Wine Pairing for Narnians
I’m not a sommelier. (Maybe someday.) But I’m pretty into wine.
Since my first book, The Growing Season: Contemplations on Wine and the Soul was released last year, I’ve had some cool opportunities to speak about it, and even to host some fun, unique wine tastings. A recurring one is happening this year at Pacific Theatre in Vancouver, Canada, as part of their 40th Anniversary Season.
It’s called Wine Wednesday. Theatre-goers get a free glass of lovely BC wine with their ticket. I get to talk about the wine, and why I’ve paired it with what’s presently on stage.
This past week I selected a gorgeous 2020 White Label Merlot from Mt Boucherie Estate Winery for us to enjoy alongside a brilliant two-actor adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s classic, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
Here’s what I shared with the audience while we sniffed, swirled, and sipped before the show that evening:
Why pair this wine with this play?
To answer that question, we need to have an elephant-in-the-room conversation about Merlot, period.
How many of you have seen the 2004 movie, Sideways?
What you need to know about this film, if you haven’t seen it, is that it put California wines and the hobby of wine-tasting itself, on peoples’ radars in a significant way. You also need to know that the male lead is a Pinot Noir-loving wine snob played by Paul Giamatti.
Giamatti’s character was highly opinionated about wine. And at one point in the film, in a moment that, in my view, brazenly channeled the spirit of the White Witch of Narnia, he attached a certain expletive to the varietal we’re drinking tonight—and not in a good way. A wine blogger said it perfectly:
“With one simple line, movie-goers left the theatre forever questioning their tastes and opinions about Merlot. Since then, Merlot has had a bad rap for no particularly good reason.”
I’m not going to ask for a show of hands of people who, like Edmund, out of a weakness for Turkish Delight, have been duped and led astray by ill-conceived counsel. To do so would be to give in to the White Witch’s ways. Wine Wednesday is a shame-free tasting event.
Instead, if you are such a person, let me gently stir you from your slumber.
Let me beckon you away from a bleak and cheerless land… where it is always winter and never Christmas…
To a world where Merlot is sipped with pride and pleasure, enthroned by Aslan himself at Cair Paravel, right alongside the Pevensie children…
and re-afforded the nobility it is rightfully due.
