I’ve Got Music ON MY MIND GRAPES, VOL.1
It’s hardly a secret around here at ‘the Press’ that I’m a music nut. After all, discerning and opinionated taste isn’t usually a non-transferable personality trait - one runs that fine-toothed comb through any sort of interest they’re passionate about. I always love when conversations with customers begin with a wine they had with dinner last night and end with a concert story from years ago.
Pairing wine with music or movies is certainly nothing new and has been tackled from many different angles, be it matching general beverages to genre or classic movies and acts with classic wine producers, etc. I’m going to follow an informal tonal approach and share a short playlist of some new discoveries or recently remembered favorites that I’ve been enjoying and playing at the store and matching them up with wines I feel share a general -vibe-
I present to you the Wine Press’ first foray into music bloggery:
I’ve Got Music On My Mind Grapes, Vol. 1!
Check out the Spotify playlist here!
First up is “Extremely Bad Man” from Shintaro Sakamoto’s Let’s Dance Raw. The cover of this album is so eye-catching, I had to pick it up in 2014. Not knowing anything about Sakamoto’s psych-pop past, what I found on the record could be some of the most unexpectedly positive effects of trans-Pacific globalization. Imagine American WWII GI radio signals filtered through laid-back dance music made by a Japanese rocker. A winking post-atomic statement slathered in Hawaiian guitar.
I’m pairing this with El Maestro Sierra Fino Sherry. Clean, dry, salty, and the same kind of erudite fun as Sakamoto’s grooves. I imagine pouring a glass of Maestro Sierra and opening the backdoor of your friends apartment to party at dusk. The string lights are glowing as the sun sets, you dip your hand into a plastic bowl of potato chips, sip your Fino and begin to dance raw.
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Amadou and Mariam have been on my radar since I heard them on a mix obtained with some UK music magazine over a decade ago. Despite the awareness, I had never dug into their Grammy-nominated album Welcome to Mali. In pursuit of finding something upbeat to play at the store - something I’ll admit I can struggle with - I felt like African rhythms could scratch this itch. My co-workers really enjoyed it and it was hard not to bop along to these songs. When I caught customers doing the same, I knew I found a winner. “Masiteladi” was the most undeniably infectious and propulsive.
Pipeno is Chile’s take on natural wine making. I had never seen a white wine in this style before Rogue Vine’s Blanco came through our door and I knew it had just bumped something else off my short list of new wines to try. I had really enjoyed the fresh but smokey dichotomy in Pipeno reds and when I tried this field blend of bush vine Semillon, Chasselas, and Moscatel, I was so satisfied to find a bit of that smokey profile. The palate reminded me of grilled pineapple skewers at a barbecue. This wine is a celebration and if I’m parsing some of the French in the song properly, “You can go, the path is open/you can move, life is so beautiful.”
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I’m also a bit of a film nerd and one of my favorite classic Hollywood actors is Robert Mitchum. Catch the film noir legend in some of my favorites Out of the Past, Night of the Hunter, and a late career portrayal as a crook from Quincy, MA in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Forget The Departed or The Town THIS is the best Boston crime movie - period.) It took a while before I got wind of his (somewhat) ill-advised music career that began with a (very, very) ill-advised Calypso appropriation. The song I’ve got here is a weepy Nashville bar ballad that makes a little bit more sense coming from his instantly recognizable, almost Johnny Cash-like baritone. There are a lot of chintzy songs about wine, but we’ve all been “Little Ole Wine Drinker Me” at one time or another… right?
“I’m praying for rain in California.” Why, you ask? “So the grapes can grow and they can make more wine” of course! When I hear the words “California red blend,” Monte Rio Cellars Skull is the one I want to drink. A bold and crunchy mix of Petite Syrah, Mission, and Zinfandel has the kind of dusty tannins you can imagine Mitchum drinking in that Chicago honky tonk and I don’t know which is more “American” - these cherry pie flavors or Robert Mitchum. Cherry pie=Robert Mitchum?
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Sometimes music placements in movies can blow up a song and give it new life or notoriety. I finally got to see the film 35 Shots of Rum recently, a wonderful movie about the relationship between a widower father and his daughter. At the climactic scene where the father and daughter begin to realize they will need to allow outsiders to occupy emotional space in each other's lives, the synth bass groove sets into the percussion that opens the song as the guitar begins to stretch and slink until the backbeat sets the scene into full motion. I don’t know how long it would have taken for me to come across a post-Lionel Richie Commodores hit from the 80s (I wasn’t alive when it came out. Maybe everyone knew this tune in ‘85?) but I’m so glad that I have. What production!
I’m pairing this with Prunus. I checked this wine out when we first brought it in last October and, like a good song placement, I want to make sure people keep discovering this everyday gem. It’s pretty lithe but full of heartwarming dark fruit, soft but with a bit of slick minerality, and has some oak but the wine still pops. I can imagine this turning strangers into friends on a rainy night like the one in 35 Shots.
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Superchunk are the band that would have meant everything to me in high school had I known about them before their positively triumphant reunion album Majesty Shredding came out when I was in college. On one of our more pleasant sunny days this month, I got into my car and headed to the Wine Press. I always listen to MIT’s WMBR (88.1) and the DJ summoned some seasonal spring energy slotting this song into the opening salvo of his show. Although unmistakably Superchunk, I didn’t recognize “Out on the Wing” from their last album before their nine year dormancy that lasted my entire adolescence. When these soaring guitars and these yearning, insistent words set to the song’s insistent beat are augmented with wind whipping through your car windows on a sunny day, it is the perfect recipe for optimism after a very hard year for everyone.
Spiked seltzers are soo 2019 and because you’ve gotten this far into my ramblings, dear reader, I invite you to join the piquette party. Piquette is second-press wine - rehydrated grape pomace - kinda like eeking a few more cups of tea out of that used teabag. It not only upcycles a waste product, but did I mention it’s fizzy, low abv, and delicious? Uivo aqua NAT is an awesome little piquette that comes in a clear beer bottle - talk about summoning spring energy - and is a light, bright, and snappy little cranberry juicebox (ahem, bottle, rather) perfect for picnics and looking forward to the future. Superchunk has been killing it on their second go-round, why can’t a wine do the same?
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If you can’t tell - I’m oozing with an eagerness to enjoy some sun, wine in the company of friends, and the experience of seeing and performing live music, but twenty years later, the first verse of “Out on the Wing” couldn’t be more prescient.
Here’s to shutting up
At least, until the wheels are off the ground
Hum something to yourself for luck
White knuckles and looking for the sign that says “move around”
Cheers