Sounds can be very difficult to evaluate, and even more difficult to memorize. When changing strings, making soundpost adjustments and so on, it's easy to fool oneself that there is a big improvement in sound, though it might just be the pleasing effect of change - that is, any change. I sometimes use small lumps of modelling clay to find out if I want to add or remove weight from the tailpiece. If I'm not alert, I can find that the sound improves when I add a piece of clay - when I remove it the sound becomes even better! Now, if that was an accurate observation I could make a mediocre violin sound like a million dollar one by just adding and removing the piece of clay a hundred times or so. Unfortunately that won't happen.

If you're a violinist, and you're not cautious, you might fall prey to the dreaded soundpost disease, the symptom being that you want to have the soundpost adjusted several times each week. You might even buy a soundpost setter and start adjusting the soundpost yourself. That's when it becomes really dangerous, both for your own mental health and for the instrument. A couple of hundred soundpost moves later, the inside of the violin top will probably be severely worn, and a soundpost patch might be needed. That's a really expensive repair, and can only be performed by a trained luthier. In the process you'll probably find yourself less and less content with the sound of the violin, and that was certainly not the purpose from the start.

On the other hand, a healthy interest in the sound and performance of your instrument, and a good relationship with a luthier who is proficient in the art of violin adjustments, can gradually make your instrument perfectly adapted to support you in shaping the sound you want to deliver. It's often the adjustments that improve the response and playability, rather than the sound of the instrument, that produce the most dramatic improvements. After all, it's the musician who makes music through the violin, and not the other way around.

The international violin making competition, Concours Etienne Vatelot, is taking place in Paris right now. The members of the jury have done their job, evaluating violins, violas, celli and basses from 16 European and Asian countries. Now 103 instruments and a number of bows are on exhibition in these beautiful rooms in one of the buildings of the Mairie of the 9th arrondissement in central Paris. Today there will be a concert featuring the awarded instruments.

Despite having only a primitive temporary workshop yet, after moving to France, I managed to finish a viola just in time for the competition. I'm quite happy that it was ranked as nr.19, under the circumstances.

The over all quality level of the instruments was, in my opinion, the best that I've seen so far in a violin making competition. I also like the trend towards a thinner and more delicate varnish, and more personality of expression - still with respect towards the old violin making traditions. It's obvious that luthiers across the globe have better access to information about the old Cremonese instruments than they've had before. I believe, like many collegues and musicians, that the level of violin making has never been as high as today.

My viola is in the center of the picture above.

There is of course the dilemma with competitions of this kind, just like with competitions for violinists. It's a matter of taste, and the time is limited for the evaluation of each instrument / musician. And you don't want to end up with all instruments / musicians sounding the same. I know that the issue of standardization and uniformity is a subject of discussion among musicians too. Luckily there are young, talented violinists out there with their own unique style, and I hope they get the credit and encouragement they deserve. There should be a place for both quality and diversity among both luthiers and musicians.

I had a great time at the opening of the exhibition. I made new friends, and I got a chance to talk to Peter Beare and Etienne Vatelot, both of whom expressed appreciation for my viola. Looking forward to more competitions / exhibitions next year, for instance the Triennale in Cremona.
Awards Concours Etienne Vatelot
Jury Concours Etienne Vatelot

Domaine Magellan, AOC Coteaux du Languedoc (Pezenas) 2009.
Tonight we had a potato gratin with mushrooms and garlic, and the perfect wine to go with it - the Domaine Magellan Coteaux du Languedoc 2009. A deep purple wine with typical Languedoc features in abundance.

The winery is in Magalas, 10 km north of Béziers. The Syrah and Grenache grapes that went into this wine were manually harvested and no commercial yeast was added during the vinification. The wine was then aged in 3 to 5 year old barrels for 9 months.
The aroma is warm and full of blackberry, blueberry, vanilla, chocolate and licorice notes with a hint of herbal spices.
On the palate there's a warm and energetic feeling, very fruity and with quite a lot of mouth watering acidity and fine tannins. Full, balanced, fresh fruit but with some maturity too. A model of harmony! I'll have another sip!!
Magellan web site.

The magic of sound and the magic of taste.

When you hear a really good violin played by a really excellent violinist, it's magic. It's hard to believe that the sound comes out of a small wooden box. The musician has practised for years and years to be able to turn the friction between the bow and the strings into a convincing musical expression. And the perfection of the violin is the work of many luthiers through the centuries. If you haven't experienced the magic of violin sound yet, go to a chamber music concert, like a solo violin recital, violin with piano or guitar accompaniment, or a string trio or quartet. Have a cup of coffee before the concert, get a seat in one of the front rows. and focus on the music. Exclude all other thoughts. Then tell me about your experience.

