continues the leadership of the brand making excellent wines of different styles, but particularly the Egra Bikaver. I’m going to go completely honest here. Until I researched the wine, I had no idea Gal Tibor was the name of the person and the winery, or that Egra Bikaver was the wine style. I guess that’s what people see when they read spanish. Hey, as long as we keep on learning. In Puerto Rico, the wine is available via Bespoke Selections.
Now, the first time I had the wine I didn’t experience any musical matches, but it was probably the environment. This time it was different. There was a crowd, there were great wines that you expect to be great and then there was this timid, non expressive bottle just minding his own business, but when I gave him a chance it took me by surprise and made me acknowledge it’s genius. It was at that time that the connection happened and I remember blurting out the name: Scott Weiland. Particularly his time with the Stone Temple Pilots and more specifically, their album titled Purple.
STP, also found in twitter via @STPband originally from San Diego, California started in the early 1990’s with a sound that plunged onto you with rounded distortions and and rugged sweet and sour vocals that through their intense guitar riff’s entered you in a trance. Yes, those were college days for me, but that’s besides the point. I listened to the songs in my head as if I was skipping songs in a cd player, and I could completely blend the wine drinking experience with this album. Songs like “Meatplow“, “Vasoline“, “Interstate Love Song“, “Unglued” excel among others but that doesn’t mean you can’t drink the whole bottle while listening the album from start to finish. I actually recommend that alternative.
Early days of STP
The group obviously had it’s situations with the lead singer, and his battle with drugs, even after their breakup and later after his eventual death in 2015. Even though the sound is important to the blend, the vocals are a quintessential part of the combination. However, in the spirit of blends, like this great wine, and by the fact that I like to add songs outside of particular albums when I deem necessary, I’m including a song from the band’s newest album with current lead singer Jeff Gutt because for some reason, and after thoroughly revising guitar sounds between both albums, first of all I like the song, and second of all, it sort of captures the essence of the grunge-like sound of the Purple album, so it passes the test. The song I’m referring to is “Guilty“.
Evolved STP after a 10+ years.
Like I say at the beginning of every winesthesia post, this is a subjective exercise, but I encourage anyone with access to this wine and the album (You can always use Spotify) to give it a try. This wine is rocking. Also, if you noticed, I’m not calling the band grunge because the band is from California and not Washington State. That’s like calling a cremant from Burgundy, Champagne. That’s a no-no. They are both fantastic in their own category and you can probably have them back to back but not call them the same.
And thus, another wine/music pairing is complete. I have quite a list of winesthesia pairings that you can find using the hashtag #winesthesia in twitter. The extended version I will share in the blog with more details as soon as I can.
