“We should rate books the way we rate wines,” an author friend of mine told me. She’s absolutely right. Books have flavors, after all, and essences. Some make you breathe deeply as you imagine a stroll through a rose garden in chapter 3, while others stink like skunk grass from page 1.
Imagine you’re at your book club, a glass of malbec in one hand and a copy of this month’s book in the other.
“I found it earthy and robust, with just the right amount of leather and spice in the finish,” says Rhonda.
“The book or the wine?” you ask.
“Both,” says Rhonda.
“I’m picking up on that, too,” you say, studying the muscle-bound, chaps-wearing hunk on the cover. Hmm, you think. Maybe I AM a fan of cowboy romance. And malbecs.
The next month, Rhonda starts off the meeting (because Rhonda always hogs the book club discussions) saying, “I thought this was going to be too sweet for my taste, but the light foundation was definitely improved with those tropical essences. I could have done without the heavy grass influence, though.”
“The wine or the book?” you ask again, peering at the pale greenish-gold tint of the sauvignon blanc in your glass, savoring the faint grassy aftertaste.
“The book,” she says. “That safe-cracking boyfriend smoked way too much pot. But this wine is fabulous.”
And to think you were once worried about pairing wines with food. Soon you find that pairing wines with books is even more of a challenge—and yet, more fulfilling, too. Then, in a bold move, you volunteer to start choosing the wine to serve each month at book club (much to Rhonda’s astonishment).
This multi-generational family drama filled with secret diaries, unsolved murders, and hinted-at abuse? You’re going to need a deeply layered cabernet sauvignon with dark notes of cedarwood, red jam, and plenty of bitter tannins.
That fantasy story of fairy-folk, handsome knights, and kind witches? Perhaps mead, that honey-based wine that’s been served since medieval days, would suit with its sweet notes of summer flowers.
A hard-boiled noir detective story? Well, in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, Sam Spade fills a wine glass with Bacardi rum. So, you know, there are other options besides wine. But if we’re sticking with wine, perhaps a syrah, with its smoky elements and blood-red color would fit the profile.
A rom-com set in Italy? You can’t go wrong with a rosé prosecco—slightly sweet, decidedly pink, with a delicious tickle-your-nose texture.
And just like that, you’ve become the hero in your book club’s quest for the perfect wine+book pairings.
Congratulations. Now, pour me a glass of whatever goes well with this bleak, post-apocalyptic, zombie thriller. And please don’t tell me it’s Mogen David Blackberry strained through an old sock, although that does sound appropriately dismal. Even Rhonda won’t drink that.
[Photo by Kelly Visel on Unsplash]
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