Novel Pairings

A good book can tap into our emotional reservoir and stay with us long after we’ve read the last word. Like wine, books are something to be savoured, cherished and discussed. You may like to guzzle vino at your book club but have you ever tried to match the bottle to the narrative? To pick, say, a year that has resonance for the lead character, a vineyard near where the story is set, or a vintage so full-bodied and robust it mirrors the mood in the prose? Well, Corney & Barrow has. The esteemed wine merchant has been guiding us towards the world’s most exquisite wine for 236 years. Now, it is going one step further by recommending what to read as we imbibe. How novel!

A Book and a Bottle is the result of a partnership between Corney & Barrow and award-winning author and The Sunday Times wine critic Damian Barr. Each month will cover a different book and suggest surprising and interesting wines to accompany it. All of the books and bottles will be available to buy individually and as monthly gift subscriptions.

Plus, there will be a live salon on Sunday, 16 October at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. Here, Damian will interview Lionel Shriver and discuss the wines best suited to her new book 7he Mandibles.

In September the salon delved into a dark and brooding modem classic, Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and uncovered the wines best suited to its hidden depths.

Gathering Sauvignon Semillon The Lane 2013

With this wine, all is not as it seems. Sometimes it’s the citrus Sauvignon that comes forward, sometimes it’s the more savoury Semillon character and sometimes the wine offers one on the nose and the other on the palate. There is a tension in each sip, just as the tension is carefully maintained on each page of The Secret History.

Psi Peter Sisseck 2011

The symbol on the bottle Psi is a letter from the Greek alphabet which ties in with the protagonists’ obsession with the classics and indeed the Greek-tragedy style of the whole story.

Barolo La Tartufaia Giulia Negri 2010

This wine is brooding and dark and full of intensity just like this finely wrought thriller.