WhINE TO THE MUSIC: Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock with D66
“Whine to the music” is the art of pairing good grooves, such as Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock “It takes two” with wine. We have been drinking wine with music since the dawn of wine. I don’t think music would have evolved without wine. Most people tend to turn up the music when they drink wine. Whine to the Music is not just sitting back, drinking wine and getting teary eyed. It is a concept like ART and Wine Pairing, where we dissect the structures of the wine and the work to its basic elements. The structural elements eventually create an emotion in us. Whine to the Music is the art of pairing wine with music based on the emotion they evoke in us.
I have been trying to pair old school hip hop with wine for quite a while. Old School Hip Hop has a lot bass, but what is difficult to pair is all the different samples the artists use. My intuition is to look for a wine with plenty of oak which matches with the bass, but oaky wines can be “one note” wines. They do not match with the samples and break beats of hip hop. Then last night one of my wine captains brought his family in for dinner. With him he brought a bottle of Orin Swift’s D66. Ah I finally found it!
When I tasted the D66, a Grenache from the up and coming region Cote du Catalan in France, I started hearing the music of Afrika Bambaataa, Grand Master Flash and Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock. This was it! The Grenache had a deep purple color with intense concentration. Although there was a whiff of alcohol, the wine had aromas and flavors of black cherries, chocolate and violets. There was also this burst of red fruit that would fade in and out on the palate. This fading in and out of flavors matched the hook of the song with the whistle “Whoo-Yaa” and back to the bass line. In the finish the oak tasted like sweet coconut and mocha. Perfect to pair with the catchy bass line! The D66, like this song, will stand the test of time. To this day, “it takes two” makes me want to dance. 20 years from now, this wine will still be in an amazing place.
