Last year I went to a really fun Wine & Vinyl night, organised by Brighton Wine Company, at a record shop down a residential back street in Hove. I reckon the place was owned by one of those guys who are so prevalent in Brighton & Hove — musicians or DJs who have so many records that they just turn their house into a shop.
Anyway, as a music lover I thought it was a great idea, so I was intrigued to hear about Stylus: the vinyl and wine company who offer subscription boxes of specially curated wine and records (plus a magazine) for £35 per month.
Stylus recently teamed up with the Côtes du Rhône appelation Cairanne, to make a special wine & vinyl box, one of which I received last week. Cairanne got its Côtes du Rhône Villages AOC (one level up from Côtes du Rhône AOC) status in the 1960s, but was more recently (in 2016) promoted again to the prestigious Cru level — alongside the likes of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côte-Rôtie and Crozes-Hermitage AOCs.
Style-wise, red Cairanne wine uses the GSM formula (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre), combining the Syrah so typical of the northern Rhone and the Grenache and Mourvèdre grape varieties of the south. Whites, meanwhile, tend to combine grapes including Grenache, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier into a wonderfully aromatic blend.
The wine from Stylus came packaged with the LP Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, by Strokesy French indie-pop band Phoenix, which the magazine explains was selected due to its multi-textured elements, which are revealed, like a good wine, upon multiple exposures. (*I have since discovered there’s a Phoenix Pony Club in Cairanne. Coincidence? Probably not.)
They also describe the album as “a masterful exorcise (sic) in pop production”. Clearly a ghost in the machine there. Guys: I can proof your magazine for you if you like, although I’m not cheap.
Pedantry aside, as a record player owning music geek I applaud this idea. To be honest, I haven’t actually tried the wine yet, but if the press info is anything to go by “Cairanne Rocks!”
Discover more about Cairanne here.
And click here for the Stylus Vinyl site.
The Wine Ninjas 
Great post 😊
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