Mark Oldman: A showman like no other | Culture & Leisure

If the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen had a Hall of Fame, Mark Oldman would be unanimously voted in on the first ballot.

For 18 years, Oldman has enlightened and entertained attendees at one of the nation's premier food and wine events.

The New York Times cited him among the great showmen of the wine world. He is also the award-winning author of three wine books. And it appears at many major food and wine festivals across the country, but according to Oldman, nothing compares to Food & Wine.

Aspen is in a league of its own, Oldman said from his home in New York. I attend many major food and wine festivals at Austin Food and Wine in South Beach, New York. But Aspen is its own gastronomic wonderland. The crowds are always amazing, knowledgeable, fun and unpretentious. It's probably my favorite place in the world to drink wine and as a result, I always try to go all out. I try to give people the best information while making it fun.

At his seminar (he calls them bevinars) last year, Worlds Best Special Occasion Wines, Oldman presented a selection of some of the rarest and most iconic wines from around the world, dressed in safari attire. He took his audience on an Out of Aspen-themed safari by pairing each of the eight bottles with an animal based on the wine and the animal having common characteristics.

Oldman delighted audiences Friday and Saturday with his wine bevinars for the world's best special occasions. At 10 a.m. today at Gant Aspen, Oldman will host a bevinar titled Pitch Perfect: How Music Enhances Great Wine, which promises to tickle the eardrums and taste buds at the same time.

This may be the most innovative and intriguing bevinar I have ever given, Oldman said. I'm going to cover all sorts of things at the intersection of food and wine. If you love music and wine, we hope the two create a great experience together. I'm a firm believer in the idea that none of us have much time left, so how can we squeeze as much fun into our lives as possible? And for me, it's through wine, it's through music.

Oldman will feature eight different wines in Pitch Perfect. He divided his bevinar into five parts: the wine inspired by the song; wines made by winegrowers or musician owners; wine associated with renowned musicians (and the stories behind them); wine made with music (or sound stimulation) and how listening to music changes your perception of wine and music inspired by wine.

I wrote three books about wine and in each of them I interviewed many famous people who are wine lovers and the most enthusiastic were the musicians, Oldman said. There is this parallel between musicians and wine lovers. It’s a perfect fit for Aspen because the Aspen audience is sophisticated, not just in wine, but in many ways, in music, art and ideas. There's this kind of duality that I see between people who love wine and people who love music.

Oldman's musical tastes run the gamut from heavy metal to punk, rap, rock and country.

It's not really the genre for me. That's what I feel, he said.

Oldman noted that some wines are bold, uncompromising and minimalist like punk rock (Iggy Pop is passionate about Bordeaux), that several artists like Sting and John Legend are sophisticated drinkers and winemakers and that when rap comes along, Oldman launches into I Just Wanna by Jay Z. Luv U at the top of my lungs, I had six model girls, six bottles of Cris (Crystal Champagne), four Belvederes (vodka), I had weed everywhere.

One of the most fascinating topics Oldman will explore is sound stimulation in which winemakers use music to enhance wine in the winemaking process itself.

Some wineries will transmit music to the vines growing in the field to create a better growing situation, Oldman said. The idea is that healthier vines and healthier plants produce better wine. They might play classical music in the vineyards because they believe it creates healthier, more robust vines that produce tastier grapes.

There are wineries in California and Argentina that essentially serenade their grapes on the vine to improve the final quality of the product.

Sound simulation is not just about the grapes on the vine. Some wineries expose the wine to music while the wine ferments and ages in barrels.

Usually they process the wine in barrels, Oldman said. It could be classical music, Gregorian chants or the winemaker's favorite music. Krug Grande Cuvee Brut is an incredibly elite champagne producer. Their entire marketing program is based on the reading of certain classic compositions which they have associated with different variations of their champagne. They are absolutely convinced that the music will enhance their very high-end champagne.

When asked what he hoped people would take away from Pitch Perfect, Oldman replied, “When you combine the aesthetic senses of music and art, that's where you get the synergy.” This is when you can get closer to the sublime. And it's just fun. It's just a great way to escape our polarized world.

I want people to feel transported and leave with a really good buzz and knowledge.

Oldman's bevinars are often kitsch. He uses props such as safari costumes to create lightness and free people from the pretension that often accompanies wine drinking that, by taking themselves less seriously, people can actually experience wine in a more authentic way .

One can't help but feel that Oldman was born to teach this bevinar, that this might well be his chez doevre. Music is not just a device in Pitch Perfect, music is the alchemy he uses to bring his audience to a better understanding and enjoyment of wine.

It's no surprise that a ticket to the bevinar is as sought after as one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets. Wonka himself claimed that we are the creators of music and we are the dreamers of dreams. He's probably somewhere singing the song Pure Imagination, while relaxing and drinking an Argentinian Malbec because Oldman said they exude a dimension of chocolaty goodness.