The next time you're pondering a drink pairing, forget brie and go with Bieber - Justin, that is.
The Canadian popster is among the artists featured on a new website that matches beats with beverages, much the same way cheese is used to compliment wine. Celine Dion, for example, is apparently best paired with Cachaca on the rocks, Yanni with red wine,
Nine Inch Nails with Jack Daniels and the Biebs with Red Bull.
Drinkify.org, which was co-created by an Alberta man, racked up more than five million hits in its first three days of operation alone. And though the suggestions aren't scientific, experts say there's indeed science behind the notion of music affecting a drink's appeal.
"It's a different kind of pairing; instead of sensory, it's more cognitive," says Antonia Mantonakis, associate professor of marketing at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.
To illustrate, Mantonakis cites a 2008 study in which taste perceptions of wine were influenced by as much as 60 per cent when certain songs were played. For instance, red wine was significantly more likely to be rated "powerful and heavy" when sippers heard Carmina Burana (versus no music), while white wine was likelier to be described as "subtle and refined" when music from The Nutcracker was played (versus no music).
Mantonakis says a possible explanation is that music activates semantic memory - that is, our shared knowledge of a particular artist or genre - and that this activation affects behaviour.
To wit, in a widely known study from 1997, French wine outsold German wine by a ratio of five to one when accordion music filled the background, while German wines outsold French bottles by two to one when an oompah band was heard.
"It's an unconscious bringingto-mind of cultural associations," explains Mantonakis.
Research suggests that if music affects a drink's taste, it's because the area of the brain that responds to familiar music overlaps with the area that senses odour - the latter being key to how we experience flavour.
California vintner Clark Smith finds Cabernets are elevated by darker music, such as Metallica (really!), while Mozart is a better fit for Pinot Noir. British Columbia winery The Vibrant Vine, meanwhile, recommends Elton John's Rocket Man for its Gewürztraminer, Cat Stevens as a match for Riesling and The Beatles' Abbey Road for Chardonnay.
"A really great [bottle] is going to be great no matter what. But music can certainly add to the enjoyment of it," says Shelley Boettcher, executive editor of Wine Access magazine in Calgary.
Boettcher chooses to do her "really serious tasting" in silence. Others, including Montreal-based sommelier Bill Zacharkiw, prefer the company of a calming melody while unravelling a wine's story.
At the end of the day, there's no correct approach, since a large part of musical pairing is unscientific fun - a fact that should comfort any Drinkify users with concerns over teen-targeted Bieber being paired with the caffeine grenade we call Red Bull.
But Boettcher welcomes the concept as "one more way to access the senses." And drinking was never supposed to be serious business, anyway.
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