Virginia winemakers enhance the experience by pairing pours with playlists.
Illustration by Natalya Balnova
When you shop for a bottle of wine these days, you sometimes get more than just information about the vineyard and vintage. Notaviva Vineyards in Purcellville has developed a series of augmented-reality wine labels that play music when scanned with your phone. And not just any music, but songs that have been chosen specifically to enhance the experience of drinking that particular style of wine.
For example, scan Notaviva’s 2015 Vincerò Viognier using the Layar app, and you’ll hear an upbeat acoustic guitar instrumental. A screen will pop up that leads to a playlist of other songs that match well with this white, including songs by The Eagles and Hootie & The Blowfish. The augmented-reality label for Notaviva’s Y’All Made Me Blush, by contrast, brings up a twangy country tune.
“This idea is based on a field of cognitive neurology—crossmodal sensory perception,” says Stephen Mackey, co-owner with his wife Shannon, of Notaviva. “Wine tastes different if you’re listening to classical, jazz, or some other kind of music.”
The concept is catching on elsewhere in Virginia, too. “There is a tremendous parallel between music and wine,” says Andrew Hodson, a retired neurologist and the owner of Veritas Vineyards & Winery in Afton. “In both music and wine, if any one ingredient or instrument is too prominent, the balance is off.”
For the past two years, Hodson and Chris Parker, the cofounders of the Virginia Wine Academy, have held popular music and wine events at the annual Wintergreen Performing Arts Summer Music Festival. They pair wines with classical pieces performed by a string quartet, such as matching Veritas’ sparkling Scintilla with a bright piece by Mozart (Symphony No. 22 in C major, K. 162) that is undeniably “bubbly.”
Both Notaviva and the Academy are planning wine and music events for 2019.
