How it all began......

We were at Hardy's; a charming little brasserie tucked away in the back streets of Marylebone, and the perfect place to spend a dull and miserable February afternoon. It was one of those long, boozy Sunday lunches where the wine flows and the conversation rambles aimlessly from one trivial topic to the next.

As we contemplated dessert someone - and I ever remember who, I might just marry them - ordered another bottle of red. I tasted it and it reminded me of something I couldn't quite place. As the hours slipped by and the rain came down outside, I tried to work out what it was.  The wine had structure and depth, but there was a simple elegance about it as well.  I identified the smells and flavours - smoke and blackberries and damp earth, with an underlying hint of cedar, but I couldn't shake the feeling that all of those elements added up to something bigger, something else I recognised.

Finally, I realised what it was.  "This wine" I announced to my companions, "tastes just like a Robert Frost poem."  They all looked at me blankly, I tried to explain what on earth I was talking about and just like that, the idea for this blog was born.

 I'm convinced that there are all sorts of other wine and literature pairings which make sense.  Some wines are delicate and elegant, others are meaty and robust.  Some ought to be savoured and enjoyed, others are simply for quaffing.  A wine can be simple and straightforward or rich and full of complexities and occasionally, if you're lucky, you stumble across one which blows your socks off.  

And all of those things are true about books, too.  I tear through some books and linger over others. Sometimes I'm in the mood for something light and frothy, and other times I want something a bit deeper, which will make me think and which works on different levels.

So that's what this blog is all about.  Books which remind me of wine, and wines which remind me of books. Whether you're a lover of one or the other or, like me, an avid consumer of both - I hope you find something here you enjoy.