The Tales of the Brothers Grimm & Once Upon a Vine The Big Bad Red Blend

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" one poor guy gets called a "twerp." Twice.) But many of the tales truly do start with the phrase "Once upon a time," which just immediately gets you in that mood to settle in and hear a story.

At the same time, I recommend you read the Brothers Grimm tales because of the little gems you find along the way. For example, in one tale called  "The Six Servants" there is a prince and he completes some tasks and yada yada and marries a beautiful princess. But at the end of this story is the following: "Now the wedding was truly celebrated, and the person who has told this tale would have liked to have been there, too." What is that? What tone is that... salty? Longing? Distracted? It's as much a mystery as anything.

There's something magical about enjoying a Big Bad wine with the Little Red Riding Hood story (or as the brothers called it, "Little Red Cap")

The Once Upon a Vine red blend is very tasty; there is a definite hint of spice in the first few sips which seems to become smoother over time. For whatever reason, I always assumed blends were lesser wines, somehow, but the deeper I go into wine research, the bigger a fan of blends I become. The winemakers who create them put a lot of time into their ratios, and create complex but easy wines.

I'm so grateful to my friend that she thought of me when she saw this wine! The only thing that could have made creating pairings more fun for me is to create them with my people.

The End

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Let me be clear, if you are looking for a high-quality movie experience, The Brothers Grimm movie will probably not do it for you. But it is documentation that Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, and Lena Headey (Cersei from Game of Thrones) all hung out for awhile, which is pretty cool. And it's got jokes.