Music Affects The Way Your Wine Tastes, Study Finds

Music Affects The Way Your Wine Tastes, Study Finds

A nice meal, some soft music and a couple of glasses of wine might set the mood for a romantic evening, but did you know the night's soundtrack could affect the way you perceive your wine to taste?

Research published in the British Journal of Psychology found that wine drinkers tended to describe the taste of their wine similar to the theme of music they heard in the background. For example, those who drank while listening to Michael Brook's Slow Breakdown, tended to rate their wine as "mellow," the Telegraph points out.

More than 200 participants were given one of two glasses of wine: red or white. Each of the four groups listened to one of four songs with different musical classifications. A fifth group did not listen to music while they drank.

The experiment used four songs and classified them as follows: (Click to listen to available audio)

After the tasting, participants were asked to rate the taste of their wine by choosing from the descriptions researchers had used to classify the songs.

It turns out that a majority of participants (unknowingly) chose the description that had been assigned to the song they heard, the Telegraph explains.

Professor Adrian North, who conducted the study, told the BBC that he thinks the results could "lead retailers to put music recommendations on their wine bottles." Maybe that explains why so many musicians are making their own wine.

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