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Music for better mouth feel: Flagstone grapes soothed by bagpipe tradition

From over the barrels comes the evocative and unmistakable sound of Scotland. Winemaker Bruce Jack is overseeing the tradition of playing bagpipe music to his wine.

Ever since Flagstone started crafting wine in 1999 Hugh Veitch, a top bagpiper with the Cape Town Highlanders, has played to Bruce’s barrels four or five times a year. And while the notion may seem strange in a modern, technology-driven world, Bruce believes there is sound science behind it.

“ The process works on two levels,” explains Bruce. “ The first level is the one we don’t really understand–quantum physics. For example, we don’t know why if you talk to plants they live, and if you ignore them they die. But they do. They thrive on mind-focused love and attention.

“ The second level is one that we do understand, and that is pure physics. Many reactions in red wine are positive/negative charge reactions. Tannins in wine affect mouth feel. Small, low molecular weight tannins are bitter and astringent so you want to encourage them to link like magnets–so that their weight and size increases. This is called polymerization. The better the polymerization, the more stable the colour and the softer and juicier the wine.

“ In order to help this alignment, there are a few things winemakers do, like slowly introducing oxygen into the wine by maturing wine in barrels. But another way is to pass a wave of energy through the wine. Sound is the most appropriate energy to harness because it is powerful and non-interventionist. Sound can not travel through a vacuum–sounds needs matter to travel through.

“ In basic language, the sound waves jiggle the tannin molecules around, helping them align their positive and negative charges. It is straight-forward physics. I have found that the type of music makes an enormous difference and that live, unplugged cello and bagpipe are best.”

As for all the sceptics, Bruce assures them that his experiments have yielded discernable results. “ We have analytically and organoleptically measured and compared wines that have and have not been exposed to music. This is one of the reasons why Flagstone wines are so soft and have such gorgeous mouth feel. Our on-going experimentation is now focusing on the cello, and different stages of maturation of different varieties. Pinot seems to love the cello, while Shiraz loves the bagpipes.”

Bruce believes Hugh’s playing is an essential part of crafting his wines. “ My aunt is a Doctor of Musicology at Rhodes University. She has been involved with measuring the effect of music on terminally ill patients and how they are able to do with drastically less morphine because of access to soothing music. She has also worked on playing music to babies in the womb with astonishing results. Her groundbreaking work has always fascinated me, because the power of music is something we don’t really understand.

“ Then, when I was studying winemaking at the University of Adelaide there was an interesting guy doing his post-doc on the effect music has on crops–playing Mozart to mielies etc… His results were impressive and startling. It seemed worthwhile trying music on wine. I think everyone at the winery was a bit sceptical at first but once you’ve tasted the results, you believe. Trust your taste.” says Bruce.