Best Read Wine
This is actually kind of a good idea for a wine tasting:
The theme for the night was “Wine and Literature,” so everyone brought a wine that went with a particular book passage. There were a lot of good wines, and it was fun to listen to everyone read their particular book passages…The first drink we had was a sherry, which went with The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, part of a series of “trashy adventure novels” featuring FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast. I’ve actually never had sherry before, but it was pretty good — sort of nutty and honey tasting.
I think if I were invited to something like that, I’d bring Champagne and read a passage describing one of Gatsby’s great parties. What would you bring?
November 22nd, 2010 at 1:27 PM
A couple of years ago I did a post on calf’s liver served with a nice Amarone, a nod to the original line from the book The Silence of the Lambs. Some other things that I’ve tried purely because of literature:
- Pastis and Provençal rosé from any of the Peter Mayle books
- Vesper Lynd cocktail from the 007 books
- Amontillado via E.A. Poe
- Claret from the Rumpole mysteries
November 22nd, 2010 at 1:46 PM
I did a tasting at Christmas last year that was based on It’s a Wonderful Life. I had a wine that expressed each of the main characters: a sweet Prosecco for Mary; a nice, solid Cotes du Rhone for George; a big, tannic Cahors for Mr. Potter.
It was a nice idea and would have worked except that sitting at the table were the only 12 people in the world who hadn’t ever seen the movie. Seriously: what group of 12 Americans could you possibly put together where not a single one had any idea what It’s a Wonderful Life was all about?
November 22nd, 2010 at 1:58 PM
Bubbly.. and the scene from The Sun Also Rises at toward the beginning…poor Jake
Damn, we’re literate, aren’t we, Tom?
November 22nd, 2010 at 2:45 PM
I think our affinity for Fitzgerald and Hemingway demonstrates that we passed high school English.
I was going to go with For Whom the Bell Tolls and a Rioja Gran Reserva, but I had an online conversation over the weekend in which I advocated Hemingway, and that’s not something you want to do too often. So I backed off and opted for his little friend Scott.
I also considered cheap port and the opening of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
“They threw me off the hay truck about noon. I had swung on the night before, down at the border, and as soon as I got up there under the canvas, I went to sleep. I needed plenty of that, after three weeks in Tijuana, and I was still getting it when they pulled off to one side to let the engine cool. Then they saw a foot sticking out and threw me off. I tried some comical stuff, but all I got was a dead pan, so that gag was out. They gave me a cigarette, though, and I hiked down the road to find something to eat.”
November 22nd, 2010 at 3:32 PM
And let us give a brief nod to all the assorted beverages and hangover cures featured in the works of P.G. Wodehouse.
November 23rd, 2010 at 5:14 PM
I once did a dinner with foods mentioned in Patrick O’Brian novels in which he often mentioned Madeira. Each of the five courses was paired with a Madeira, from Rainwater to Malmsey.
November 27th, 2010 at 4:49 PM
I would tip my hat to the paper-back version of the Steve Martin vehicle “The Jerk” and pour “something fresh”. This year! No more old stuff!