How do you get people who don't drink to understand wine? Anyone who is entering or about to enter the field of alcohol may think about this question. In the past, the way to achieve this goal was often through technical explanations, but now, more people are beginning to use artistic methods that have the possibility of experimenting with wine to communicate with people.
Creative oak barrels that bring art to the lips
For enthusiasts, the product of spirits itself is an artistic existence - it is an art of time and balance, but also the art of fine control of flavor, it is in a way no different from the painter, except that the painter often exerts inspiration on the canvas, and the winemaker builds the stage on people's five senses, especially taste and smell.
Take whisky, for example. In the world of whisky, oak barrels are the key to building the art of flavor. The traditional Shirley oak barrels are mostly Oloroso and PX, the former will have more dried fruit flavor, while the latter will bring similar aromas such as dates, the taste is more sweet, and now, the mainstream mature barrels are mostly added to the bourbon barrel - this oak barrel has been aged in the United States bourbon whiskey before, and the flavor performance is more coconut, vanilla and cream. Mixing these two types of oak barrels to create an exclusive flavor of whisky is the homework of every whisky winemaker, because the oak barrels are derived from nature, so the flavor of each barrel is different, and the wine from the barrel is organically blended to create a different taste, which is a taste bud art.
Just as the world is colorful, although only two types of oak barrels can create many different flavors, for winemakers who want to explore a higher level of flavor art, it is what they want to do to find more flavored oak barrels to create. In Whisky L! Deanston Tinston Beer Dragon's Milk Barrel Single Malt Whisky, which was unveiled at the show, pioneered the use of oak barrels aged with Shitao beer for whisky maturation, creating a single malt whisky with some depth. For many people, the Shitao beer barrel may be an unfamiliar term, but if you are a person who loves heavy beer, you will soon be able to sort out the past and present life of this oak barrel - from the oak barrel aged with bourbon, through the infiltration of Shitao beer, and then back to the world of Scotch whisky. This barrel not only brings the iconic flavor of bourbon barrel to the liquor, but also gives it the taste of Shitao beer, which is very interesting.
Glen Dronach Grandona, known as the "Sherry Barrel Maturation Expert," performed another flavor scene. It focuses on the liquor maturation with traditional sherry barrels, and boldly uses PX sherry barrels on the Grandona 18-year-old Allardyce single malt whisky – PX sherry is known for its rich and sweet style, which also means that this single malt whisky naturally has a sweeter taste than other wines, in fact, it smells and drinks, it gives people a sweet creamy candy feeling, at the same time, you can also find the taste of dates, candy fruit in the wine, It is especially suitable for use as a dessert wine in the evening after a festive feast.
Of course, when it comes to the fruit taste that can be carried in the wine, it is necessary to mention the star chart 9.1 of the Bruchladich Buhradi Winery, which has just been unveiled in Shanghai. Unlike other whiskies, star charts are characterized by their mysteriousness, except for the winemaker himself, no one knows what its recipe is, but the yellow dried fruit flavor it presents is extremely charming, especially the taste of dried apricots throughout the tasting process, as if Gauguin's work, you may not know its specific painting, but as long as you see the painting, you can know what he expresses for Tahiti.
Another form of expression, through synaesthesia and artistic resonance
If it is difficult for beginners to quickly understand the taste of alcohol in a short period of time, can we make up for this theoretical difficulty with intuitive expression, imagery and other forms? The answer is yes.
Whether it is beer, liquor, or wine, cognac, whiskey, regardless of the category, these wines have endless inspiration for artists to create in the whole process from raw materials to finished products, so that when you see those works of art named after wine, you often have some different feelings.
At the "Source of Alcohol" McAllen Art Experience Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, you can see installation artworks inspired by various elements such as barley, water sources, and oak barrels, especially the new media works produced by Chen Qi, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and a contemporary artist, which introduce people to a time tunnel where reality and illusion are intertwined from the beginning. The blue and flowing effect simulates the Spey River, and its long flow metaphorically refers to the passage of time, an important factor in the whisky production process, the gathering and following of living beings when walking, subtly increasing the interactivity and making the viewing process more interesting.
For low-alcohol beer, communication with the public is more of an artistic expression of emotional interaction, and the dialogue between the two sides is realized through the magic of synaesthesia. For example, Budweiser takes "Tiger" as the theme and uses "Tiger Howling" as inspiration to propose the "Whistle: Sound and Color Like a Tiger" art exhibition, through sculpture installations, improvisational paintings, sound and picture interaction and other works to achieve the release of the true self. Interestingly, the pick-up installation "Howling" cooperated by artist Guo Ruiwen and 3ASiC uses the voice of the interactor to transform it into a visible tiger pattern fluctuation, which is a new attempt to create disordered audio-visual with an orderly system, which can be regarded as a new year, which has brought a bit of "tiger and tiger vitality".
As for the liquor field, with the introduction of more and more new communication ideas and new consumption scenarios, more and more brands have begun to pay attention to different ways of communicating with young consumers, and their operation methods are more distinctive when choosing art as a communication method. Taking Shuijingfang as an example, after launching specially designed wine bottles many times, it chose to jointly set up the "First Fang Jinyi Award" with art institutions and artists to encourage modern Chinese art creation and promote the long-term development of art and aesthetic culture. Interestingly, the award is not limited to painting, but also covers literature and art, and its attention to the humanities and arts is quite extensive. It is worth noting that Shuijingfang also seems to be trying to further consolidate the close connection between brand and art in this way, and to propose an artistic lifestyle that is more closely linked to the brand, and perhaps in the near future, we will also see a very different side of Chinese liquor and traditional understanding.