Authors driven by wine share their favorite reads for a night in with a glass in hand.
Stephanie Danler Stray (Penguin Random House, 2020); owner, Desierto Alto wine shop: “I recently read Mrs. Bridge, a lesser known classic by Evan S. Connell. It follows the seemingly mundane life of Mrs. Bridge, a housewife in Kansas City during the 1930s, and it’s riveting… I would pair this with white wine, probably a chilled Chenin Blanc from the Loire, like Nicolas Reau’s Attention Chenin Mechant.”
Anne Enright Actress (W.W. Norton, 2020): “Embers is a beautiful, reflective book from the great Hungarian novelist Sandor Marai, in which two old men sit up late, talking about their lives and about their love for the same woman. What other wine could they drink, after a fine dinner in an empty, grand house, but a Tokaji Aszú?”
Kristen Harnisch The California Wife (She Writes Press, 2016): “[My second book], The California Wife tells the tale of a Franco-American family’s ambition to establish a world-renowned winemaking dynasty and pairs best with Donelan Family Wines’ Nancie Chardonnay or Charles Krug’s Cabernet Sauvignon… intense but smooth with a long, memorable finish.”
Amira Makansi Literary Libations (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018): “Marlon James’ darkly ravenous African fantasy novel Black Leopard, Red Wolf…is best matched by a dark and untamed wine, so opt for a bottle of Vieux Telegraphe from the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region of France. [It will] ramble from fruit to earth to mineral flavors just as the story moves.”
Sandra Tsing Loh The Madwoman and the Roomba (W.W. Norton, 2020): “Apothic Red…pairs well with a fast, naughty weekend (re-)read of Ira Levin’s classic [Rosemary’s Baby], its potent taste off-setting the descriptions of Rosemary’s strange chalky tannic-root-flavored “vitamin drinks.’ ”
Last Updated: May 8, 2023
