Where Music and Wine Meet
Music is one of life’s essentials – just like wine. For us, the two pair together naturally. The feeling of pure joy that flows through your body when a good song hits is priceless, and it hits us in the same way an incredible bottle tastes when freshly uncorked. My partner Ben and I met during harvest at Deerfield Ranch Winery in 2007. While sorting fruit for hours, we passed the time listening to Kings of Leon, Muse and the Grateful Dead, discussing our love for concerts and festivals and bonding over the amazing shows we’d experienced. One of my personal all-time highlights was watching The Gladiators warm up backstage at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in 2000 during a glorious sunset. A momentous occasion, the full band hadn’t played together in 17 years. I’ll never forget it.
Idle Mixes: A Soundtrack for the Wine Life
Four years ago, now as Idle Cellars, we decided to release mixes from our favorite DJs as a way to capture the musical version of an Idle moment. We all need some tunes when the wine starts to flow, and the laidback eclecticism of the selectors we follow seemed a perfect fit with the label. We kicked off with a true underground hero: an Episcopal minister by day and ordained vibesman behind the turntables by night, JAZ is a veritable wizard of sound. Calling him a record collector doesn’t quite do him justice – he mines the nooks and crannies of beat music. From Disco to Electro, House to Funk, his jams hit like forgotten classics you’ve never heard before.
This was deemed a fantastic success (by us!). We began to bring new mixes to the label in rapid succession. Skyrager (Danny McLewin to his mum) gave us a brilliant three and a half hour epic journey through Reggae, Folk, Leftfield Rock & Electronic Dance – the vibe we’ve come to know as Balearic. Named after the Balearic Isles off the coast of Spain, most notably Ibiza, this music isn’t so much a genre but an open roadmap; a way to combine all the things we like in one place, expertly blended to hang together as one vibe. Later, LA-based Dirty Dave conjured his Sorcery mix, fitting into the stable perfectly. We brought on UK legends like Cafe Del Mar legend Phil Mison and Swiss groove master Lexx. Felix Dickinson of legendary UK House soundsystem Tonka. Bay Area heads like Matias & James Glass. Our list grew on and on.
Vinyl Dreams and Sunday Spins
We recently brought on Mike Bee from SF record shop Vinyl Dreams, a gathering space of artists, aficionados & beat addicts from around the world. You’ll often find our crew at the shop, drinking our 2023 rosé and spinning tunes in the DJ booth on Sundays. Mike has been curating the series, bringing it to new heights with recent mixes from Flying Mojito Bros, 40 Thieves and many more to come. Mike’s elder status within our community and his role as teacher has helped many DJs find their sound over the past 30 years, and it’s an honor to work with him.
Hit up our Soundcloud page for all our mixes. We roughly post a new one every six weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for the latest sounds from, in our opinion, some of the finest purveyors of music on the planet – and they go wonderfully with our wine!