Likewise, a wine that has that almost unreal explosion of nuances of taste, hasn't come about by coincidence. Years and years of tending the vines, and developing the vinification and ageing process, can, if done on the right terroir and by the right people, turn a beverage made from grapes into something fantastic. If you haven't tasted a sublime wine yet, put a few extra dollars or euros into buying a wine that has got some good reviews, and seem to have the characteristics that you usually enjoy. If it's a red wine, open the bottle a couple of hours in advance, make sure it has the right temperature and that you have a good wine glass. Then enjoy the wine on its own or with the right food or snack to go with it. Focus on the aroma and taste of the wine, without distracting conversation. Then you might understand what the fuzz is about, if you were lucky with your choice of wine.

The violin:
Ulf Kloo 2009, nr.62, made from Bosnian spruce and maple. The sound has a velvety character with hints of leather and dark chocolate but with enough spice to catch an audience in a large hall. Good balance between openness and focus. The varnish is antiqued.
The wine:
See label. Corbières Boutenac is an appelation in the Languedoc-Roussillon. The wine is made from Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah grapes, and has an intense aroma and taste of blackberry, dark chocolate, licorice, black pepper, herbs and leather. Sufficient acidity and ample but rounded tannins. Long pleasant aftertaste. The colour is a deep ruby red.
Château La Voulte Gasparets

The weather is humid and not as warm any more. Living in Languedoc you benefit from more than 300 days of sunshine per year, but now it's been grey most of the time for a couple of weeks. Have to walk the dogs anyway, and sometimes the sun shines through the clouds and makes the vineyards look like they're on fire.

It feels like the right time to have a salmon filet with grilled potatoes for dinner. Herbes de Provence and sea salt from Camargue sprinkled over the potatoes of course. But why wait for dinner to try the wine to go with it? A glass of Delphine de Saint André 2008 from Domaine les Filles de Septembre.is the right remedy for the autumn blues.

This powerful wine is made from 70% syrah grapes, and 30% carignan from their half-century old carignan vines. A smart blend - the syrah providing spicyness and structure, and the carignan delivering it's lush, fruity taste, which is more rowdy and earthy than grenache,  the more common companion to syrah.

The wine has an incredibly full, lush, yummy taste, and a dense aroma on the nose. It has matured a year in oak barrels, but the oak is really well integrated. That's good, because I'm not a huge fan of apparent oak flavour in red wines.

If I would draw a parallell to the world of violins, this wine reminds me of a Lorenzo Storioni violin that belonged to a client I had many years ago. Even under the ear it had a velvety sound like an old leather armchair impregnated with tobacco and brandy. A character that I try to put a hint of into the violins and violas I make.
Mmm, nice scents coming from the oven...I'll write some more about this stuff another day...

Oh, and don't get fooled by the Servian emblem on the glass. The wine is produced by the nice Géraud family in the neighboring village Abeilhan, at least 2 km away (about a mile).
Les Filles de Septembre

So you're going to make a violin. The model you choose, the size, outline and arching of top and back, will pretty much determine the sound character of the finished instrument.

Once you have finished the arching, you know quite well what kind of sound the violin will have.

The length and shape of the f-holes will also influence the sound a bit.

But when it comes to the thickness of the top and back, bassbar and so on, you don't really influence the character of the sound, but the response, playability and sound volume. That is, the way the violin performs, and that is what determines if it's going to be a professional instrument or a mediocre one.
More on this subject another day. And more on what influences the character and quality of wines of course.

You can never really start from scratch, neither with wine nor with violins. There are centuries of traditions and knowledge accumulated that you have to draw upon, to reach a really high level in the finished product. But if we start with the raw material, it still has been growing for years before you can harvest - the vines will have grown for 4 or 5 years before you get a decent harvest...

 and the wood for violins may have grown for 150 years or more before the trees are felled.

The best wines and the best violins come from carefully selected raw material, Hand split spruce, gently dried for years...hand picked grapes, carefully transported to the winery and immediately chucked into the fermentation tank.
Noble raw material can be turned into something divine, by people who put a lot of passion, knowledge and care into their work.  Sweat and swearwords too, to be honest. But I think both luthiers and winemakers are often really dedicated to their work, never giving up until they get the result they 're looking for.

While I'm deciding what this blog should look like, I might as well show you what the village Servian looks like. The village is more than 1000 years old, and there was a Roman villa on the site around 2000 years ago. The Greeks and the Romans were the ones who brought the winegrowing and winemaking tradition to this area. You see the vines in the foreground, and the mountains in the background. To me, this is as close as you get to Paradise, and this is where I live and work.

Wine and violins have lots of things in common, and I love both. I have a good vantage point, being a luthier and living in the world's largest wine district: Languedoc, in the South of France. That's why I'll write some stuff about wine and violins in this blog from now on.