Wine

On the insistence of Mike Walker, I finally watched Somm.  The pressure!  The heartbreak!  Oh, the lovely, luscious, enigmatic wines they tasted!

There's something about food documentaries (Jiro Dreams of Sushi comes to mind -- the trailer even starts with an orchestra tuning followed by Beethoven Symphony 7) and cooking shows that makes it seem like their subject could just as well be music and musicians' lives -- the odd, grueling hours and low pay, the intense passion and devotion to one's craft, the exacting standards, and being quickly replaced by the next hot thing.

And of course, there is the strength of one's personality shining through the dish/performance.  Contestants on Chopped, when faced with criticism or when slinking away, tail between the legs after being "chopped," inevitably say, "I stand behind my dish." (Seriously, pick any episode and at least someone will say some variation of this phrase.  At least once.)

Maybe the music-food affinity is based on their twin roles in the consumption of things that make you feel satisfied in a way that you didn't even know you were previously lacking, in the full-body buoyancy of experiencing something new and revelatory.

Maybe it's in the patience, personal growth, and self-discovery within the confines of one's technique, tradition, audiences, and critics.

And maybe it's just because food and music pair so well with wine.

So let's play on, drink on, and try to live up to Andreas Fuyu Gutzwiller's ideal musician: "one whose personality has matured in the music as a good wine has matured in a well-made barrel... it is the wine that is consumed not the barrel."