The Hunger Games & Torre de Rejas Tempranillo
The classics, or at least these new age classics, are the hardest to pair. The pressure to find the perfect wine is somewhat crippling, but I have learned now to just go with my gut (literally) and forget the rest. I'm so excited to share this beloved series!
The Pairing
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Torre de Rejas Tempranillo
I hope everyone's Hunger Games introduction was as brow-raising as mine. It was recommended to me by a friend, who described it as "a future world where the people in charge make the other people's children fight to the death." I was not very interested in reading it until my friend added, "It sounds really morbid, but it's so good." I gave it a shot, and lost sleep as I hungrily (yep, I did) turned each page. If you've only seen the movies, then I don't even know you- read the books.
These books are dark dark dark with glimpses of softness, earthiness, and love. Hundreds of pages of tortured hope. I searched wine catalogs for "tortured hope" taste profiles, but had no luck. It wasn't until I looked for a dark, sweet, earthy wine that I struck gold with this Tempranillo. Tempranillo is a "dark grape with a thick skin" that takes a more neutral stance than other red wines. I wanted the wine for The Hunger Games to complement the heart-racing journey that Katniss (whose personality is also dark and thick-skinned) is forced into, rather than overshadowing or crowding it.
Crucially, though, I needed the wine to have a strong berry element (berries play a rather prominent role in the first book, especially). This Torre de Rejas Tempranillo starts and finishes with berry flavors.
As best as the internet can tell me, Torre de Rejas means "tower bars." (Bars here meaning the bars of a cell and not the bars of drinking sites.) While not necessarily directly related to anything in The Hunger Games, I thought the image was still fitting. "Tower bars" doesn't really call to mind soft or light images, but rather stony, cold, and ominous meanings.
I'm writing this post on Thanksgiving Day. We have some butternut squash soup cooking, and will head out soon to my fiance's parents' home. I wanted to do a pairing today, even though it's not Saturday, because I am feeling grateful for the joy this project has brought me. And- whether it's wrong or it's right- the first books that came to mind on this most gluttonous of holidays was... The Hunger Games.
The Pairing
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Torre de Rejas Tempranillo
I hope everyone's Hunger Games introduction was as brow-raising as mine. It was recommended to me by a friend, who described it as "a future world where the people in charge make the other people's children fight to the death." I was not very interested in reading it until my friend added, "It sounds really morbid, but it's so good." I gave it a shot, and lost sleep as I hungrily (yep, I did) turned each page. If you've only seen the movies, then I don't even know you- read the books.
These books are dark dark dark with glimpses of softness, earthiness, and love. Hundreds of pages of tortured hope. I searched wine catalogs for "tortured hope" taste profiles, but had no luck. It wasn't until I looked for a dark, sweet, earthy wine that I struck gold with this Tempranillo. Tempranillo is a "dark grape with a thick skin" that takes a more neutral stance than other red wines. I wanted the wine for The Hunger Games to complement the heart-racing journey that Katniss (whose personality is also dark and thick-skinned) is forced into, rather than overshadowing or crowding it.
Crucially, though, I needed the wine to have a strong berry element (berries play a rather prominent role in the first book, especially). This Torre de Rejas Tempranillo starts and finishes with berry flavors.
As best as the internet can tell me, Torre de Rejas means "tower bars." (Bars here meaning the bars of a cell and not the bars of drinking sites.) While not necessarily directly related to anything in The Hunger Games, I thought the image was still fitting. "Tower bars" doesn't really call to mind soft or light images, but rather stony, cold, and ominous meanings.
I'm writing this post on Thanksgiving Day. We have some butternut squash soup cooking, and will head out soon to my fiance's parents' home. I wanted to do a pairing today, even though it's not Saturday, because I am feeling grateful for the joy this project has brought me. And- whether it's wrong or it's right- the first books that came to mind on this most gluttonous of holidays was... The Hunger Games.
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