Grape Press: On Wine and Literature

“Grape Press” is a regular magazine column in which we recommend wines to suit various occasions and price points.

In this month of literary festivals, let us take a moment to consider how literature and wine are oft intertwined.

Chinese literature features numerous poems where alcohol and – by the Tang Dynasty – “grape wine” is shared.

In English literature, Shakespeare had “sack” (an early form of sherry) and “Rhenish” (Rhine wines). Keats marvels at a “draught of vintage” in his classic “Ode to a Nightingale,” which also evokes “Provençal song,” a “beaker full of the warm South” and a “purple-stainèd mouth” saturated with wine.

Byron, likewise, recommends the pleasures of “hock and soda water” in his epic “Don Juan” (“hock” being short for Hochheim, a wine-producing village of the Rheingau); and by the 20th century, in Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh has Sebastian and Charles share a bottle of Sauternes, which is described as “heaven with strawberries.”

In popular literature, Vin de Constance has seen a revival through E. L. James’s 50 Shades Darker. Perhaps literature’s job is to memorialize the fleeting experiences we actually have with wine, notwithstanding the powers of memory.

This month’s selections are all “literary wines” of sorts.

2009 Sauternes by Yquem, Bordeaux, France
(Ruby Red, RMB 595)
From Waugh to Proust, Sauternes is a “literary” gem. We can’t all afford Yquem, but this wine comes from the same stable. Deep gold, lots of botrytis, candied citrus and stone fruits. Sweet with bracing acidity and very good length.

2005 Klein Constantia “Vin de Constance,” Constantia, South Africa
(ASC, RMB 674)
Available at China World Summit Wing, Park Hyatt Beijing
Famed in 19th century Europe, now rehabilitated by Klein Constantia. Deep gold to amber with complex perfumed and dried orange/peach/ apricot aromas, from a variety of Muscat. Sweet with moderate acidity. Hugely complex on the palate with myriad candied fruits and terrific length.

2005 Château Pirbanon, Bandol, Provence, France
(Pudao, RMB 728)
Available at Grand Hyatt Beijing
Keats drank more “claret ” than Provençal wine, but this Bandol is appropriately deep purple with Mourvèdre’s dark prune fruit, various spices and oak. Full-bodied with chewy high tannins, abundant fruit and very good length.

Edward Ragg is co-founder, with Fongyee Walker, of Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting, China’s leading independent wine consultancy and education service (www.longfengwines.com). They write for the world’s wine magazines and several publications in China.

Photo: Flickr user myfriendzride911