How about "music smoothed wine"?
Before I begin, allow me to remind you of some of the absolutely nutty, crackpot schemes to "fast age" spirits. Now mind you, it's not like a bunch of successful distillers who'd been using traditional methods of making spirits suddenly had the bright idea that they could achieve better, smoother, more tasty aged spirits in a matter of months, rather than expensive years.
Quite the opposite. These schemes are concocted and promoted to allow underfunded, dumb ass entrpreneurs to get into the business with the idea that fine aged spirits could be quickly and cheaply produced using any number of seemingly convincing ideas. Of course the first person they had to convince was themselves.
The poster boy for these schemes is a guy whose business plan projects $50M in sales within five years by - please be seated - aging the equivalent of a premium 10 to 12 year old bourbon in what?! Six fackin days. I kid you not. Yet to date, not one reviewer had confirmed his claim - which is why this distiller actually agreed to send moi a bottle, which I had directed to Bearmark as I am clearly prejudiced.
Other such schemes include: alternating pressure and temperature, sealing barrels in plastic wrap, alleged (but unproven) underwater aging (motion of the tides, y' know), specially treated oak staves exposed to a magic light, fast dunder, fast seasoning of barrels, vibrating racks, and insofar as this article, exposure to loud rock music (I'm not kidding about any of these).
So how 'bout this wine scheme?
Here's another one, and I quote:
"A bodega in Murcia, Southern Spain, has decided to find out. The tasting notes for Barahonda's "59h 35m 3s" report that it's made from Monastrell, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. It spent 10 months being aged in American and French oak. And, after bottling, it was played a selection of music for 59 hours, 35 minutes and three seconds.
"The project came out of the idea that when a pregnant mother listens to music it influences the character of the baby," explains Sonia Garcia of Barahonda. "Therefore we decided to play music to the wine when it was in the bottle to soften and sweeten the tannins."
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... ve-flavour
And now the question of the day: whose are the real nuts - those who propose this mooseshit - those who write about it favorably - or those who even for a microsecond, believe it? The answer, I believe, is the latter. If we would simply stop believing this load, and refuse to buy or try the product, the claims would stop.
"We have met the enemy... and he is us" (Pogo)
Yes I complain and rave about these con artists, but the truth be told, if you want to know the real source of the problem, look in the mirror. Yup, it starts with the desperate and underfunded new distiller. The fantastical claims are promoted to and dutifully repeated by the usual outlets - some well known like Forbes, or more widely by the many faux-reviewers whose price is a freebie. And then which get repeated by the monkeys of the net.
Example: Lost Spirits and Cleveland Whiskey got TONS of relatively uncritical publicity. CW in particular was effective by promoting the belief that their amazing 6-day bourbon would be the "next big thing" that would revolutionize bourbon making and marketing. Even Forbes bought that. But in the end...
We are the problem. So the question I would ask is this: the motivations of the new distillers are clear, media is satisfied by an "interesting" story, but just what do you think, underlies the easy acceptance by the drinking public?
Are they simply ignorant? Gullible? Foolish? What goes? Darned if I know. Do you?
