This is Brain Music: a selection of songs curated monthly by different members of the Rochester community that we hope will inspire you the same way it inspires its curator. Today we bring you a playlist curated by Colleen and Sebastian Hardy, owners of Living Roots Wine & Co. Without further ado, here's Brain Music Episode 29.
Photo by Julia Merrell
Welcome to the organized chaos that is Living Roots [behind the scenes]. We’re Sebastian & Colleen Hardy, co-founders of Rochester’s first urban winery. We hop between our hometowns of Rochester, New York and Adelaide, South Australia making wine from the surrounding regions.
Photo by Julia Merrell
Music is an important part of our creative process, and it can really set the tone for a day, a phase, or a moment. Some of these songs are nostalgic (lookin’ at you, Alexi Murdoch), some for a laugh (Flight of the Concords—Col’s rolling her eyes as always), and some bring the energy, a bit of a push to keep moving (all we need is Seth Century to keep telling us to ‘get it done’).
Photo by Julia Merrell
Via our playlist, we’ll take you through a typical day for us which usually starts off with chill tunes as we wake up, make our coffees and prep for the day. During harvest (which is half the year for us, given that we’re doing it in both hemispheres), we’re in for very long days—14+ hours!—so music is key.
Photo by Julia Merrell
Starting off with a few emails, checking temps and brix [sugar levels] in the ferments, and maybe a few pump overs (aka pumping fermenting grape juice over the skins through a hose, it’s strangely therapeutic), we slowly turn up the volume (both literally and figuratively). Getting into our ‘pump up’ tunes, we’re working hard in the winery, maybe hand sorting and crushing grapes, transferring juice between vessels, cleaning (lots and lots of cleaning) or on a really lucky day, maybe even foot stomping ‘I Love Lucy’ style. Some of the instrumentals are great when working out the tough logistics that harvest inevitably involves.
In the evening, we turn it down a notch but keep ticking away at it, usually with a glass of wine—or three—in hand, until eventually we wander upstairs to our apartment and call it a night. We hope you enjoy!
- Colleen & Sebastian
Join us at Living Roots Wine & Co. each Tuesday for a class with a side of wine! Check out what's coming up here.