That's right, club members! We had our second wine and music pairing last month and decided to make it an annual event. Going forward, the first meeting of every year will be a wine and music pairing, and I for one really look forward to enjoying our pairings each January. If you haven't attended either of our wine and music meetings you have really missed out on a treat, as you'll see from the notes that follow. And if you still don't get how a wine can be paired with music, well, it's because you just haven't tried it yet. Read on and see what I mean.
At our holiday party Arthur suggested we hold another wine and music pairing, and that we dedicate the CD of music from this meeting to Donna. Because we had only six members present, I suggested to the attendees that they bring as many songs as they wished so we could fill the CD, and boy, did they deliver. The pairings were even better than the first time, and the music was classic!
Pairing #1 (Psyche): Fleur du Cap 2008 chenin blanc w/"Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield--Loved the song, loved even more that it was chosen by Psyche's mom! (What do we have to do to get her to a meeting?? Clearly she's one of us!) The chenin blanc, which is a worthy grape if you haven't tried one, had apricot on the nose and good acid, but was a little meh in terms of taste. We decided that this iconic song would likely pair better with a red, the bolder and deeper the better. But we had so much fun grooving to it that we were still able to make the pairing work.
Pairing #2 (Eslin): Bartenura 2008 moscato w/"Tyrone" by Erykah Badu -- Now this was hilarious. The paring was actually chosen by Ishmael, who was inspired by the women on his job who constantly use him as a sounding board as they complain about their no-good husbands and boyfriends. "Enough!" says he. The song was a fun pairing with the Bartenura, with its honeylike nose and sugar-sweet taste. A good-time wine to go with the good-time song, as Erykah celebrates kicking Tyrone to the curb!
Pairing #3 (Loretta): Fairvalley Pinotage w/"Further on Up the Road" by Mick Hucknall -- Picture it: A usually 3-hour drive turned into a 5 1/2-hr drive by crazy traffic on I-91 and I-95; finally coming over the Throgs Neck Bridge and hurling down the Cross Island darn near punch drunk; the Zune on shuffle; and this song comes on, a remake of a classic Bobby Blue Bland song about a bad girlfriend who gets her comeuppance. We were jammin' in the car, and we jammed again at the pairing with a dark, smoky pinotage that stood up well to the strong tune.
Pairing #4 (Navorn): Nerelo de Bastardo 2006 red table wine w/"These Dreams" by Heart -- This song takes me right back to my college days, not to any memory in particular, but to a time when, I don't know, things seemed just a tiny bit simpler. Not a lot, but a tiny bit. Anyway, I decided to try the song with a new wine, which I though would be a bold red but was lighter than anticipated. It reminded me of a pinot noir -- pleasant, with a floral component, then a bit of smoke and leather on the back end. Not sure it paired well with the song, but separately, each was rather enjoyable!
Pairing #5 (Robin): Casillaro del Diablo 2008 carmenere w/"Stay in My Corner" by The Dells -- Robin also chose a song that took him back, to nights spent getting high with his childhood buddies while listening to oldies. The things you learn about club members! Anyway, gotta love those Dells, though we had mixed feelings about the wine. It had a big nose, all leather and cigar that held much promise, but though there were nice berries up front it tasted bitter on the back end. It was too bad, becaue you could totally tell how the wine should have tasted. It did work well with the song, though; nice pairing overall.
Pairing #6 (Ishmael): Columbia Crest Grand Estates 2006 merlot w/"E. Preciso Perdoar (One Must Forgive)" by Grover Washington, Jr. -- This merlot had a great nose, very pretty with a creamy, almost vanilla component that was very intriguing. It delivered on the taste as well, and complemented the gorgeous song well. A good pairing.
Pairing #7 (Arthur): Louis M. Martini 2007 cabernet sauvignon w/"The Most Beautiful Girl" by The Isley Brothers -- Robin picked up an herbaceous aroma that he described as "mistletoe," a classic trait of this varietal. But the wine did not quite stand up to the song, which is veeery long, and very beautiful. It's more of a brown liquor song that we believe needs a bolder red than this.
We then tried new pairings with the same wines and compared them to the first. Too many to list here, but the highlights were Psyche's pairing of her chenin blanc with "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac, an improvement over the Mayfield pairing; Robin's wacky pairing of his carmenere with a live version of the Dells' "A Heart Is a House of Love" that was hilarious and probably should have never been released: and our favorite pairing of the day: Ishmael's pairing of his merlot with "Three O'Clock Blues" by the great B.B. King and Eric Clapton. Thanks to Ishmael for introducing us to this great song and this successful pairing.
We ended the meeting with our Blind Wine of the Month, which was so interesting mainly because it was such a disaster! The guesses were merlot, pinotage, pinot noir, and one abstention from Eslin. The wine was actually a cabernet sauvugnon, but it was so bad that I was actually not surprised that people could not identify it. It had none of the usual characteristics of a cabernet, not much of a nose at all, and as I write this, I realize that I didn't even write down the name! I got it from Costco. 'Nuff said. But it did make us even more determined to get more serious about our wine knowledge.
Whew! Long meeting, but it was such fun. I look forward to listening to our CD and revisiting our pairings, and to our next meeting, set for Saturday, March 6. On that day, our focused learning begins!
