Happy Friday!

I’m hitting ‘send’ the morning of recording — hopefully my own prelude to a great few days in the studio!

I’ll be taking next week off for a vacation, and back at it the following Friday. In the meantime, perhaps you’ll have a wine and music pairing of your own you’d like to share? Send ‘em my way.:)

Jazz

I am fortunate enough to collaborate with Adam Birnbaum, and I’m a huge fan of his work. I got to hear him at the Jazz Gallery last week playing his album “Preludes”: inventive excursions on well-loved works by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Treading into this repertoire with intention to improvise is bold and requires immense musicality — Birnbaum is more than up to the challenge.

I chose the Prelude in C minor (BWV 999) because his particular take on it is so thrilling and idiosyncratic — at once familiar and foreign. He brings a new lilt to the rhythm of the piece without losing any of the tension, and the inventive addition of bass and percussion both ornament and drive it forward.

I love how he builds the intensity into solos for both piano and percussion, and finishes with a majestic reverie -- a celestial expansion that feels like a new beginning. Which is what a prelude is for, right?

Prelude in C Minor

Adam Birnbaum

PREVIEW

Juice

And then, dear reader, there are moments where my wine and music comparisons do break down a bit. Because in music, a classic can be reinvented, imagined, and invigorated in the time it takes to listen to a piece by an artist of talent and vision.

In wine, not so — no matter the talent, it requires time, sometimes generations, for even the most skilled to create a harmony between the earth, the vines and what they intend to do with them.

The region of Bordeaux is as classic as it gets — boasting a long history with stylistic markers that reflect and dictate how wine is made and tastes. It’s not everyday you see a newcomer on the scene in Bordeaux, but here we have exactly that in the Château Peylaby’s 'Hérrison Cuvee' 2021 (Médoc, Bordeaux.)

The wine's got a wildness and intensity that is a little rough hewn, but nonetheless exciting. Unusual for this region, its aged in amphorae (clay) and eschews most intervention. Explosive flavors of plum, tomato, iron, bayleaf, lilac and a bit of the animal lead into a dense blackberry compote body that lengthens through silty tannins.

Typical Bordeaux? Hardly...but maybe, the beginning of something new.

A hearty cheers to see you through till next Friday!

Truly,

Kristen