There are two things I love in this world: Lady Gaga and wine. Gaga’s Mayhem is at the top of the charts right now, with critics hailing it as her best work since Born This Way. To celebrate, I dug deep and consulted experts to get a track-by-track list of wine pairings for each song in Mayhem. Life is hard enough. Blast some dance music and pour yourself a glass of wine.
A Track by Track Wine List for Lady Gaga’s Mayhem
Disease
Extradimensional Wine Co Yeah! Ancient Groove 2022
Mayhem’s opener sees Gaga grappling with different facets of herself in a high-energy dance track. Hardy Wallace of Extradimensional Wine Co Yeah!’s wines were made to dance to. His eclectic blends take winemaking to a place it’s never gone before, while still honoring its traditions. It’s the true spirit of Mayhem, Gaga honoring her roots and doing what she’s best at while adding new elements. Ancient Groove is a blend of Mourvèdre and Carignane grown in California’s Contra Costa, described by Wallace as “a wine like no other, born from vines that defy time itself.”
Abracadabra
Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache 2023
I asked sommelier Adam Knoerzer to pick something out for one of Mayhem’s lead singles, “Abracadabra.” One of the lines in the song references a “lady in red,” and Knoerzer delivered on that image. He heard Australia’s scorching hot Barossa Valley in the song. “This lady in red is silky, spicy (lots of black pepper notes), juicy (think red cherry and raspberry), and packs a punch at 14% ABV to get you moving to the music in no time,” Knoerzer said. “The winemaker, Louisa Rose, is one of Australia’s best.”
Garden of Eden
Catena Zapata Argentino Malbec 2021
This song needed bombastic, big, and sexy: Malbec delivers that. Laura Catena is a leading voice in the Argentinian wine industry and Catena Zapata’s bottles have big personalities, like Catena herself, a physician and social media personality who advocates for more education about moderate drinking. Garden of Eden is flirty and fast-paced but sonically strong enough to stand up to anything, just as Malbec can stand up to a steak.
Perfect Celebrity
Jacopo Biondi-Santi Sassoalloro 2019
This wine from the Biondi Santi family represents the struggle for balance with celebrity, as the legendary Italian winemaking family sold the shares of their family name and struck out on their own to innovate their viticulture. The family now focuses on their estate, while a French investor group owns the Biondi-Santi label, making it a perfect pairing for “Perfect Celebrity,” a song about trying to understand yourself when you’re in the spotlight. Though Gaga describes “Perfect Celebrity” as “angry,” it’s also a hugely confident song, as bold as the Biondi-Santi Sassoalloro wine in a glass.
Vanish Into You
Rosha “Timothee” Rkatsiteli-Mtsvane 2022
“Vanish Into You” is a ballad about longing for a summer romance, maybe a more mature, emotionally complex version of Gaga’s “Summerboy” off of The Fame. I felt it needed a warm-weather wine that tapped into yearning and nostalgia, so a Georgian wine using ancient techniques felt like the right fit. This Rkatsiteli-Mtsvane is perfect for reminiscing about a summer romance, wondering what could have been while indulging in what is.
Killah
Saint Cosme Syrah Côte du Rhône 2023
Something about this song just said Rhône Valley Syrah to me. It’s a swaggering club beat song, and Syrah feels like the wall-shaking electronic music of wine, at times overpowering and not to be messed with, but with a little bit more character than your average uber-tannic Cabernet Sauvignon.
Zombieboy
Nicolas Feuilatte Réserve Exclusive Rosé 2023
This song has the energy of a glass of bubbly with the sensuality of a rosé—so the perfect combination is a bubbly rosé. I first drank this in the Versace Mansion bar in Miami, which somehow feels appropriate for a Lady Gaga song. Zombieboy is an unabashedly fun dance track, with pulsating synths as lively as a glass of bubbly.
LoveDrug
Etna Rosso Contrada Sciaranuova S Passopisciaro 2022
This is the only song in this album that actually says the word wine in it: “I taste the last words that you said to me like wine.” So, it needs romantic, ultra-sexy, a wine that tastes like the last words someone you adore said to you before parting. It’s a high bar to live up to. Sommelier Alexander Riola of Fish Nor Fowl named Etna Rosso as the “sexiest wine,” where the aroma is part of what gives it its romance. Notes of dusty hay mingle with sandalwood to create a deeply sensual feeling on the bed of minerality from the volcanic soil.
How Bad Do U Want Me
Garage Wine Co País 215 BC Secano Interior 2021
Derek Mossman’s Chilean wines are highly acidic but still deeply enjoyable to drink, mirroring this song’s speaker’s “bad” attitude that her lover just can’t resist anyways. While a sweet wine might go down easier for some, acidity is what gives wine its refreshing characteristic and part of what separates it from being juice. You want a little bit of bad.
Don’t Call Tonight
Agricolavinica Tintilia del Molise 2018
“Don’t Call Tonight” is one of the most endlessly replay-able songs on Mayhem, in my opinion. It’s fitting because it represents the cycle of calling that person you shouldn’t but never totally learning. Agricolavinica’s Tintilia del Molise is an amazing wine, and like a perfect pop song, you feel like you never want it to be over while you’re experiencing it. I would listen to this song a hundred times, and drink a hundred glasses of this Tintilia (don’t worry, not in one sitting).
Shadow of a Man
Marinov Babic 2018
The intensity of this song’s fast-paced chorus is surprising, so a fitting wine for it is a wine that sneaks up on you with its intensity. This Croatian grape, Babic, is earthy and smooth, but as you let it linger on your palate, it’s an extremely complex drinking experience. It also plays with our expectations about wine, as it has an earthiness that in the States we associate with biodynamic winemaking, but the Marinovs use entirely traditional techniques. The vanilla aroma you get after taking a long sniff into the glass is heavenly.
The Beast
Bussoletti Ciliegiolo di Narni “Asla” 2023
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Gaga explained this song as “It’s like somebody that is saying to the beast ‘I know you’re a monster, but I can handle you, and I love you.’” This Cilegiolo di Narni has fantastical characteristics, as winemaker Leonardo Bussoletti was inspired by the similarities between the name Narni and the Chronicles of Narnia. This wine can cut through even the richest of foods, too, just as Gaga’s vocals cut through even the most powerful instrumentation.
Blade of Grass
D’Orsaria Pinot Grigio 2022
When Lady Gaga’s fiancé Michael Polansky asked her how she wanted him to propose to her, she said “Just take a blade of grass and wrap it around my finger.” This romantic moment inspired this song, and my wine pick for it is a grassy, rustic wine that still has romance and class to it. This is a significant wine to me, too, because it was one of the first wines I tasted in a WSET 1 class. So, it represents a special moment to me, as well, as “Blade of Grass” does.
Die with a Smile
Domaine Carneros Le Rêve Blanc de Blancs 2017
The final track on Mayhem needed a method traditionelle bubbly—no ifs, ands, or buts about it. “Die with a Smile” is an R&B-esque track, smooth and earnest after the rollercoaster that is the rest of Mayhem. Domaine Carneros Le Rêve is romantic and sweeping, the perfect toast to love and life.
Story by Emma Riva
Photo by Mark Seliger, courtesy of Lady Gaga x Dom Pérignon
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