Add Art

Wine
(sometimes beer, both with or without cheese, or even
spirits) often create a perfect counterpoint to certain arts
events. The synergy that comes in appealing to people’s good
tastes on multiple fronts makes for memorable events and can
effect positive branding for both sponsoring arts group and
consulting supplier. While this concept has been
well-plumbed between distributors and restaurants, it is so
far a route less traveled between arts groups and beverage
retailers.

Canny arts
groups desiring to achieve the festive ambiance that a
little sip and nosh can lend a concert or gallery event, may
call on willing retailers not just for a mixed case or two,
but a staff pourer who can schmooze intelligently with the
concertgoers about the drink at hand (maybe even the music).
These aware trade-offs can benefit both ends of the
enterprise.

For the business
that supplies the beverages and the expert commentary, the
building of new and long-term customer relationships can be
rewarding. Stacks of sell sheets, newsletters and other
signage may introduce a new customer base. The presence of
the wine supplier’s notices or small-space ads have
particular relevance in the programs which are carefully
printed and include complete libretto or lyrics. And the
very presence of a brie-and-chardonnay table, even if manned
by volunteers, can make not only a fine post-concert
gathering spot to congratulate performers, welcome
dignitaries, lend an air of conviviality, glow and unwind
after an engrossing evening of chamber music, but work in
subtler ways to grease the wheels of interest among
collectors and investors at art gallery openings and to
soften contributors at fund-raisers.

When a special
gathering or celebration takes place, organizers may opt to
go that extra mile to make the wine/food table serve double
duty as educational anchor and fundraising
opportunity.

Concert
Performances With Historical Wine & Food Interest Aaron
Engebreth, baritone and co-director of the Boston-based
Florestan Recital Project, showed unusual artistic mettle in
organizing with his colleagues, last June, a four-concert
weekend festival of the complete (1OO+) voice and piano
songs of French composer Francis Poulenc. The Project then
followed up with a burst of entrepreneurial spirit and
approached Robert Aguilera of Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge
to run a tasting of artisanal French wines and cheeses as a
special event between the matinee and evening concerts on
the closing Sunday.

The music was
exceptional, and the venue – the contemporary wood interior
of St. Paul’s, Brookline – was inviting. The church proper
served as an acoustically rich venue for the intimate,
evocative combinations of voice and piano, as Poulenc’s
elegant, witty and sophisticated songs ran the gamut from
brash to coy to serene. The church sanctuary’s large bright
semi-circular ‘green room’ with bay windows and oriental rug
made an elegant backdrop for a carefully selected wine and
cheese tasting, calculated to receive and relieve performers
and concertgoers between the matinee and evening
concerts.

Engebreth
explains: “The primary reason for the tasting was to
emphasize that food and wine are as much a part of the
artistic realm as the music. Music and wine and cheese are
all created: they have composition and interpretation,
performance and lasting effect. Moreover, a primary function
of art is to evoke nostalgia in its myriad effusions. Food
and wine do this, as does music; when you put them together
the effect is multi-fold. The sooner we artists realize the
interrelation between them, the better off we’ll all be at
creating such interdisciplinary collaborations.

“We had the idea
to approach Formaggio Kitchen because we know that they’re
as passionate about their gastronomic art as we are about
musical art. We wanted the audience to be able to taste and
smell the same foods and wines that Poulenc might have tried
when he was composing and working with singers. Robert
Aguilera was keen on the idea of finding historical
connections for the cheeses and wines of Poulenc’s Paris in
the ‘4Os.”

Robert Aguilera,
cellarmaster at Formaggio Kitchen’s main shop on Huron
Avenue, hosted the wine/cheese event. Aguilera was more than
up to the task, and sought out wines and cheeses that fit
the historical perspective yet respected the event’s
auxiliary nature; it fell between two concerts and was meant
as a brief respite from – and complement to – the music.
Aguilera thus presented a single white and red wine, with
three cheeses each and complementary garnishes.

The white wine
was Domaine de Roquefort Blanc, made viscous and
mineral-rich from the unusual Clairette grape. It’s an
organic wine, made in an old-fashioned way. The ‘white’
cheeses were Chaource (cow, Champagne); Persille de
Tarentaise (goat, Haut Savoie); Petite Espellete (sheep,
Pyrenees and Basque Country). The condiments were dried
prunes and apricots from Agen.

The red wine,
Mont Tauch Fitou “Chasse Gardee” with a wild boar on the red
label, is another lusty, old-school Languedoc blend of
Carignane and Grenache which shows little oak, and plenty of
stones-and-earth terrior. The ‘red’ cheeses were Charollais
(goat, Burgundy), Tomme de Berger (cow, Auvergne), Bleu
Severac (sheep, Roquefort). The condiments, house-made at
Formaggio Kitchen, were Confiture d’Oignon (onion jam) and a
Tapenade Noir of black oil-cured olives and dried
figs.

