The fervent cross-pollination of culture continues to bear fruit, with new subgenres and micro-niches popping up every day. Every time you see a collision between two seemingly disparate worlds and ask yourself, “There’s an audience for that?”—the answer is a resounding, “Yep!” 

Here, we have Blood of Gods, a biannual zine based in Walla Walla that explores the intersection of wine enthusiasm and heavy metal, which is having its fifth annual live Merrymaking event July 17 through 18. 

On first blush, it feels dissonant, like if Cigar Aficionado had a section devoted to electronic dance music (although, frankly, I have no idea what goes on in Cigar Aficionado, so that could already be the case). As Blood of Gods and Merrymaking founder Stacy Buchanan explains, though, the people who find themselves drawn to wine and heavy metal have more in common than you might think.

Locally sourced Blood of Gods, aged lightly on the vine.

Courtesy of Rev. Adam McKinney

“Heavy metal is full of brutal, die-hard, passionate individuals, who are fanatic about it,” says Buchanan. “And, what I came to learn about the wine industry is that same passion is there, and it’s just done through a different lens. If you look at these groups, they both have encyclopedic tendencies, they are collectors, they’re deeply passionate, and they love to proselytize their appreciation for this craft.

“And ‘craft’ is an absolutely key word,” Buchanan continues. “If you hear either group talk about their respective craft, whether it’s heavy metal and they’re talking about performance and production, it’s the same thing with wine. They almost use the same vocabulary: layered, deep, dense, heavy, bright, sparkling, whatever.”

When Buchanan grew up in Walla Walla, he knew it as a remote “tumbleweed town,” as he calls it. Eventually, he found himself in various aspects of the music business, touring in Ozzfest, working at a record label in Germany, and finally returning to his hometown to find that things had changed.

“Unbeknownst to me, this small, sleepy little town had a powder keg blow of wine production, where a lot of reviews, accolades, and high praise had accumulated into this tipping point,” says Buchanan. “It turned into this land rush and—I kid you not—when I left Walla Walla in ‘99, there were 13 wineries; when I came back home, after burning out on the music industry, about eight years later, there were 113 wineries. I was taken aback, and said, ‘What has happened to my hometown? Is everyone a wino now? Is this cool? Is this good?’”

What Buchanan found was that Walla Walla had begun to flourish in all sorts of ways, thanks to the presence of this new industry—what was once a mid-market town, equidistant to more prominent cities, and thus passed over by most exciting things that would pass through, had become something of a cultural hub.

Blood of Gods got its start in April of 2020, right at the beginning of COVID lockdown. So, while the zine was pretty quickly a success, and Buchanan had plans of eventually doing a live meetup of sorts, by the time it was safe to do so, it made more sense to have a big blowout. And so, in 2022, the first Merrymaking happened.

“There’s a bunch of producers pouring wine, ranking from highly allocated, super-expensive, cult producers that have waiting lists for years, to fun, edgy, newcomers that are doing different things, and all the gray area in the middle,” says Buchanan of the Merrymaking. “It’s very diverse, in terms of the wine that’s poured there, but, just like the magazine, there’s artists. … This year, we’re going for a maximal approach, meaning the most participating wineries and artists we’ve ever had.”

Along with wine-tasting, panels, and artists’ booths, there’s always a concert to tie everything together. This time around, they’re doubling the number of performers, including Merrymaking mainstays Heiress, hailing from Seattle. There will also be a performance from Brutal Babes Burlesque, which adds burlesque to the simmering stew of wine and metal. The whole event is priced to appeal to a younger crowd—as Buchanan says, admission to the Merrymaking costs about as much as a tasting at any one of the wineries being featured.

“The sad thing is, there is not all sunshine and rainbows in heavy metal or wine,” says Buchanan. “There’s some negative aspects to them, like elitism and gatekeeping, and other traits that are a little bit unsavory. So, for me, Blood of Gods and the Merrymaking are about poking holes in this artifice, this facade. Heavy metal fans are not all knuckle-dragging, denim-and-leather, bullet-belts-and-spikes people, and people that are into wine are not all rich white dudes wearing a monocle.”

If you’ve ever sipped cabernet sauvignon to the tones of Cannibal Corpse, you may have found your people.

Blood of Gods’ fifth annual Merrymaking takes place July 17-18 in Walla Walla. Find tickets and more info here: https://linktr.ee/bloodofgods.