The Science—and Superstition—of Serenading Wine and Vines

Greg La Follette’s harvest order of operations goes as such: prune the vines, thin the shoots, pick the grapes, play the bagpipes. 

Before La Follette founded Sonoma’s renowned Marchelle Wines, he was a professional bagpipe player. After loading the last of the grapes into the press, he’ll bring out his beloved instrument. “The cellar has great reverberation and I think the wines like it,” he says.

In Burgundy’s Santenay AOC, Marc Jessiaume and his son Jean-Baptiste play classical music (“only Mozart or Bach”) while their white wines coalesce in barrel. The floating concertos help stimulate malolactic fermentation and remove stress from the cells, they say, resulting in exceedingly elegant Chardonnays. 

Though it may sound eccentric, these winemakers aren’t the only ones serenading their wines. 

In Texas Hill Country, Canada Family Vineyards’s Brenda Canada sings to her vines. Montes in Chile plays Gregorian chants constantly to the barrels, which sit in a semicircle—a shape that promotes serenity—in the cellar. 

Clearly, the trend is growing—but is there actually any science to back up the benefits?

The High Notes of Music and Wine

Winemakers who engage in these practices have found anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness in producing higher quality wines.

Jessiaume specifically chooses music tuned to 432 hertz (Hz) frequency, or Verdi’s A. Monks use the scale for meditative chanting. Wellness practitioners, life coaches and other holistic health enthusiasts swear the frequency helps with healing. “It’s the music of life,” says Jessiaume.

Small-scale studies have shown that the frequency can decrease heart rate and manage anxiety and stress.

“Your body is 80% water,” he continues. “So is wine, right? We’re all made up of cells with metal, minerals and amino acids. Music is the best way to pull out all the stress in our cells, whether human or wine.”

He rests speakers on top of his barrels and plays Mozart’s Une Petite Musique de Nuit. “Never rock and roll,” he says. “Nothing would happen during fermentation.” 

He decides when the wines are ready by testing them with the ding of a tuning fork. 

In Sancerre, small speakers dot Cyril de Benoist’s Domaine du Nozay vineyards. Classical music, also played at 432 hertz, is piped through as the grapes ripen and grow. “It stimulates the molecule of the plant and helps with sap circulation,” says de Benoist.

Since starting the practice, he’s noticed music aids in healthy plant growth (though it doesn’t help prevent disease or other maladies).

The chords continue into the cellars. He’s fiddled with his speakers and removed the exteriors so the music (also classical) plays without actual sound. It’s the vibrations that matter, he believes. “I find music helps stimulate alcoholic and malolactic fermentation,” de Benoist says. “I stop when fermentation finishes—after that, music will start creating other problems.” 

In the same vein of thought, he’s also a big believer in amphoras and other round vessels, which keep yeast moving and dancing. 

La Follette finds the benefits of bagpiping extend beyond the potential science. Piping is a ritual for him and his team. “I’ve found over my career that having happy employees who are engaged, satisfied with their work and have rituals that are comforting and have meaning will end up making better wine,” he says.

The bagpipes are also a crucial chapter in his story. He was the shift piper on the Queen Mary and still plays at Highland games and funerals of friends. “At the price point I sell my wines, people are not just buying the beverage,” he says. “They’re buying into my story.”