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A big wine fan, the Tragically Hip’s bassist Gord Sinclair talks to us about the many similarities in wine and music as arts and industries. Gord tells us how his music got him into wine; about being offered a wine label for The Hip; and we get a wine and food pairing for my favorite Tragically Hip song. We discuss how music writers are a lot like wine writers and Gord gives us the back story on a couple of the Hip’s biggest hits. Read some more and watch the video…
He’s a big wine fan, part of one of Canada’s greatest rock bands, and a Kingston resident; we couldn’t think of anybody better to interview about wine, music and art. If I hadn’t known who he was, noticed the shelves full of awards, Geminis and medals from the Queen in his basement studio, I wouldn’t have guessed that somebody so down to earth is such a big deal in the music industry; a real class act.
We brought over a few bottles of great wine and picked Gord’s brain on how music and wine are similar as arts. What was going to be a fairly brief interview turned into an evening of drinking wine and getting far more insights on wine and music than we had expected. Wine and music both seem to reflect the polarized production of the industrial, high volume, designed-to-top-charts-and-please-everyone arts, through to the personal, small-scale, boutique, representations of the land and winemaker or musician. We learn how Gord first got into wine, how the Tragically Hip were offered their own wine label and how similar wine critics are to music critics, comparing Rolling Stone or Spin magazine to the Wine Spectator or Robert Parker.
Completely unwine-related, Gord gave us the real stories on the curious, highly enchanting lyrics from a couple of our favorite Hip songs and we even went as far as to get a wine, food and music pairing for my favorite Tragically Hip song…Long Time Running. For the record, a sunny summer afternoon song such as that is best matched with a bottle of crisp cold Louis Jadot Bourgone Chardonnay and citrusy pan-seared scallops.
A very large thanks goes out to Gord for taking the time to drink some delicious wine with us and to chit chat about music and wine. It was a fun night and we certainly hope to repeat in the future. Enjoy the video and try the wines yourself!
Andrew Rastapkevicius