At a recent dinner with a couple of Washington State’s premier winemakers I was struck by their shared passion for music, especially rock. It got me thinking that likely there are some musicians out there with a passion for making wine. So, I thought, why not have a tasting that pits winemakers who rock against rockers who make wine?

The Winemakers

Chris Gorman and Trey Busch are highly lauded Washington winemakers who both have a thing for music. Busch named his winery Sleight of Hand after a Pearl Jam song. Gorman has tons of signed guitars in his tasting room and blasts some serious metal on his website. So yeah, these guys enjoy their rock and rock their wines.

The RockersDaveMatthews1240-620x400[1]

On the other side, we have the rockers who make wine. Dave Matthews is a partner with winemaker Sean McKenzie in a California winery called Dreaming Tree Wines. I’ll admit that I am a HUGE fan of Matthews the musician and have been wanting to try his wines. Besides, Dreaming Tree’s website is cool. Not only do you learn about Matthew’s winemaking philosophy, but there are also recipes from the band’s chef. You too can dine on DMB’s faves!

the-setting-new[1]And did you know Sting has a winery? Apparently he didn’t set out to create one. But he and his wife decided to buy a villa in Tuscany which happened to have old grapevines on the property, and you can guess the rest. Sting’s winery is called Il Palagio after the estate. If you go to the website you can see where Sting vacations. Not too shabby.

The Set List

With the help of the fine folks at Esquin Wines in Seattle, we were able to find comparable red blends for our tasting. All retail for roughly the same amount. The lineup was:

We found each of these wines enjoyable and highly drinkable. While Sting and Dave Matthews aren’t blending the wines themselves, it’s clear they both have found quality winemakers as partners. Their wines rock.

Winners by Tribe

You know what tribe you’re in, right? That’s the best part about this site–getting customized wine recommendations based on your palate (aka: tribe). Take this quiz and then keep on reading.

The Balanced Tribe preferred the Sleight of Hand Spellbinder. They thought it smelled of soft red fruit and metal (but not heavy metal) and tasted strongly of plums. This one was noted for its sharp finish without food, but with food, the flavors smoothed out.

The Developed Tribe had two faves: Zachary’s Ladder tied with Message in a Bottle. Zachary’s Ladder had scents of smoke, fig and butterscotch. According to our group, it tasted like juicy blackberries, plum and warm forest (I don’t make this stuff up). One taster cheered, “This wine has a point of view!”Sting_by_Yancho_Sabev[1]

Message in a Bottle was not only tied for first place with the Developed Tribe, but it was also the hands-down fave of the Complex Tribe. They liked the fragrance of lush fruit, licorice and spice and appreciated the flavors of ash, spice and papaya. This is a big wine, but the Developed Tribe found it to have a smooth finish.

146372379_d10333a1fb[1]Dave’s No Fave?

You may be asking yourself, “What about the Dreaming Tree wine?” Like many of Dave Matthew’s songs, it was sweet. That makes me think this is THE perfect wine for people in the Accessible Tribe. (Sadly, our Accessible tasters weren’t able to attend this time.) Our tasters from other tribes found scents of toasted marshmallow and tasted sugar cookie and caramel apple. What’s not to like?

So there you have it: winemaking and musical skills blend harmoniously, at least in these four bottles. I am not so sure about AC/DC’s wine collection. We’ll leave that for another tasting. Please let us know if you have any favorite wines by rockers or by winemakers who rock. Cheers!

 

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