PageFiftyNine

At first glance, I thought this wine could be another pairing for The Princess Bride , but then a new idea came to mind. I'm a sucker for classics, so I'm always searching for their grapey counterparts. The Pairing Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Stonefield Cellars Dread Pirate Robert's Bloody Red Wine You know what else I'm a sucker for? Local, family-run wineries. Stonefield has only been around for a decade or so, but I love what they're making! This red is punchy, smooth, and (in the words of Stonefield) "splendiforous." It's perfect for the page-turning tale of Jim Hawkins and his adventures on the high seas. Some classics seem destined for academic joy only, but not this one. It reads like a Clive Cussler novel (ok, perhaps a wordy Clive Cussler novel). You can easily disappear into Stevenson's tale- it's one I imagine reading to my kids someday. Until then, however, I'll disappear with a glass of wine instead...

We were back in the mountains this weekend, this time to celebrate my fiance's 30th birthday. In honor of his entrance into a new decade, I decided to feature his favorite pairing. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and Hendrick's Gin I have three confessions: 1) I have not read War and Peace , so most of the information in this post is provided by Matt; 2) I do not love gin, so most of the information in this post is provided by Matt; and 3) we were in the mountains with eight of our dear friends, so very few pictures exist (cheers to literally having such a good time you forget that you even brought a camera). Also, these confessions will hopefully explain why this post is three days late. War and Peace , according to Matt,   is about "different classes of people dealing with war and love and life." Tolstoy said it's "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle." Wikipedia, the clearest of my sources, says it's a f...

One of the most surprising and delightful outcomes of my PageFiftyNine project has been the support of friends and family, whether it's in the form of listening to my ideas for hours on end, or offering their own. Recently, a good friend of mine snapped a picture of this wine bottle and sent it to me for "inspiration." I fell in love immediately! The Pairing The Original Folk & Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and Once Upon a Vine The Big Bad Red Blend This is not a sunny afternoon pair. This combination is best enjoyed in a deep, plush chair next to a crackling fire, with a snowstorm raging outside. If you don't have those available, though, I suppose a breezy summer night will do, as well. If you haven't read the fairy tales in their original form, you may be in for a shock. There is a lot of death, and mutilation, and spite, and more death. And manipulation. And name-calling. (In "The -Water of Life"...

This pairing was not easy. The halfway point of this journey felt very important and in need of something spectacular. I was stuck in the belief that every idea was not good enough. I actually did not know what pairing I would do until late this morning, after a simple, but satisfying, revelation. When I began this project- a year of weekly book and wine pairings- it was with two goals in mind. Firstly, I wanted to try and build a company with similar intent and needed to create inventory. But, more practically, I also wanted to see if this was something I would stick with. Too often I have ideas and then they trail off after a week or two and join whatever afterlife ideas go to. When I thought about my second goal, it hit me that I will never be able to guess the most popular novels or wine bottles. Things like reading and drinking are personal, so the best I can do is share the books and wine that I love. This week, the 26th pairing, is just that. The Pairing Wuthering Heig...

I used to actively avoid the non-fiction section at the bookstore. I'd cracked open a biography here and there, only to find myself sighing with boredom after four paragraphs. Historical novels promised the action of war or corruption or space exploration, but were actually just bricks of dates and names. But no longer. I've given non-fiction another try with books like Packing for Mars  or the Benjamin Franklin bio by Walter Isaacson and have found a happy place. This feeling continued with this week's featured novel: The Pairing Gentlemen Bootleggers: The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition, and a Small Town in Cahoots by Bryce T. Bauer and Big House Wine Co. Prohibition Red Blend If you're in doubt about non-fiction, or whether or not you'd like to hear about this particular tale, just read the first chapter. It's only six pages, so you can scan it while standing in the aisle of the bookstore (I'm not the only one who does this, right?)...