Like a lot of women I know, I belong to a book club. Our families chide our circle of five avid readers for liking our wine as much as our books. Truth is, we appreciate both. Why not?
Ours is a relaxed and loosely structured group. At our monthly get-togethers (we try to meet monthly), we don’t adhere to strict rules or endeavor to wade through a long list of published book club questions. Typically, we commandeer the sun room at our club founder’s home, spread out the appetizers and small plates, and let the wine and conversation flow.
Books, we critique. Wine, not so much – unless someone brings a new label she just discovered or a bottle she picked up at a winery while traveling. Wouldn’t it be fun, though, to pair books and wine? Or simply to imagine the wine to complement a book club choice?
I’d start, as if pairing wine and food, with body. Light reading with light wine. Serious and meaty subjects with complex and tannic wine. Biting satire? You guessed it: high-acid wine. Sweet and sentimental stories with dessert wine.
I’ve decided to post periodically about these imaginary wine and book pairings. Maybe the posts will inspire readers to “taste” both the book and the wine, separately or together. Let’s start with next month’s selection for our book club, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, a bestseller by Daniel James Brown.
I loved this true story of the farm boys and sons of loggers who rowed as one for the University of Washington eight-oar crew team to win gold at Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics. The Boys in the Boat centers on one of the rowers, Joe Rantz, who was abandoned as a child during the Great Depression, but managed to persevere and ultimately prevail through hard work and sacrifice. The book reminded me of other stirring and uplifting stories, such as Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit: An American Legend and her Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption as well as the 1981 Academy Award-winning movie classic Chariots of Fire.
Thematically, The Boys in the Boat is as American a story as they come. The book also showers attention on the Pacific Northwest. Naturally, it deserves a Washington State wine.
Washington is the second largest wine-producing state after California and a premier New World region for Riesling. That’s not a bad choice for The Boys in the Boat, but I recommend another Washington State varietal that’s getting a lot of attention: Syrah.
The University of Washington crew team surprised its California and East Coast rivals by winning every race en route to the Olympics. Joe Rantz and his teammates had the physical and moral strength to power themselves to victory. That’s why I recommend a powerful, full-bodied Washington State Syrah rich in raisin, prune and wild dark fruit aromas of boysenberry and blackberry. Syrah is known for showing black pepper on the nose, but you might detect cinnamon, clove and allspice in a good Washington State Syrah, too. Try it with spicy cocktail meatballs or be daring and serve it with Pacific Northwest smoked salmon. Let this rising star surprise you!
Have a wine and book pairing you’d like to share? Please leave me a message!