It’s long been said that certain wines go with certain food, with waiters in posh restaurants regularly recommending the Bordeaux red with the shank of lamb, or the pinot noir with the fish. But now a Bristol-based wine producer has become possibly the first in the world to produce a wine that comes with its own recommendation of what music to play while you’re drinking it.
Ingrid Bates, the founder of Dunleavy Wines, who produce award-winning wines from a vineyard near Bristol Airport, said she was moved to create a ‘wine and music experience’, and also celebrate Bristol’s vibrant music scene.
“You’ve heard of food and wine pairing? Well, why not pair another sensory experience, listening to music, with the drinking of wine?” she said. Dunleavy’s latest five wine labels have been ‘paired’ with five Bristol musical acts, and people drinking the wine just have to click on a QR code on the bottle, to hear the music.
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The phrase ‘wine, women and song’ is a universal one, familiar in languages from Bengali to Norwegian, but now Dunleavy’s new 2022 rosé wine brings it right into the 21st century. “I had been following the work of each of these talented musicians, singers and composers on social media and through their live work,” explained Dunleavy founder Ingrid Bates.
“I was completely in awe of what they did and wanted to celebrate that and to tell others about them. Thankfully QR codes have allowed us to do this in a simple and fun way. I had seen people using QR codes in all sorts of interesting ways and thought it would be fun to use them to create an interactive experience when drinking our wine. It’s fun to drink the wine on its own but it’s also fun to listen to the paired music and find out about the musician who chose it at the same time,” she added.
The labels focus on five different Bristol-based artists: MADLY, Harriet Riley, Stevie Toddler, Alex Garden and Georgie Ward. Each had photo portraits taken by Pete Axford, with labels designed by Bristol designer Jodie Newman, and Andrew Eberlin from Brighterside put together a website at the other end of the QR code.
“We like to experiment and use our labels as a creative platform,” said Ingrid. “We love music in all its forms and wanted to share that excitement with others. Bristol is well known for its vibrant food and music scenes. There’s a lot of crossover between the two industries in terms of the people who work in them and the people who enjoy their output.
“During our label photoshoot we were wondering why Bristol is such a melting pot for brilliant food and music and came to the conclusion that it’s not just talented musicians and chefs but also the presence of great music venues and even more crucially perhaps, an engaged audience that drives everything forward.
“The Bristol public are the ones who fuel both scenes by being open-minded and wanting to try new things. They are the ones who go out and enjoy the food or music on offer. We’re very lucky to have these things in our city and shouldn’t take them for granted. Many towns and cities would love to have what we have,” she added.
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