Music and Wine

I found this in a French daily paper, thought some of you might be interested and/or amused.

A wine with a little taste of Bach, notes of Vivaldi and a zest of Gluck

Could the music of Mozart, Bach or Tchaikovski influence the quality of wine? This assumption is being seriously considered by Florence university researchers, after they closely looked into an experiment conducted by a Tuscan vintner. Giancarlo Cignozzi, an ex-lawyer turned winemaker, produces Brunello de Montalcino, an outstanding red famous the world over. Since installing scores of loudspeakers in his vineyards, this eccentric claims his vines grow more vigorously. They are less affected by disease than his neighbors', and the grapes mature more rapidly.

His claims seem to be confirmed by the early findings of professor Stefano Mancuso, an Italian specialist in vegetal neurobiology, who started duplicating in the laboratory the tests carried out in the open field by the music-loving vintner: "The effects of music, or rather audio frequencies, on the growth of the plant, are remarkable."

Giancarlo Cignozzi has been growing his vines in music for four years, after reading on the Internet about Chinese and Korean studies demonstrating the impact of a musical background on certain plants. "In winter, when the vines are asleep, I use sacred music by Haydn, Handel, Mozart's Magic Flute and some Gluck" he told Italian daily La Stampa. In the spring, when leaves start coming out, he "attacks with baroque music: lots of Bach, lots of Vivaldi".

June and July are time for "piano concertos and symphonies". Lastly, the finale, in late August, early September, at the peak of the ripening period, is reserved to "Tchaikovsky, by an orchestra of 120 units". Thus go Cignozzi's four seasons, in the small village of Montalcino.

"I do not know if my wine is better", he candidly admits. But he is definite that the plots most exposed to music are less affected by parasites, bacteria, and mold.

The 20,000 euros he spent to equip his vineyard with the help of an audio engineer friend have been more than balanced, he reckons, by the savings made on fungicide and bug killer purchases.

For professor Mancuso, it is too early to give a final judgment on this musicotherapy applied to wine. If the series of tests his team is currently conducting yield positive results, it would set the stage for "new ways to organic farming, in particular for quality products". Noise pollution, however, is a problem: the emanations of classical music tend to get to his neighbors' heads, who have already filed several complaints.

(Freely translated from Le Monde)