Wine and book pairings

BOOK: Haweswater by Sarah Hall

A classic from one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary writers (and Cumbrian native), Hall’s Haweswater tells the story of a 1930s Lake District valley village about to be flooded to make a vast new reservoir. Luminous prose with an intuitive sense of place – it’s equal parts melancholic and beautiful. Full of character and depth, this story is sure to linger with you long after you’ve stopped reading.

WINE: 2019 Cline Cellars ‘Ancient Vines’ Zinfandel, California (USA) 

Full of bright fruit balanced with rich chocolate and coffee notes. Aged in old American oak, this full-bodied wine is steeped in character. It has pronounced flavours that linger to give a lusciously long finish.

Pairing notes: rich, characterful, lingering

BOOK: Sorrow & Bliss by Meg Mason

A bestseller and prize-winner, Sorrow & Bliss explores the challenges of long-term mental illness through the eyes of a woman who’s struggled to find contentment in her adult life. But don’t let such heavy subject matter put you off. Full of wit and verve, this novel is relatable, easy to read and quick to sweep you up – a finished-before-you-know-it page turner that is both funny and heart-wrenching. In the hands of its acerbic narrator, even the darkest material is handled lightly and is all the more powerful for it. Also worth noting it has a punchy twist.

WINE: 2021 Cramele Recas Solara Orange (Romania)

This orange wine is made from a blend of indigenous local varieties as well as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The blend of the grapes gives easy-drinking fruity notes of peach and orange, while time on the skins provides a bitter, tannic complexity. 

Pairing notes: easy to drink, bitter and sweet, with a bit of a twist

BOOK: Cain’s Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers

Deceptive, complex and beguiling, Cain’s Jawbone is supposedly the world’s most difficult murder mystery to solve, foxing readers since 1934. Originally published under the pseudonym Torquemada, Powys Mathers hid the solution to his puzzle in a 100-page prose narrative, which he arranged in completely the wrong order. Literary sleuths have been known to tear the novel up in an attempt to connect words and phrases pages apart, covering their walls in notes in pursuit of the solution. It’s not for the fainthearted but for those that persevere, the rewards are well worth it.

WINE: 2021 The Grower GSM, Schwarz Wine Co, Barossa Valley (Australia)

Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro are wildly fermented in open top vats. The result; layers of flavour and complexity, consisting of liquorice, sour cherry, violet, cocoa with a savoury smokiness. 

Pairing notes: complex, multi-layered, smoky, dark

BOOK: The Offing by Benjamin Myers

A touching story of the unlikely friendship that forms when a teenage miner meets a worldly, eccentric, older woman one blazing post-war summer in the rural North. Warm, affirming and quietly gripping, The Offing explores the journey from adolescence to adulthood and the friendships we make that can so radically set or change the course we’re on. Food, poetry, sea swimming – this novel hums with the joy of the season and the beauty of English gardens and countryside. 

WINE: 2021 Chapel Down Still Bacchus, Kent (England)

Bacchus is England’s answer to Sauvignon Blanc, and no one has quite mastered it as well as Chapel Down. Like walking through an English garden in the summer, expect elderflower, jasmine and chamomile with lemon zippiness.

Pairing notes: warm, refreshing, floral, quintessentially English

BOOK: Silverview by John Le Carre

The last complete masterwork by spy novelist John Le Carre, Silverview offers up a heady, skilfully penned world crafted in crisp prose and casting dark shadows. Tense, pacy and compelling, it’s a novel that shows its writer’s experience, drawing you in, toying with your preconceptions and keeping you on tenterhooks until the very end. 

WINE: 2021 Assyrtiko Viola, Lyrarakis, Crete (Greece)

From grapes grown in the mountains, this wine is precise, fresh, citrusy and mineral while giving complex aromas of melon and a hint of spice.

Pairing notes: heady, crisp, precise, unexpected

BOOK: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Williams’ novel tells the story of a young woman’s search for meaning in words omitted from the dictionary. At a time of women’s suffrage and with the Great War looming, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium where her father is collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. But it’s the words that fall through the cracks – particularly those pertaining to women – not the words that the dictionary men put in, which take her on her lifechanging journey. Delightful, challenging and memorable in equal measure.

WINE: 2018 Crossbarn Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir, California (USA)

Light pinot noir grapes see a little oak maturation to create a grown-up, full-bodied pinot that is simply delicious. A wine so good it’s hard to forget.

Pairing notes: delightful, nuanced, memorable