Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/844641
70 / the tasting panel / july 2017 FOR MUSIC MAKE TIME I t was a beautiful day in Chicago, but honestly, I was feeling rather stressed out and glum. I walked into the room at City Winery in Chicago and was greeted by smiling faces and a glass of Wente Vineyards 2014 Small Lot Brut. The band Wolf Hamlin and the Front Porch Drifters began to play, and within moments, I noticed my mood began to lift and my cares started to fade away. The crowd was mingling, dancing and smiling. This is the beauty of music and wine. Both have the power to lift the spirits, with just the first few notes of a song or the first swirl, sniff, and sip of a wine. Both speak directly to the human soul. Karl Wente—the mastermind of the Make Time for Music movement, who was also the organizer of this event—took to the stage alongside Master Sommelier Serafin Alvarado to give a talk on the symbiotic relationship of music and wine and their personal life experiences with both. I personally was very drawn into the conversation, as I myself had first fallen in love with music before the wine bug came along and bit me. In 2007, I graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston with a Bachelor's in professional music. It wasn't until moving to Chicago and realizing that music was not paying the bills that I began to fully pursue my career as a sommelier. I studied long and hard for years, completely consumed with the subject of wine. Eventually, all the hard work paid off and I became the head sommelier at The Boarding House and eventually the beverage director. I am not going to lie: My current position is all-consuming and doesn't leave me much time for anything else, especially not much time to make music. As I listened to Karl and Serafin talk about how music became second fiddle in their lives for a while as they were immersed in winemaking or in the arduous process of the The Make Time for Music column celebrates musicians in our industry who consciously carve time out of their busy schedules to Make Time for Music. The #MTFM movement, led by Wente Vineyards, encourages musicians and music lovers alike to preserve their passion for music and to deliberately incorporate it into their busy lives. Follow the movement on Instagram: @maketimeformusic. MAKE TIME FOR MUSIC INSPIRES SOMMELIER KELLY PETERSON BATES TO RETURN TO HER FIRST LOVE: MUSIC by Kelly Peterson Bates, Certified Sommelier PHOTO: REBECCA PEPLINSKI Rekindling an Old Flame Karl Wente, fifth-generation Winemaker for Wente Vineyards, performing with his band Wolf Hamlin and the Front Porch Drifters at City Winery in Chicago, IL.