Pairing Wine with Music: Banyan Gewurz and The Clientele
Monday, January 12th, 2009
Everybody knows that wine goes better with food. Wines and Makers founder Andrea Godard’s done a great job of suggesting food pairings and recipes from her personal “greatest hits” for specific offerings at WAM. But, almost as important as edibles is the atmosphere you enjoy wine in. When I lived with Andrea in San Francisco, her house was always filled with great wine, food, music and musicians and they all played off each other perfectly. If a band wasn’t playing in her back yard, music was constantly setting the mood in her warm dining room, which was filled with artwork, books, and exotic brick-a-brack from her travels.
It’s with that unforgettable ambiance in mind that I introduce my first “music paring” – a suggested album that goes incredibly well with a bottle available here at WAM.
When I opened the Banyan 2007 Gewurztraminer Vantage Point buy , I was a little nervous actually. Not only was I slightly wary of the elongated bottle (which, for some reason, I always associate with sweet wine), but I realized I had no experience with this varietal—I couldn’t even spell it!
The first sip was a nice surprise. It was bright, floral, and slightly spicy—not sweet, but certainly pleasant on the tongue. With my tastebuds dancing, I headed to my computer: I knew exactly what album matched it.
The Arrival psp The Rocketeer movie download King of California divx
I’ve been digging The Clientele for a while, since I borrowed their second LP, Strange Geometry
, from a friend and left it in my player for a month or so. But 2007’s God Save the Clientele
is as close as you can get to the sonic equivalent of the Banyan Gewurtz
. It’s bright, light, crisp and unpretentious. It makes you feel like it’s springtime, even while frost is on the pumpkin; it makes you nostalgic for the past; it makes you feel clean-shaven and buttoned up. The first track, “Here Comes the Phantom” fits right in with the world’s greatest jangle-pop. When you hear that “happiness just comes and goes” you think about hits by the Monkees, the Beatles, or even the Beach Boys… And, much like the wine, the album just gets better from the first taste on. By the time you reach “Somebody Changed,” you’ll be reaching for your second glass and reminiscing about high school crushes the first time you heard the Byrds. It’s warm feelings like those that wine and good music have a certain knack at summoning.
download Bloodsport Without a Paddle divx
The Clientele’s God Save the Clientele is available from emusic
Howard Stern’s Butt Bongo Fiesta move or iTunes, and the 2007 Banyan Gewurz is a steal for $12 here at Wines and Makers.