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MUSIC TO MAKE
Music to make booze by...
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From wineries to whisky distilleries, drinks makers are tuning into the magic of music by serenading their creations as they slumber in their barrels
Written by Peter Ranscombe
tep inside a winery and there are probably sounds that you’d expect to hear – the squeezing of grapes to release their juice, the sloshing of that juice in tanks as it turns into wine, the rolling of barrels down into the cellar to age. But would the skirl of the bagpipes be on that list?
The distinctive drone of Scotland’s national instrument is a familiar noise in the cellar at Bruce Jack’s winery in South Africa. Having studied English literature at the University of St Andrews and with strong family connections to Scotland, it’s
Sperhaps little wonder that Bruce turned to the pipes when he needed to give his wines a little musical encouragement. ‘Making wine is part art and part science,’ explains Bruce. ‘You need to know about physics, and you need to know about organic chemistry.’ Grapes’ skins – along with their seeds and stems – contain tannins, the same substance found in tea that dries your mouth and makes you suck in your cheeks. When red wine is made, the grape juice is left in contact with the black grape skins to extract some of their colour and some of their tannins.
Hitting the right notes: Bruce Jack uses music to improve his wines.
As the winemaking process continues, some of those tannin molecules and colour molecules start to break apart. The wine turns a lighter shade of red and it tastes harsher or more ‘tannic’. In big wineries, a small amount of oxygen is bubbled through the big tanks of wine to create tiny amounts of ‘ethyl acetate’ – the substance that gives nail varnish remover its smell – which acts as a glue to help the colour molecules and the tannins to recombine, a process called ‘micro-oxygenation’. The wine suddenly turns a darker shade of red again and becomes smoother or less ‘tannic’ because the tannins have joined together into longer chains, or ‘polymerised’.
‘That’s one way to do it – but there’s also a much cooler way to do it,’ Bruce grins. ‘If you pass a sound through a liquid then you make all the molecules jiggle.
‘By jiggling them around, you actually help them orientate themselves so that they can stick together. It’s just physics and organic chemistry – there’s nothing smart about it. ‘I tried a whole lot of different instruments and the ones that worked really well were the cello and the trumpet – and the bagpipes. It’s the drone when you’re in a confined space, like a cellar – if you put your hand on a barrel then you can actually feel the vibrations of the drone going through it. ‘We did these experiments from 1998 until 2003. We had an 89% hit rate from winemakers who could tell the difference between a wine that had listened to music and wine that hadn’t listened to music. ‘My mum’s family is from Tiree, so I grew up with the pipes. I still get very emotional when I hear them.’ Bruce has recruited the pipe major from the Cape Town
Highlanders army regiment for performances in his cellar. Visiting pipers from Scotland also have the opportunity to play for his barrels.
Closer to home, wine isn’t the only drink that’s being serenaded by the bagpipes. Last summer, Scottish neotraditional band Project Smok teamed up with whisky brand Wee Smoky to revive the ‘sonic ageing’ technique.
Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, when spirits were transported across the seas in oak casks, some distillers believed that the vibrations caused by the waves were an essential part of the ageing process. The ‘sonic ageing’ concept aims to recreate similar vibrations, which accelerate the speed with which the whisky interacts with the wood in the barrel, extracting more fl avour.
Ali Levack – the band’s Dingwallbased frontman, piper, and whistle player – performed for the casks of whisky, which were then bottled for a limited edition ‘Project Smok x Wee Smoky Collab whisky’. Only 550 bottles were fi lled.
‘Playing to whisky casks was a new experience,’ says Ali, who was named
Above: Project Smok seranading a bottle of Wee Smoky. Left: Wee Smoky Single Grain Scotch Whisky.
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…AND TUNES TO CHEW OVER WHILE YOU TASTE
as BBC Radio Scotland’s young traditional musician of the year back in 2020. ‘I loved being part of the whole process, from playing our music to the whisky while it aged, to drinking it while listening to our song.’
Rory Gammell, founder of Edinburgh-based Wee Smoky, adds: ‘Music is part of everything we do. Our whisky is best enjoyed with music, so it was natural to experiment to see how music could enhance the fl avour.’
Across the pond, craft brandy maker Copper Kings at Louisville in Kentucky has set up fi ve sub-woofers in its barrel room. The distillery favours pulses of bass notes, which cause the alcohol to move in waves and come into contact more often with the inside of the barrel.
Dark Island Spirits in New York state has gone a step further and created a ‘tactile immersed isolated maturation engine’ – or ‘TIIME device’ – to play different genres of music to its bourbon, brandy, rum, and whiskey. Its Eleanor Glen single malt whiskey matures while Celtic rock act Jane Espie plays in the background. Meanwhile its Blues bourbon gets the classic rhythm and blues treatment, and its rum ages to a reggae beat.
Below, clockwise from top left: Dark Island Spirits casks; Eleanor Glen single malt; Copper & Kings Distillery; sonic maturation at Copper & Kings Distillery. Inset: Charles Spence. As well as playing music to their barrels, whisky makers have also been experimenting with the top tunes to play as their drams are being sipped. One even turned to an academic for help.
Last year, blended Scotch whisky brand Black Bottle recruited Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, to ‘create the world’s first musical Spotify playlist that alters our perception of taste’.
‘I am fascinated by how our brains process the information from each of our different senses to form the extraordinarily rich multisensory experiences that fill our daily lives,’ explains Charles. ‘Whisky has a distinctive taste and smell, which produces a very specific multisensory reaction for drinkers.’
His playlist is based on ‘sonic seasoning’, a technique that alters perceptions of taste based on the sounds played. Proponents argue that high-frequency sounds enhance sweetness, while low frequencies bring out bitterness.
‘It has been fascinating working with Professor Spence on the impact that sounds have on our tastebuds,’ adds Craig Black, global brand manager for Black Bottle. The whisky is made by Burn Stewart, the East Kilbride-based distiller that was sold in 2013 by Angostura Bittersmaker CL World Brands to South Africa-based Distell. The company also produces blended label Scottish Leader and single malts Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Ledaig, and Tobermory.
‘The reaction that we had from the initial tastings was great and now we can’t wait to bring the experience to whisky drinkers everywhere. The sonic seasoning playlist will give whisky drinkers a truly personal experience, while also showcasing the layers of complex flavours within the spirit.’
SCAN THE CODE BELOW WITH YOUR SPOTIFY APP TO LISTEN TO THE BLACK BOTTLE PLAYLIST
