Mozart and malbec: Vineyard pairs wine with music

(WTOP) - The tasting room at Stephen and Shannon Mackey's Loudoun County vineyard is every bit as quaint and cozy as one would expect to find at a local family-run winery.

There is a spacious bar for those coming to sample the vineyard's varieties, rocking chairs by a large window overlooking the vines, three young boys running outside of the farmhouse ... and Metallica blasting through the speakers.

Metallica?

"As former audio engineers, this is the coolest sound system in any winery in the world," says Stephen Mackey, owner of Notaviva Vineyards in Purcellville, Va.

After a few additional minutes of Metallica, Stephen switches the sound system to Hank Jr., Usher and organ music.

"The music is a little heavy to enjoy with a white, crisp wine," he says.
 "Most people hear that organ come out and they say, ‘Pour me a red!' This is not a white wine music, you know?"

This eclectic song cycle is something through which Stephen rotates frequently for Notaviva's unique offering: wine paired with music.

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Skipping over more traditional pairings -- say, wine and cheese -- and going straight for music sounds a little unusual. But for Stephen and Shannon, it makes perfect sense.

Stephen, originally of Sterling, Va., and Shannon, of South Florida, both studied audio engineering technology at University of Miami.

"We both thought we wanted to work in recording studios," says Stephen, who instead worked as a live music sound engineer, touring with artists including Garth Brooks, Matchbox20, Martina McBride and Amy Grant.

In 2000, Stephen moved back to Loudoun County, and not long after, reconnected with Shannon at a friend's wedding. After spending some time at Stephen's property on Short Hill Mountain, the two decided to chase down their dream of buying land and opening a vineyard.

"The next day, I went online and I Googled, ‘How do you grow grapes?'" Stephen says. "It was a complete romantic whim, a leap of faith, that 11 years later is really a dream come true, almost."

Stephen and Shannon knew they needed to brand their vineyard in a way that set them apart from others in the area's growing wine industry. Immediately, they decided to build their brand around a passion for music.

At first, the brand started with the name of the vineyard. Stephen explains Notaviva is an aggregation of two words: nota, meaning "music note," and viva, meaning "with life."