“Aaron said they
wanted the Poulenc festival to feature historical cheeses
that coincide with the period when Poulenc was composing.
World War II was a time of upheaval not only in the arts and
music, but in cheese as well. For example, after World War
II, Marcel Petite, cheesemaker who became governor of the
Jura, revived the making of Comte (French Gruyere) in by
converting Fort St. Antoine, a moated ammunition fort into a
cheese-aging cave. Today, 6O years later, the cooperative,
protected by the AOC consortium, makes 6O,OOO wheels of
Comte cheese a year.

“Since Poulenc
was in Paris, I chose cheeses you could find in Paris during
the ‘3Os and ‘4Os. Charollais style (little village of
Citeaux nearby also houses a Benedictine abbey) is one of
the cleanest of hand molded goat cheeses, made by monks over
1OOO years. They also perfected certain beer styles.
Burgundian grazing land is absolutely pristine. Little
cylinders are made by hand, and aged in air in a barn on
spruce or birch leaves. When mold blooms in the cheese it
gives in that gray hue.

“This kind of
pairing research lets people know that cheese has more to do
with human history and is artistic as well as edible,”
Aguilera concludes. “Cheese goes through a process, which
the original discoverers figured out through understanding
spoilage and taking the risk to reproduce the same result
after tasting something intriguing. It happens with beer and
wine and bread. Risk-takers are artists, improve our world,
make our lives more beautiful. These are the long success
stories of human history.”

Aguilera also
loves pairing beers with cheeses, and is in demand to host
brew dinners. When asked to recall such events, he readily
responded: “A beer dinner I held with Dogfish Head Brewery
owner and brewmaster Sam Caligione at the Linwood Grill last
January featured a dozen of his brews from light (8%
alcohol) to hefty (18%). The best match was 6O-Minute IPA
with Gorgonzola Naturale from Lombardy, with the cheese’s
intense yeast balancing out the ale’s intense hoppiness.
Another great one was with Richard Delmonico, representative
of Montreal’s Unibroue, held at Boston’s French Library. The
Blanche de Chambly paired perfectly with a fresh,
ash-covered goat cheese called Bouq Emissaire.”

Engebreth
continues: “Robert proved to be so immersed in gastronomic
history that we’re talking about future collaborations.
We’re discussing tracing the timelines of American chamber
music and American wines. American music post-war was going
through many revolutions, as did the wine industry. As
musical tastes changed with the advent of television, so
wine tasted emerged. Since the 195Os, when television began
to assume control of family entertainment, fewer people
hosted chamber music in their homes; yet during the same
period, American wines flourished. There are few more
satisfying music experiences than attending a living-room
concert (whether folk, jazz or classical) while enjoying a
glass of wine and good company. We’re thinking to choose
music and wines that criss-crossed about the same
time.”

Off-Premise
On-Stage Music Lures Bottle Buyers Erin Barra,
singer/songwriter, launches into a zesty, bluesy, Ben
Folds-like ballad of wronged love, to the Yamaha keyboard
accompaniment of Jared Salvatore and the tinkle of Muscadet
and Australian Semillon pouring into plastic cups. The scene
is Best Cellars in Coolidge Corner, Brookline on a glorious
Midsummer’s Eve (June 21). The lucid showroom is filled with
lingering evening light and pretty sounds, and plenty of
bustling after-work passers-by are lured in by the sidewalk
signboard announcing Arts and Wine as well as the sounds
emerging from the wide-open glass doors. When a Brazilian
guitarist and conga player join the band, the music shifts
to samba, funk and blues. Local guitarist Izzi Rosen wheels
his daughter by in a stroller and, smiling broadly, checks
out the music and the joyous vibe.

Young saleswomen
are pouring six summery wines, and checking IDs as the
twenty-somethings wander in. Two roommates taste and talk
over and decide on a California Grenache for dinner. Two
dudes in shorts and shades check out the band, smile and nod
to the beat, pause and sip awhile, and wander out. A
middle-aged woman strides right to the cooler, and grabs a
chilled Champagne without missing a word on her cell phone.
But she does a double-take at three vivid landscape
paintings on easels, the work of a young German painter,
Maren Tober, who’s not present but has left a stack of
brochures and cards to be displayed on the table all
month.

Music and
painting have become component partners in Best Cellars’
recent outreach to connect with customers in new ways and to
broaden the store’s appeal. Indeed, the summery sentiments
of singer Barra and the vivid pastels of painter Tober
seemed a perfect Midsummer’s Eve accompaniment to the lively
flavors of Muscadet and Cava Rose served up by Best Cellars’
staff. Manager/buyer Lindsay Cohen confirms the initiative
by saying: “There’s always an element of art and culture
surrounding the consumption of wine. It’s only appropriate
to invite performance and visual artists into the store to
complete that picture.”

Singer Barra
reflected that idea when she said: “I’d rather play gigs
like this than some clubs, where you’re just background for
selling drinks, rather than contributing to an artistic
event. I have respect for Best Cellars as a company and
support their goals. There’s a sense of a cultured,
arts-oriented community; it brought people in off the
street.”