Swords, sorcery and Sauvignon Blanc: An epic fantasy wine tasting
Last summer David Walter’s Mastercraft Gallery in Brattleboro featured an exhibit of handcrafted violins by Doug Cox, local violin-maker, with a wine tasting to great effect. The wines were paired by Marty Ramsburg of Windham Wines to complement the different violins and violas and their different sounds. Local musicians played while participants sipped and savored.
Says Doug Cox, ‘One of the challenges in my work is talking with players about what they are looking for in a violin or viola and how they experience my instruments. The limits and personal nature of language become very clear in this process. It requires creativity and effort to reach beyond the surface of words available to us. The wildly successful wine tasting events we organized as part of the show built on the excitement of this experiential and linguistic challenge. These events allowed me to understand more deeply the subjective experience of the listener as well as the player.”
Just recently, Windham Wines paired a book reading with a wine tasting… Seems like almost anything goes better with wine these days. By combining a cultural learning experience with a creative twist on a wine tasting can be fun and educational at the same time.
Swords, Sorcery, and Sauvignon Blanc; An Epic Fantasy Wine Tasting
Author Brian Staveley reads his work…
Brian Staveley, who recently completed his first book, wanted something “that was not terrible” for his first book reading. He says he’s been to a lot of readings over the years by strangers and friends, readings by famous authors and hopeful newcomers. Sometimes he hangs on every word and other times he’s ready to leap through the plate glass window of the bookstore to escape. “Pulling the fire alarm can be a real temptation when confronted with an hour of monotonic recitation.”
While writing “The Emperor’s Blades,” Brian recalls he would occasionally get stuck, and when he got stuck, he would take a break and go buy a bottle of wine. After repeating this process two or three hundred times, he became friends with Frank and Marty, the owners of Windham Wines, a wine store in Brattleboro. In the course of their conversations, he discovered that they’re fans of epic fantasy, and the “not terrible” idea was born: why not pair a reading with a wine tasting?
They all loved the notion, but the best way to pursue it wasn’t immediately clear. “The Emperor’s Blades” is the story of three adult children of a murdered emperor – a monk, a politician, and a warrior – who are trying to solve the conspiracy behind their father’s death while staying alive. It has plenty of palace politics, monastic mystery, and military chaos, but it’s not long on wine drinking. With one exception, the characters are too busy staying alive to spend much time savoring the gift of the grape.
Then they hit upon it, they could pair wines with characters from the novel. What wine, for instance, best captures the qualities of an enigmatic, middle-aged monk, a man who doesn’t talk much, but beats his pupils bloody, whose dozens of scars seem at odds with his peaceful life of contemplation inside the monastery? What about a young woman training to become one of the deadliest warriors in the Empire? What sort of wine would evoke both her youth, and the utter ruthlessness that has been trained into her?
As it turns out, Marty was something of a genius at this. She put together nine pairings, with wines ranging from Gruner Veltliner to Nebbiolo D’Alba. Luscious whites, truculent reds, and even a red masquerading as a pink (for a character who is not at all what he seems).
The procedure was simple. Brian would read a short passage, one intended to capture the essence of a character, and then Marty would explain the wine choice. Her range of knowledge is breathtaking, and though she drew on some of the standard wine adjectives, words like bright, approachable, and layered, she pushed past the obvious profile of each wine to reveal hidden flavors and textures.
How well did the wines match their literary counterparts? The interesting thing about a tasting like this, however, is that the success of the pairings almost didn’t matter. The one comparison (out of nine) that Brian found unconvincing offered even more interesting discussion and debate than some of the match-ups that Marty nailed. A friend of Brian’s leaned over at one point and whispered in his ear, “This character really ought to have a red wine,” and then they were off to the races, arguing over the gender, preconceptions, and different grape varietals.
The best part, says Brian, was the juxtaposition of disparate people and fields: Fantasy geeks, wine aficionados, and the odd curious denizen of Brattleboro all brought together for some great wine, delicious food, and the most unusual setting for epic fantasy that he’s ever encountered. The downside, of course, is that every time Brian shows up at a reading now, he’s going to be expecting wine…or to bring it.
Here is a list of the wines chosen.
- Ha Lin: Tegernseerhof, Gruner, T-26: crisp, energetic, attractive, peppery, layered
- Triste: Saumur Blanc– curvaceous wine, round, lush, full, enchanting, graceful
- Adare: Rocher de Bellene, Bourgogne– old vines, lean, angular, taut,
- Ran il Tornja: Badiz, Poulsard– not at all what it seems, round, full, a red wine in a white/rosé guise
- Gwenna: Selvapiana, Chianti Rufina– no-nonsense wine, traditional– unflappable to wine trends, a core of identity; this wine knows what it is– earthy, passionate,
- Pyrre: Montepeloso A– seductive, sexy wine that shows tons of energy, vibrant fruit with a cool intense minerality.
- Valyn: Petalos– perhaps not an obvious choice, except that this wine is clearly young with the potential to develop into something remarkable. It has a core of dark (blue and black) berr fruit, with some licorice and spice. There is already some complexity to this super young (2011) wine– great depth.
- Kaden: Vietti, Nebbiolo d’Alba— these are the young vines of the Vietti Barbaresco vineyards. The wine is pale in color, but deep in flavor, with flavors and aromas ranging from roses to tar, with raspberry and menthol, resin and an undercurrent of something floral. This wine is unrelated to the emptiness of the vaniate, instead emphasizing the intensity and penetration of the training that Kaden and
- Tan: Lesec, Gigondas– a powerfully-built, muscular, brooding wine yet on the palate, agile.
Info about future tastings is at http://www.windhamwines.com
