Why might a symphony night pair just as well with your wine as a heavy metal ballad? What is “sonic seasoning” and how can music impact the way we experience the taste of wine? How are sensory experiences like music, taste, and atmosphere all connected?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Susan Lin, a Master of Wine and a Master of Fine Arts in Classical Piano and Musicology.

You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks

Highlights

What did Susan's grandfather teach her about fine beverages and hospitality?

How did playing piano in hotels as a child shape Susan's perspective on the holistic nature of our sensory experiences?

Is there a connection between Susan's backgrounds in tech, music, and wine?

When did Susan decide she wanted to dive deeper into the intersection between music and wine?

What makes a wine "musical"?

How do cross-modal correspondences impact wine tasting?

Why was Brut Non-Vintage Champagne Susan’s choice for her research paper?

What is "sonic seasoning" in the context of wine and music?

What was Susan's most memorable wine and music pairing event?

What might surprise you about the intersection between classical music and heavy metal?

How did Susan set up her experiment to observe how music affected participants' perceptions of the wine they were tasting?

Key Takeaways

Susan says she was always encouraging a Bach goth night at the symphony to bring people together. I like to say, whether my Brahms is your Metallica or vice versa, music can make such a difference in what you're feeling. Hence, if you got a glass of wine, what you're tasting in that glass, right? I've actually done a few experiments with heavy metal. People feel a lot of things, and there are ballads in metal. It's not just your typical really assertive sound all the time. It can be really soulful too and I noticed a lot of use of medieval melodies and folk songs in the ballads that are really nice. So not too far of a distance between Brahms and Metallica in that sense.

Susan explains that if you're listening to something that might add a little bit of pizzazz here or there to your wine, like seasoning can do. It's more of a fun term, not a scientific term. All classical composers experienced all the emotions and all the feelings that we all do and it comes through in their music. Maybe they can be feeling joyful or melancholy or longing or frustrated or upset, and everything in between. So the nature of the seasoning is that it can run in many, many different ways.

Susan observed during her performances how moods of the guests changed depending on what she played. Everything in the sensory world, all of our experiences, are really taken in holistically, right? It's not like, oh, we're just listening to this one thing and that's isolated. Oh, and we're tasting this one thing, we're smelling this one thing, and we're seeing something. It's all together. I knew that it was something special, and knew that it was something that I wanted to learn more about, or just somehow be a part of. And playing the piano in those situations actually was a great way for me to be a part of it.

About Susan R. Lin

Susan R. Lin is a Master of Wine and a Master of Fine Arts in Classical Piano and Musicology.

To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/346.

Susan’s MW research paper ‘Influences of Classical Music on the Sensory Perception of a Brut Non-Vintage Champagne’ and subsequent work on the interaction of music and wine have been featured in Decanter, Food & Wine, GuildSomm, and others. Each of Susan’s creations is rooted in academic research and inspired by a deep respect for the essence of wine and music.

The 1st Sunday in Lent, 2025