The sound of wine: transform your wine-tasting experiences through music-wine pairing

Soundpear was born in 2021 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic's movement restrictions in Greece. Asteris had recently become involved in amateur winemaking. He was, thus, keen on combining his new passion with his research on auditory perception. It did not take him long to realize the many commonalities between wine and sound. For one thing, they manifest through the common vocabulary we use to describe each one of them.

Being aware of the transformative power of music, he reckoned it would also have the power to influence gustatory experiences. And just like that Asteris met the fascinating world of multimodal perception. The scientific evidence was clear: audition could indeed influence taste and smell.

In the mind of Asteris, the music aiming to transform a gustatory and/or olfactory experience should ideally be bespoke. Furthermore, he thought he knew the right man to create music to pair with wine. Therefore, Vasilis received an evening call: "How about we make soundtracks for wines...?" That night the foundations of Soundpear were laid.

Since then, Asteris investigates the associations between aromas or flavours with sounds. The findings feed Vasilis' musical creativity to serve a twofold vision:

• The creation of short sonic logos representing the qualities of various products
• And the creation of longer soundtracks for enriching gustatory and olfactory experiences.

This workshop will comprise two separate parts:

1. The first part will present basic concepts of multisensory perception. It will highlight how all our senses integrate within the brain to form experiences. Particular focus will be on existing evidence about sonic seasoning of wine, i.e., the influence of sound on wine appreciation. It will then show how sounds can be congruent with flavours and aromas through some fun quizzes. Finally, it will describe our approach to composing wine soundtracks. This includes a low-level part which informs the selection of timbres through scientific experiments. This part is complemented by a higher-level part which adopts some film-scoring techniques.
2. The second part of the workshop will turn into a unique music-wine pairing experience. The tasting will start with the Sauvignon Blanc and will then proceed to the Barolo. Each wine will be tasted with its bespoke soundtrack playing in the background. Creative imagination will be stimulated through a simultaneous game for each tasting.