Page Spring Cellars Viognier Music Pairings

Page Spring Cellars Wine and Music Pairing
July 18, 2014 Jeremiah Craig 1 Comments

Every once in awhile a wine can bring about some nostalgic visuals in your mind and Page Springs Cellars’ Viognier is one of those wines. Brynna and I both had some cool imagery thanks to this wine and we picked music that also had a heavy use of imagery. This was a fun pairing. Check out what we picked.

Brynna’s Pair

Adventures in Your Own Backyard by Patrick Watson

Patrick Watson Adventures in Your Own backyardThere is a time on a autumn saturday morning when the sun has barely risen and the clouds retain a salmon colored hue. Leaves are primed for crunching under foot and their fairer cousins still cling to the branches with the robust colors of the fall rainbow in them. Single rays of light filter through the scattered cover and inspire something deep inside; something powerful yet delicate, as a ballet dancer might be performing the show that brings you to your feet or your eyes to tears.

The Page Springs Viognier is just that morning and Patrick Watson’s Adventures in Your Own Backyard is just that dance. The wine is sweet on the nose with hints of lychee and floral and promise. On the tongue it has the delicacy of a flower in the wind and a gentle acid touch that leaves you unable to stop burying your nose in it and tipping the glass to your mouth. It is all at once exciting and fresh and yet holds off from being overwhelming, a true wine made for food and exploration. It has a halt in the finish that makes you dream of fresh caught snapper and capers with a squeeze of lemon to finish its half done curtsey. It’s ability to refresh the tongue is mingled well with the warmth from the alcohol and it waits patiently to please you without being too forward.

Watson’s album’s first note is that very first hint of sun on your face in the morning as the wind gently greets you. The notes drop purposefully into something light and mellow and it’s like the world was created for you to watch. His gentle voice asks for more in “Step Out for Awhile” but there’s a mild hesitation in his style that makes you want to give in to him on your own. Through his controlled voice and wafting threads of piano throughout the album he creates a powerful, wanting, captivating dance just as the Viognier does. They both let you choose the path you’re walking down with nothing more than delicacy and grace but remind you that if you would just find them a companion there would be nothing better to experience in this world. They are a modest but playful pair that peek out and hope you’ll find them around the bend. The track “Into Giants” describes the pairing itself, repeating “it started as lovers, don’t know where it’s gonna end”. They are both self sufficient and refreshing, but paired together they create the ultimate feeling of something entirely new and inspiring; an autumn morning world created just for you.

Jeremiah’s Pair

The King is Dead by The Decemberists

The King is Dead the DecembersitsWhen I first took a whiff of the Viognier, it was a little tough for me to decipher the scents. I wasn’t sure what to expect but then it came to me. The smell reminded me of Fall. I got a lot of apple, honey, vanilla and hay on the nose. Then the rush of visuals came and I got a sense of a slightly humid Fall day where the air is crisp and the leaves crunch beneath your feet. The scent of hay on the nose gave me the visual of one of those mazes made out of hay during Fall festivals. The imagery came in such as rush, I realized that the perfect pairing would come from an album that used imagery in a similar way.

The Decemberists’ The King is Dead came to mind first. Mainly because of the visuals in songs like “January Hymn” and “Don’t Carry It All”. The sense of a chilly day comes through really well in both “January Hymn” and in the Viognier. Not only that, but the wine smells slightly sweet and Colin Meloy’s lyrics and vocals on some of these songs, like “Dear Avery”, have a little sweetness to them. It’s not an “in your face” sweetness or anything but the wine isn’t that sweet either in taste, so it works.

The wine is also sharp so rougher songs from the The King is Dead work well. “This is Why We Fight” stands out as a little differently from the other songs on The King is Dead because it uses more distorted guitars in contrast to the mostly acoustic feeling for the rest of the album. Still, even with the difference in the song, the Viognier’s sharpness matches well with the sharpness of the song so it doesn’t seem out of place just like it doesn’t seem out of place in the album itself. If you’re looking some nice nostalgic visuals Page Springs’ Viognier and The King is Dead is the way to go. You won’t be disappointed.

Have you found any other music pairings that work with Page Springs Cellars’ Viognier? Let me know in the comments.

Follow Brynna on Twitter for more insights on wine and while you’re there, you should follow me too.