The wine: Keerweder Estate Pentagram - 2003
The book: The Poetry of Robert Frost (Vintage, edited by
Edward Connery Lathem)
Soft and smokey with hints of earth and cedar, this is the sort of wine which wraps itself around you like a warm cardigan and makes everything seem right with the world. Keerweder is a small winery in the Franschoek region of South Africa. The Pentagram is a blend of five grapes (yes, the clue is in the name) which are a fairly even mix of Pinotage (23%), Shiraz (23%), Cabernet Sauvignon (20%) and Merlot(19%), with a dash of Petit Verdot thrown in for good measure.
I first encountered it over a long Sunday lunch at Hardy's Brasserie in Marylebone - you can read more about that here - and fell in love. So much so that I went home and immediately ordered a case. Sadly it's not on the wine list at Hardy's any more, but last time I checked it can still be bought by the case from the lovely people at www.goodwineonline.co.uk/.
I fell in love the moment I met Robert Frost, too. I was fifteen, his Stopping by Woods turned up on my secondary school English curriculum, and the rest was history. Ever since then, I've been searching for a decent collection of his poems. I have to admit, this one doesn't *quite* match the image I had in my head as a fifteen year old. That version was a secondhand, cloth-covered hardback with an embossed title, faded pages and the original owner's name written in the front in an elegant, old-fashioned script. In the teenage fantasy world I'd concocted, this would have been given to me as a present by a boy, obviously - one I was madly in love with and to whom I had once mentioned, in passing, how much I liked Robert Frost.
Twenty-odd years later it occured to me that if I ever wanted to actually own a book of his poems, perhaps I should just go ahead and buy it myself, which is how I ended up with this volume. It came from the lovely London Review Bookshop, where I also treated myself to a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Quite a romantic date, if you think about it.
I'm really pleased with it. It's his complete collected works, arranged in chronological order and with a comprehensive section of notes and detailed textual changes, if that's the sort of thing you're into (I imagine it would be a great student text.) If you just want to enjoy the poems, it's perfect for that as well; the perfect mix of old favourites and new treasures still waiting to be discovered.
Soft and smokey with hints of earth and cedar, this is the sort of wine which wraps itself around you like a warm cardigan and makes everything seem right with the world. Keerweder is a small winery in the Franschoek region of South Africa. The Pentagram is a blend of five grapes (yes, the clue is in the name) which are a fairly even mix of Pinotage (23%), Shiraz (23%), Cabernet Sauvignon (20%) and Merlot(19%), with a dash of Petit Verdot thrown in for good measure.
I first encountered it over a long Sunday lunch at Hardy's Brasserie in Marylebone - you can read more about that here - and fell in love. So much so that I went home and immediately ordered a case. Sadly it's not on the wine list at Hardy's any more, but last time I checked it can still be bought by the case from the lovely people at www.goodwineonline.co.uk/.
I fell in love the moment I met Robert Frost, too. I was fifteen, his Stopping by Woods turned up on my secondary school English curriculum, and the rest was history. Ever since then, I've been searching for a decent collection of his poems. I have to admit, this one doesn't *quite* match the image I had in my head as a fifteen year old. That version was a secondhand, cloth-covered hardback with an embossed title, faded pages and the original owner's name written in the front in an elegant, old-fashioned script. In the teenage fantasy world I'd concocted, this would have been given to me as a present by a boy, obviously - one I was madly in love with and to whom I had once mentioned, in passing, how much I liked Robert Frost.
Twenty-odd years later it occured to me that if I ever wanted to actually own a book of his poems, perhaps I should just go ahead and buy it myself, which is how I ended up with this volume. It came from the lovely London Review Bookshop, where I also treated myself to a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Quite a romantic date, if you think about it.
I'm really pleased with it. It's his complete collected works, arranged in chronological order and with a comprehensive section of notes and detailed textual changes, if that's the sort of thing you're into (I imagine it would be a great student text.) If you just want to enjoy the poems, it's perfect for that as well; the perfect mix of old favourites and new treasures still waiting to be discovered.
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