An oak barrel with hundreds of liters of wine is supposed to be exposed to classical music using special technology, another not. Will the wine have a different taste?
Freyburg / Mainz – Saale and Unstrut winemakers have started a rather unusual experiment: around 2700 liters of Pinot Gris from the 2021 vintage are to be exposed to classical music in an oak barrel while they are maturing.
The special thing is that a special loudspeaker was installed directly in the wine barrel, not from the outside, on Wednesday, as a spokesman for the Freyburg winegrowers’ association announced.
According to a spokesman for the German Wine Institute (DWI) near Mainz, this special method is probably rather rare in Germany. Musical vibrations stand for setting something in motion, he said. This could possibly affect yeasts, which are important in fermentation.
Lively white wine
According to the winegrowers’ association, the Echo Klassik award winner Thomas Fritzsch is responsible for the music in the barrel with the white wine. The gambist will play works by Georg Philipp Telemann. He was inspired by photos by a Japanese photographer who photographed ice crystals that had changed under sound vibrations, Fritzsch said at a first clay test in the small wine-growing town of Freyburg.
At least it is an exciting attempt – and it cannot be ruled out that it will have an effect, according to the expert from the German Wine Institute. “Some winegrowers swear by music, at home and abroad.” All around the world there are winegrowers who work with music in the vineyard – whether Mozart or Vivaldi – or in the wine cellar.
The wine expert pointed out that the senses – hearing, taste, smell – play a not insignificant role when enjoying wine. Wine tastes differently depending on the lighting conditions and atmosphere – whether by candlelight, daylight, green light or by the sea with salty air.
Final in April
In order to have a comparison of whether the wine changes with music from inside the barrel during fermentation, the Saale-Unstrut winemakers want to fill a second barrel with a lot of wine. Hundreds of liters should also mature in it, but without sound. The findings of the Freyburger Winzervereinigung with their music experiment will be shown in 2022. “The moment of truth will strike for the finale in April, the wines will then be tasted against each other,” said the spokesman.
According to its own statements, the cooperative is the largest wine producer in East Germany. The approximately 800 hectare large and over 1000 year old wine-growing region Saale-Unstrut is one of the small among the 13 quality wine-growing regions in Germany. It mainly includes terraced vineyards in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia along the rivers. The best-known Saale-Unstrut wines include Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris, Bacchus, Riesling and the red wines Dornfelder and Portugieser. dpa
