In these unusual times, we all need a lift from time to time. As a change to my usual wine reviews I’ve decided to start a fun and irreverent series on matching wine and music. The basic idea is that I give participants:
- A piece of music –> they suggest a wine to go with it, with an explanation
- A wine –> they suggest a piece of music to go with it
It’s all for fun, so please don’t slag off anybody’s taste music (or wine!) Thanks to Michelle Williams for the inspiration – she has been matching songs to wine for years on her Rockin Red Blog.
For our seconding outing into the world of wine and music matching I am delighted to present the musings of Tim from Soliciting Flavours. I don’t know what it is about his writing style but I could enjoy reading his review of the opening of a door or a glass of water.
With my suggestions to people in this series I have tried to be kind rather than obscure – after all, they are doing me a massive favour by writing for me – so I picked a Spanish wine for Tim as he is such a hispanophile. What I didn’t specify was the vintage; I’ve only tasted the most recent release (2005 I believe) available in Ireland but Tim has gone back much further!
As Tim professed to be somewhat old-fashioned in his musical taste I picked something orchestral for him, a piece which I know best from the film Platoon. Another interesting take is William Orbit’s version taken from his album “Pieces in a Modern Style” or the dancey-trancy Ferry Corsten remix which – I’d imagine – features on many a gym bunny’s playlist.
“When I was asked by Frankie to participate in this exercise, I was rather daunted. My musical taste is somewhat dated, with nothing remotely contemporary on my quite small “what I listen to” list. Would I recognise the piece of music and what on earth would I pair music wise with the wine Frankie chose? Would I end up pairing a Breaky Bottom wine with the Cheeky Girl’s ” Touch my bum” 😱?
As it happened both the music piece and the wine came to me pretty much instantly on receiving my instructions from Frankie.
Viña Tondonia Blanco
Viña Tondonia Blanco is certainly a unique wine. Made by arch traditionalist R. Lopez de Heredia, whose cellars are thick with mould and cobwebs, it has a glorious golden hue and the gran reservas can age for probably as long as the sun shines. To my mind never has the quote from Galileo (who knew a thing or two) that “wine is sunlight held together by water” been more apt for a wine.
The piece I have paired with this wine is Golden Brown by the Stranglers. It is a quirky number with a quite oldie worldie feel to it (like Tondonia) from the liberal use by David Greenfield (RIP) of the harpsichord. I saw someone refer to it as a song that could be a hit in 1981 and 1681. Timeless like Tondonia.
It is a song about passion (for a girl and heroin – not a missing “e” there I am afraid) and once I acquired a taste for Vina Tondonia Blanco it became a wine I am quite passionate about.
The first verse goes as follows:
“Golden brown, texture like sun
Lays me down, with my mind she runs
Throughout the night, no need to fight
Never a frown with golden brown.”
This verse sums up Vina Tondonia Blanco to me, a wine that looks like bottled sunlight, that can be laid down for eons. Not one to fight its golden embrace, it is a wine never brings a frown to my face (other than, perhaps, when I had to pay the bill for the 1991 Gran Reservas of it I have in the wine room).
Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings
In terms of the piece of music Frankie chose for me, Adagio for Strings is hauntingly beautiful piece. It builds layer upon layer with multiple climaxes before gently fading to an end. It is a piece that has been described by a critic as “…something as perfect in mass and detail as his craftsmanship permits”.
This is how I feel about Bodegas Muga’s Prado Enea. I love Rioja and out of all Riojas I probably love Prado Enea the most. At a tasting earlier this year lead by Jorge Muga, which included Prados from 1985 to 2011 (as well as various Torre Muga and Aro wines), the 2001 Prado was the star of the show.
It is a magical wine that makes me thank the gods/the randomness of the universe for placing geniuses amongst us and giving them the tools to make such great wine. Beautifully elegant, with primary, secondary and tertiary notes of dark fruit, spice, cigar box, tobacco, dried meat and citrus in the mix. Gloriously complex on the nose and the palate.
It had great length, lingering and developing on the palate for an age, with multiple climaxes of flavour, before slowly fading into the night.
Drinking this wine whilst listen to Adagio for Strings seems perfect to me.
Soliciting Flavours
Tim is a food and wine obsessed Cardiff based lawyer, with a particular passion for Spanish food and wine, who blogs under the pseudonym “Soliciting Flavours“. Catch him on Twitter and Instagram.”