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WINEMAKING along. Pay close attention to the changes in astringency. Feel free to freak out. Highlights • Wine sensory impressions are highly sensitive to ambience. Mu- sic pairing can greatly improve your chances of enjoying a wine. • Musical pieces are useful in blending to a consistent style. • The essence of wine is entirely experiential. No amount of Inter- net chatter can reproduce it in the slightest degree. Credit where it's due This experiment was originally presented as "Chardonnay and the Theory of Deliciousness" at the 1996 ASEV Unified Symposium by a team headed by Bruce Rector. Since then, I have shown this baffling effect to thousands of participants on 100 occasions. The result is always the same: deep skepticism followed by exuberant amazement. At this point there can be little doubt that music re- ally does alter the sensory properties of wine. In seeking an explanation I was fortunate that my wife, Susan Mayer-Smith, a concert pianist/flautist with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from U.de Marseilles, was available to help me work up a presentation in Australia in 20072 based on recent advances 3. (Optional) A classic-style Chablis such as William Fevre. All set? Now, taste the wines. They represent three popular genres of Chardonnay, analogous to movie genres. No. 1 is like a Disney comedy film: sweet and shallow. It's a fun wine to make you smile—the "yummy style." Sugar covers up a pressy astrin- gency that appears in the finish. No. 2 is an action/adventure wine designed to blow you away with its size—the "wow style." Its mild astringency, masked by its margarine fatness, is from oak—a fine, parching/numbing harsh- ness atop the tongue. No. 3 is a foreign film, stimulating primarily to the intellect, the "hmm style." Its astringency is acid and mineral based in the finish. Now go to npr.org and search for "Clark Smith wine music" to download my interview with NPR's Alex Cohen and taste Get the best out of your grapes. The Europress exclusively by Euro-Machines in music cognition. Susie is recently deceased, but her inquiries in this area represent a significant and lasting contribution to our industry. The late winemaker Don Blackburn devised wine and music pairing methodology as a way to demonstrate statistically sig- nificant effects within a holistic point of view. Since they reside in human perception, wine's attributes are innately subjective. But Blackburn showed statistically that they are also strongly shared. Don found that modern enology was handicapped by a reluc- tance to explore this vital realm. In scientific circles "subjectiv- ity" is tarred with a tainted subtext—arbitrary, unknowable and unworthy of study. Shedding this disdain for things human has become an important tenet of the postmodern view. Music educa- tion shows us that this is an entirely reasonable course. So what the heck is going on? Euro-Machines offers high-quality equipment based on your vision to bring out the best of every vine, with our proven history in the careful handling of grapes and together our love of good wine. Europress-Cool with cooling jacket Euroselect berry selector Destemmer crushers Sorting equipment Conveyor belts Vibrating tables Custom-made tanks Pumps Europress 6-320 hl Braud grape harvesters and much more West: Fairfield, CA 94534 - Phone 707-864-5800 East: Culpeper, VA 22701 - Phone 540-825-5700 info@euromachinesusa.com www.euromachinesusa.com Euro-Machines, Inc. A subsidiary of Scharfenberger Company Germany Wines & Vines MARCH 2011 61