One Man's Meat & Clean Slate Riesling
As we roll (or, in my case, tumble) towards the end of the year, I find myself picking up new discoveries for some of the last pairings. There are heaps of books that I want to pair, but to pick one for this project feels a little more personal.
The Pairing
One Man's Meat by E.B. White and Clean Slate Riesling
My brother passed along this book after he read it- it's actually a compilation of magazine articles that E.B. White wrote from 1938-1943 detailing his new life on a farm in New England.
Clean Slate is a nod to this drastic move that E.B. White makes. He sells half his belongings, quits his job, and picks his whole family out of New York City just to plop them onto some land that none of them know how to work. They all start anew and, in the changes that E.B. White notes in their sleepy town, the reader realizes that starting anew looks the same no matter the time or place.
The Riesling may be going a step too far, but when you're reading a book about the entrance and impact of World War Two, it's impossible to avoid the German influence. E.B. spends quite a few chapters/articles talking about the war... among notes about having to oil his pocket knives and sort his nails, he will also note that "War comes to each of us in his own fashion."
On the other hand, Rieslings like this one (sweet and lingering) always make me want to stop and savor the taste. E.B. White's writing has the same effect. He is funny and witty and bitingly critical. I don't know if it's fair to say he's ahead of his time, but I think that so many of his sentences or paragraphs (and at times, even whole chapters) could be reprinted today and it would still be completely relevant.
The summary on the back of One Man's Meat helped summarize this pairing. Why did it call for this particular sweet and lingering white wine? Something with an easy straw color?
"Perhaps it's a primer: a countryman's lessons that convey, at each reading, a sense of early morning clarity and possibility." Aka, each day is a clean slate.
The Pairing
One Man's Meat by E.B. White and Clean Slate Riesling
My brother passed along this book after he read it- it's actually a compilation of magazine articles that E.B. White wrote from 1938-1943 detailing his new life on a farm in New England.
Clean Slate is a nod to this drastic move that E.B. White makes. He sells half his belongings, quits his job, and picks his whole family out of New York City just to plop them onto some land that none of them know how to work. They all start anew and, in the changes that E.B. White notes in their sleepy town, the reader realizes that starting anew looks the same no matter the time or place.
The Riesling may be going a step too far, but when you're reading a book about the entrance and impact of World War Two, it's impossible to avoid the German influence. E.B. spends quite a few chapters/articles talking about the war... among notes about having to oil his pocket knives and sort his nails, he will also note that "War comes to each of us in his own fashion."
On the other hand, Rieslings like this one (sweet and lingering) always make me want to stop and savor the taste. E.B. White's writing has the same effect. He is funny and witty and bitingly critical. I don't know if it's fair to say he's ahead of his time, but I think that so many of his sentences or paragraphs (and at times, even whole chapters) could be reprinted today and it would still be completely relevant.
The summary on the back of One Man's Meat helped summarize this pairing. Why did it call for this particular sweet and lingering white wine? Something with an easy straw color?
"Perhaps it's a primer: a countryman's lessons that convey, at each reading, a sense of early morning clarity and possibility." Aka, each day is a clean slate.
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