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.
A while back I was drinking one of my favorite non traditional pinot noirs in the market. The Belle Glos Las Alturas 2010. The vainilla flavors in these wines is off the charts which makes it the type of wine that you either love or hate. It’s creamy and rich and medium body but somehow maintained a dry finish. And it’s a wine I enjoy in a cold environment (I’d never drink this wine in a terrace in the summer or do something crazy like take it to the beach…again). The first time I had it it was in an office with a really cold air conditioner and it was night time and I was having a nice conversation. Synapses were made. I think of this wine now and I associate it with winter, and a fireplace, and soft acoustic driven music. Enter the Kings of Convenience.
Full disclosure, I love this band. This indy folk-pop duo from Norway, lead by Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, creates acoustic-driven melodies 
lead by soft spoken lyrics that carry the efforts of their simplicity via…well you get the picture. They could easily be my generations Simon & Garfunkel (sans the political associations of the 60’s) if there wasn’t so much music out there making it so damn difficult to discover excellence without effort. Even when they have a full band most of the songs use brushes for the drums and the bass tend to be acoustic as well. There is more to the comparison between wine and music though. The album that I paired with the wine is “Quiet Is The New Loud” which was released in 2001, the same year Joe Wagner started his Belle Glos project to honor his grandmother, wine pioneer and Caymus Vineyards Co-founder, Lorna Belle Glos Wagner. Also Pinot Noir is an elegant almost romantic grape that’s subtle, smooth and delicate just like the songs from the group. I could listen to the album from start to finish while drinking this wine, but in reality the songs that excel are “Toxic Girl“, “Failure” and my absolutely favorite from that album “I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From“.
Not in that album but just as relevant, when the song Failure was released as a single, the B Side was a live Tom Petty cover/version of Free-Fallin’ that’s outstanding and serves as a beautiful tribute to the great american singer/songwriter.
It is definitely a match worth trying for yourself, if only to try and prove me wrong and as a result you’ll have listened to a great band and drank a great wine. That’ll surely show me.
