Book club wine tasting
Make the sheets View: A4 · Letter
A book club already has a discussion to run, so the tasting has to stay light, and the Ranking sheet is the lightest there is. Each reader gets one page with the wines as numbered rings across it and a rank box under each, 1 = best, each rank once, and one line at the foot, Why your first is first. Nobody scores look, nose or palate. The host keeps the results sheet, which lists each reader's ranks and adds them into a rank sum, with first places to break a tie. A tasting list lets you write a line about each wine and why it goes with the book, and you can name the evening after the title, which then heads every sheet. It suits a club of four to twelve readers and four to six wines, chosen to match the novel's setting or its mood.
Pour all the wines at the start, in a row of small glasses on each place mat, and let readers taste between chapters of the conversation. Ask everyone to hand in their ranking before the dessert, then add up the ranks while the talk winds down and announce the winner, ideally with a reason from someone who ranked it first. Print one Ranking sheet per reader, the results sheet and the tasting list, and the glass mats if you want the glasses on numbered rings. It works open, with the labels visible and part of the discussion, or blind, with the reveal at the end as a second plot twist. Keep the pours small, about 4 cl, and water on the table: the evening is about the book, and the wine is the setting.
Questions
How do you pair wine with a book club?
Choose wines from where the book is set, or from the period it is set in: Rioja for a Spanish novel, Riesling for a German one, a Napa Cabernet for a Californian story. Four or five bottles is enough for an evening that is mostly about the book.
Will a tasting take over the book discussion?
Not with a ranking. Readers only put the wines in order, which takes a few minutes, so the talk stays on the book until the tally at the end.
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