I went wine tasting with family and friends over President's Day weekend in the central California region of Paso Robles. I've gone wine tasting plenty of times, but never with a dedicated soundtrack. Short car rides fill the time between wineries where we pay attention to maps, navigating, planning, winery discussion as well as plenty of other matters leaving the soundtrack as last priority. But these little car rides add up, and between the 8 wineries visited on Sunday, there was over an hour spent in the car. Luckily this wasn't my first rodeo, and I came prepared.
Selecting music for a van full of people who are spending the day swirling, sniffing, standing, and snacking, was a daunting task. Knowing what I do about my friends and family, I was aware that the playlist would frustrate if there wasn't a healthy inclusion of familiar tunes. I did my best to include well known tracks that remind me of the nuances encompassing wine tasting and all activities that come with wine tasting, while leveraging the remainder for tracks less known.
The flow of the playlist was just as important as the track selection. I didn't want to lump long songs next to each other, nor did I want a stretch of cheesy or obscure songs. All the while, this is wine tasting we're talking about here, an enjoyable occasion meant for taking time to relish in the luxuries of fine crafted alcohols.
Most of the tracks speak for themselves, however I do like providing commentary regarding track selection so I'll give a few notes. The opening song is the opening song from The Little Mermaid, I love the energy, nostalgia, and brevity of this song. Of course, I was humming Red Red Wine in almost every tasting room, I mean, c'mon. The primary decision to include the song Hannah was to introduce a friend of the same name to the track, and it's a great song. Billy Joel's Piano Man is the epitome of a drunk singing song, and by song 7 you've got the initial wine tasting buzz, this track hit perfect. Cat Stevens probably was the best received track, something about his rich voice belting out over that true guitar makes wine taste better. XXYYXX's track was a bit slow, but I love the vibrations that this song gives off, especially after a few rounds of tasting.
Garth Brooks is normally not on the California city dwelling music listener's sound palate, but this song was received far better than I dreamed, it's fun to have friends in low places apparently. Comfortably Numb kicked off the 7th inning stretch followed by some soft and easy to listen to tracks with jazzy influence. The perfect closer for this ride was Lissie's cover of Kid Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness. I love her opening monologue, tequila shot and all. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
Wine Tasting 2013 (right click to save as)
After adding song files to your iTunes library, File > Library > Import Playlist... and choose the .txt file
