What I'm doing here, disclaimer included.

First the disclaimer.  I am not a "wine-professional".  Sometimes I pick out wines I drink based on reviews, and regions, and varietals I know I enjoy.  And frankly sometimes I'll give a wine a try because of really cool bottle art.  Marketing is half the battle friends.  That being said, my tasting notes may not always fall into standard categories, standards are for boring people.  I don't think wine should be boring.

Each month or so, I pair a wine I have tried. Not with food, but with albums.  I tend to like full-bodied red wines, and have a special place in my heart for Jazz and hip-hop.  So don't be surprised when these things turn up. 

All that being said, I hope I can inspire you to find and try a new wine or two, and check out some albums and artists you might not otherwise.  Or at the very least, try some match-ups of your own. 

If you have a wine album combination you'd recommend E-mail me and let me know.  Even better, mail me the wine and I'd be more than glad to sample and review it here on my site. 

This is all in an infant experimental stage, so we'll see where it goes, and hopefully grows.

-- Dan

Ok, Let's get things started. 

The first wine I have to offer you is a Chateau Reynella 2004 Grenache.  Reynella vineyards is located in the South of Australia and is one of, if not the oldest vineyard in the country with vines dating back to 1838.

In the glass, this wine had deep red colors that almost begged to turn purple.

The nose smelled strongly of blackberry's and had a very jammy quality.

The first taste to hit my pallet was a rich smokey flavor with hints of spice and oak, which rounded into a nice full blackberry flavor.

It ended with a very long pleasant finish which brought out lots of tannins and a leathery flavor.

Over all I found this to be a very satisfying wine especially to my tastes.  I gave it an 84 out of 100.

While not the most complex of wines I've ever tasted, it hit with some real punch in all the places it needed to.  I purely followed my instincts and the first album that came to mind was the most recent offering from off the wall hip-hopper MF DOOM.  His 2009 release - Born like this

With over 60 albums and numerous guest appearances under his belt, it never fails to amaze me how many people have never heard of this MC.  As a kid, and even today I LOVE Dr. Suess books.  They didn't always use real words but Suess always used words that SOUNDED good together.  DOOM uses the same technique in his rap style.  For example a quotation from the track "Microphone Mayonnaise"

Collection of brats, timbs and hats
Had no time for the pitty pat, I'll give em that
The rhythm hit em back with a right hook
Shook it off, quarter shiner, thought it was a aight look
Depends on the shades, the end of days fades
Pretenders lay in dazes on stages
DOOM malaise
Eat it up, microphone, microwave mayonnaise 

While I think the tongue twister quality of the lyrics are good enough to stand on their own.  DOOM does them all in perfect time over top of what could easily become classic hip-hop beats.   It was either Duke Ellington or Count Basie who once said, if It makes you tap your feet, it's good music.  While the music behind the rap is simplistic and fairly unadorned.  It makes you want to tap not just your feet, but your hands, while nodding your head and shaking anything else god gave you. 

Simplistic beats combined with a rap style that can be appreciated for it's sound more than the meaning of individual words makes for a listening experience even Mozart would give the nod too.

As an album I gave Born Like This a rock solid 95 out of 100.

Perhaps you've never tried a little Grenache with your Hip-hop.  I think it's about time, don't you?

Do what you love till I see you again,

      Dan

P.S - Like I said, this is very experimental and I'd love to hear your feedback about what you dig, and what you don't.  Peace.