If you love music and have a taste for wine, maybe you noticed that – sometimes – your drink tastes better or worse depending on the situation you’re in – be it a crowded club, a quiet evening at home, a party at some friend’s house…

Well, this happens because human sensory modalities are deeply interlaced, even the ones we perceive as totally disconnected.

A recent study by Heriot Watt University’s professor Adrian North showed a deep connection between the perception of a wine’s taste and the music playing in the background while drinking it: the wine seems to take on taste characteristics that reflect the nature of the music. So, as Research Digest suggests, “if you want your Merlot to taste earthy and full-bodied, try savouring it to the tune of Tom Jones. To add a little zing to your Pinot, perhaps try some Gaga?“.

This is, basically, how the experiment was held: “North tested out the taste perceptions of 250 university students as they drank either Montes Alpha 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon (red wine) or Chardonnay (white wine) – both are Chilean. Crucially, some of the participants sampled their glass to the tune of music previously identified by a separate group of people as powerful and heavy (Carmina Burana by Orff); others drank their wine to music rated earlier as subtle and refined (Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’); others to the tune of zingy and refreshing music (Just Can’t Get Enough by Nouvelle Vague); and lastly, the remaining participants drank their wine with mellow and soft music in the background (Slow Breakdown by Michael Brook). There was also a control group who drank the wine with no music. After they’d savoured their wine for five minutes, the participants were asked to rate how much they felt the wine was powerful and heavy; subtle and refined; mellow and soft; and zingy and refreshing. The results showed that the music had a consistent effect on the participants’ perception of the wine. They tended to think their wine had the qualities of the music they were listening to. So, for example, both the red and white wines were given the highest ratings for being powerful and heavy by those participants who drank them to the tune of Carmina Burana“.

You can read a whole feature on the topic in Wired.

And remember: always drink responsibly, even if the music is so good it makes you want to have another glass.