Imagine being celebrated at an award ceremony at a California winery and having your mom and your boyfriend not show up, only to find out they both died in a plane crash on their way. This is the plight of Natalie Harper, who inherits both her mom’s run-down bookshop and care of her grandfather as a result of the tragedy. It seems all is lost, but the shop’s handyman Pete ‘Peach’ Galloway and his daughter Dorothy keep finding solutions...like Dorothy’s favorite author Trevor Dashwood, who always looks for the flip side in any tough situation, coming to do a book signing in the quaint little shop. The characters all find their way from grieving to thriving along the way to saving the shop. The wine we chose to pair with this lovely story is a 2018 Old Vine Zinfandel from Bedrock Wine Company, as it has notes of ‘Peach’, violets and cherries. This company has another thing in common with the story, they rehabilitated old California vineyards and processes much as Natalie started in a California vineyard before bringing the bookshop back to life.  Learn how grape juice becomes wine, the difference between how yeast and bacteria interact with wine, what viticulture and terroir have to do with your favorite sip and how zinfandel can be both a red and white wine.

When Alice married into the Van Cleave family, an Appalachian coal mining dynasty, and moved to Baileysville, KY from England she had no idea she would become a Packhorse Librarian. The 1930s were a tough time to be a woman in America and living in the hills and hollers didn’t make it any easier. Marjorie, Izzy, Sophia and Beth; these are the friends that spread books and hope to their rural communities while fighting injustice and abuse themselves. Based on real historical events, you’ll be rooting for these ladies to overcome their circumstances and triumph together as women. A quote from the book informs our tasting today: “Bordeaux bottles are sturdy like wives, while Burgundy bottles are curvaceous like their mistresses.” Learn why bottles have such different shapes and discover an Alfred Merkelbach Auslese Riesling from the Rosenburg vineyard while you learn what punts, necks, shoulders, bodies, opacity, translucence and thickness have to do with how you enjoy your favorite wine.

This engaging thriller begins when brand-new parents Ann and Marco are invited next door to celebrate their next-door neighbor Graham’s birthday, keeping a baby monitor on to hear their sleeping child after their babysitter cancels. When baby Cora comes up missing, secrets come spilling out of a broadening cast of characters revealing that nothing is as it seems when voyeurism, adultery, childhood trauma, failing businesses and a kidnapping scheme are all unveiled. This whodunnit begins with a simple invitation to dinner, so we delve into what are the best wines to show up to a dinner party with. The short answer is that everything’s coming up bubbly! Whether you choose a traditional champagne, a prosecco, a cava or the sparkling vouvray we selected, Chateau Moncontour NV, you can’t go wrong pairing some part of the evening with bubbles. Learn the difference between these sparkling wines and select the perfect hostess gift for your next dinner party invite.

Who would have thought that a house showing on New Year’s Eve could end in such chaos? When a realtor, a bank president, a pregnant couple, a kindly old lady and a house-flipping duo end up in a hostage situation after a nearby bank robbery goes awry, detectives have a hard time figuring out exactly what happened and how the stories of these people intertwine. Some characters are hidden away in a closet (with red wine and a corkscrew) and demands are made for fireworks and pizza, so we have chosen to find the perfect red wine pairing for pizza! Surprise, surprise, it is, in fact Italian. From the soil created by the most active volcano in Europe, Mt. Etna, we have 2018 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso and much like our book’s characters, we find that struggling to survive makes grapes better and richer. In the book we learn that humor is the soul’s last line of defense; often natural cork from Portugal is wine’s last line of defense. Cin Cin!

Welcome to Crosby, Maine, home of Olive and Henry Kitteridge and all their neighbors who fill the pages of this collection of 13 short stories. Olive Kitteridge reads much like J.D. Salinger’s 9 Stories, where the point isn’t to weave these stories into a tapestry, but to see the threads that tie them loosely together. We get to spend a day in the lives of many Crosby residents dealing with infidelity, loyalty, petty grievances, suicide, life transitions and the thoughtfulness of a well-timed doughnut to pair with red wine. This last plot point brings us to our flight of doughnuts and wines to pair with the story. Just like the breadth of characters in this book, we have a variety of wines (Lambrusco, moscato, muscatel and Sauternes) and pastries (glazed doughnut, apple fritter, lemon cronut and chocolate frosted doughnut) to sample and pair. Listen in and make some pastry pairings of your own!

Greenlights, by Matthew McConaughey, is the perfect book to shake off the stupor of our shared year of unexpected pivots. As we crawl out of this season, we are gathering strength to be brave and take the hill, and McConaughey is all about going all in, but he wants us to stop and ask, 'What’s your hill?' first. Greenlights are about going and doing the thing, but they are also about timing and fate. Hearing about the author's path and passion will surprise and motivate you to take on your next challenge with wit and wisdom. This week, we are pairing Greenlights with a lovely rosé, the 2020 Birichino Vin Gris. Birichino means naughty or impish, which makes it a perfect rom-com match, and the exploits of Matthew himself make this an ideal choice. Rosé is also fitting because as this book shows us, a short-term experience can alter who you are for the rest of your life; rosé begins with black grapes that change forever when they undergo a short maceration or a quick press to become pink juice. Go read this book and sip a rosé…it might just change you.

When Olivia moves from New York to L.A. to start her own law firm, she unwittingly embarks on a torte love affair with Senator Max Powell. Their shared love of dessert brings them together, but will his knowledge of her past tear them apart? We pair this cake driven story with a 2015 Quinta de la Rosa LBV Port, a lovely dessert wine created with good old-fashioned foot-treading and fortified to 19.5% alcohol with aguardente (fire water) brandy.

What if you had 3 chances to change your life, but you'd already used 2 of them? This is the position Kate finds herself in when she fails the Master of Wines exam twice knowing that after 3 times she faces a lifetime ban. The journey she takes to discover her roots in winemaking and study for this prestigious test takes her to France's Burgundy region where she unearths a family history...and wine...that had been hidden for generations. We explore the wines of this famous region, especially the 2017 Comtesse de Chérisey Bois de Blagny, discussing why Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are the most common wines of the region and why the glass you drink from matters.

Just as going through a tough season shows us how good the good days really are, persevering through harsh weather makes wine grapes deeper and sweeter. Put on something cozy and join us on our journey into the tundra as we discuss Alaska in The Great Alone and sip some ice wine.