'High-Tech' Piano Provides Entertainment at Vynecrest

Vynecrest Winery in Breinigsville has gone high-tech to provide its wine bar customers with a unique entertainment experience.

The winery tested, and eventually purchased, an iPad-driven grand piano from Jacobs Music Company of the Lehigh Valley.

The piano will play acoustic tunes to entertain wine drinkers in the Vynecrest wine bar every weekend from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

"Even though our winery is housed in a 19th century Swiss Bank Barn, our approach to the winery business is to be as modern and tech-savvy as possible," said Sam Landis,  partner at Vynecrest.

"I believe our customers appreciate that we use iPads at our points-of-purchase to complete sales. So the idea of an iPad performing music was an interesting concept that fit with our approach, but we had to see how it meshed with our wine bar. We discovered that having live, acoustic music with the artistry of some of the world's great piano players was a great combination. Since we prefer wine and conversation to be the entertainment rather than the music, this seemed to be a way to have the best of both worlds."

Landis said the winery's partners had some initial concerns about the player piano.

"We were a little worried it would sound old-fashioned, like a 19th century saloon with a piano roll. The iPad interface and the playlist of contemporary artists like Billy Joel support the cool vibe and the delicate mix of the old and the modern that our guests appreciate," Landis said. "We could not be happier about the feedback we have received from our customers and I believe it has provided an additional way to elevate ourselves from what a consumer would expect from a normal winery experience."

Mark Love, senior vice president of development for Jacobs Music Company, shared his enthusiasm for this partnership.

"We really were thrilled to partner with Vynecrest to let them experience how this piano investment achieves their entertainment goals in an elegant way," Love said.