6 Great Works of Fiction for Wine-Lovers
“Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.” – John Keats
Such were the five things ol’ Keatsy reckoned were crucial to having a good time. We here at SmoothRed may not be able to deliver on the latter three of them (our fruit delivery service has yet to get off the ground, the office band is currently on a permanent hiatus after an unfortunate fracas at Glastonbury and we’re still working out the kinks on our Weather Machine™) but we’re damned good at the wine part of it. And now, thanks to the following list, we’ve got the perfect book recommendations to match. Two out of five isn’t bad, right?
The Odyssey – Homer
This epic poem, attributed to a little-known up-and-comer named Homer, makes this list for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s about a journey; a very long journey, sure, and probably not the most stress-free holiday to have ever happened, but a journey nonetheless. The Odyssey is pretty much the perfect book for travellers, since it acts as a constant reminder that yeah, sure, you missed your connection at Paris’ Gare du Nord, but it could always be worse: you could be cursed by Poseidon to wander the seas for ten years as all your companions are killed off in increasingly absurd ways and your house gets taken over by dozens of lecherous free-loaders. Secondly – and this is something you never really realise until you know to look for it – Homer, in The Odyssey, never once shuts up about wine. Seriously, it’s everywhere. From endless descriptions of the sea as being ‘wine-dark’ to Odysseus escaping the Cyclops by getting him drunk to our hero literally admitting that ‘it is the wine that leads me on’, the stuff is everywhere. So there you have it: travel and wine. The perfect thing to read.
What to drink: Something Greek, of course. Odysseus’ home of Ithaca isn’t exactly known for its flourishing wine trade, so we’ll forgive you for going a bit further afield. Any wines from the surrounding Ionian Islands should be fitting enough.
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
So whereas The Odyssey is a tale of hardship and homecoming, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a tale of a bunch of rich people having massive parties. Alright, so it’s a little bit more complex than that, but the parties are a big part of it. The novel may be set in Prohibition-era America, but that doesn’t (as anyone who knows anything about Prohibition-era America should know) mean that the booze isn’t flowing. Whilst the cautionary nature of The Great Gatsby – decadence is dangerous and alcohol is as ruinous as it is thrilling – may make it seem like a slightly odd choice for some light reading with a glass of wine, that doesn’t make it any less of a superb book, and there’s an exciting sort of irony to reading a novel about the dangers of opulence whilst indulging in it yourself.
What to drink: Champagne, of course. The stuff isn’t exactly uncommon in the book, and represents the very highest form of luxury. Treat yourself.
Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter
A lesser-known one, this, but no less deserving of a place on this list. Jess Walter’s romantic comedy, about an affair which begins on the Italian coastline in 1962 and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later, is one of 2015’s most well-received releases, and has pushed its way into countless Top 10 lists of summer reads. Wine isn’t so prevalent in Beautiful Ruins – it certainly doesn’t have a central role by any stretch – but a great deal of the novel does take place amongst the vibrant little homesteads of Cinque Terre. The atmosphere of those villages (back in 1962) is masterfully delivered by Walter, and you’d be forgiven for becoming awash with the need to wander the coast of Italy after reading it.
What to drink: A crisp, dry white wine from the winding terraces of Cinque Terre will do you just fine, here.
The Billionaire’s Vinegar – Benjamin Wallace
Now here’s a book where wine does take centre stage. The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the true story of a bottle of 1787 Château Lafite which was sold at auction in 1985 for $156,000, having once supposedly been owned by Thomas Jefferson. Or maybe it wasn’t. The novel sees billionaire Bill Koch hire a private investigator to discover whether the wine was fraudulent, and whether wine dealer Hardy Rodenstock was, in fact, a master con artist. Suspenseful, thrilling and elaborate, this is the perfect book for anyone who likes to enjoy their wine with a bit of mystery. It’s particularly relevant right now, too, since Matthew McConaughey (of True Detective and Interstellar fame) has just been cast in the film adaptation. Alright, alright, alright.
What to drink: Preferably something you’ve paid too much money for, but if you’re trying to keep under the $100,000 mark, then any decent Bordeaux red will do.
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh’s most famous and best-selling book (albeit one which he himself greatly disliked upon re-reading it) is a tale of, in his own words, ‘a kind of gluttony for food and wine, for the splendours of the recent past, and for rhetorical and ornamental language’. Alcohol (and wine, in particular) in Brideshead Revisited is almost a character in its own right, encouraging and complimenting the snobbery and greed of the leading characters. Look for the scene in which Ryder finds the solace of the old world in a bottle of 1906 Montrachet and a 1904 Clos de Bèze – or perhaps that in which Sebastian Flyte declares that a certain bottle of Château Peyraguey ‘isn’t a wine you’ve ever tasted, so don’t pretend’. Wine, in Brideshead, is a symbol of archaic high-cultured snobbery. And never, in that book, are the characters’ interactions with vino anything other than a total hoot to read.
What to drink: Waugh himself was actually more accustomed to Port than to anything else. Honour him with a glass of that.
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Bear with us, here. Tolkien’s famous children’s novel may not seem like the first thing you’d go to for some after-dinner reading, glass of claret in hand, but wine does actually have a pretty crucial role in the book. A certain scene, towards the centre-point of the novel, involves our heroes escaping from the clutches of the elves in, of all things, empty wine barrels. In fact, the alliance between the men of Laketown and the elves of Mirkwood (which becomes pretty important later on) is essentially entirely built upon the trade and exportation of wine. Throw in the fact that, like The Odyssey, it’s another book about the wonders and beauty of travelling, and you have the perfect light companion for a sojourn abroad to Europe’s wine regions.
What to drink: Laketown, the trading centre which exports wine in the book, is arguably based off Venice, so some Veneto wine should be the perfect match.
And if you’re looking for the perfect place to kick back and enjoy that perfect book, we can help. Call us on +44 (0)20 8877 4940 or e-mail one of our team at sales@smoothred.co.uk to find out more.
