Welcome to our NEW series where we breakdown exactly what our pairings mean (aka the tags on our posts) and take you Behind the Bar.

Sam here to talk about our White Wine pairings. As an Argentine, I feel like it’s in my nature to prefer red wine to white, however, the last few years I’ve honestly been on a white wine kick. I love it. I can drink it all day every day. There’s this one bottle that Ginny found at Trader Joe’s that we just fucking love and we buy it by the case.

Anyway – I don’t have preferences towards any whites, except the garbage ones. Lol. Here are my pairings for White Wine!

Chardonnay

I’m a pretty big fan of Chardonnay. It’s full bodied and dry. The only adjective I can think to describe it is… well… round. The taste comes full circle. Kinda like Grace of Kings and Wall of Storms by Ken Liu. Also like Age of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan. Dammit, Age of Legend just came out and it’s been staring at me from my TBR pile. I need to read it. Maybe for #Booziebookathon??

Viognier

This is a fruity white wine. I can’t recall ever actually having a Viognier, but I digress. Wine Folly says that “Viognier wines are almost always noted for an oily sensation on the middle of the tongue which is a characteristic of wines made with this grape.” So, I’m thinking of books that made me feel a smidge icky like Reign of the Fallen. The romance in this book seems… idk oily?

Sauv Blanc

Sauv Blancs are usually pretty dry, not sweet at all. They can be crisp and refreshing. Sort of like Starflight by Melissa Landers. This book is a space romance and it has allll of the tropes that you love, “oh em gee there’s only one bed”, etc. It reminded me of Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s Starbound, which, ironically, I didn’t pair with white wine. But I loved them. Here’s the review for the last one.

Pinot Grigio

This is my current favorite wine. I can drink this all day, every day. It’s sweet but not too sweet. It’s dry but not too dry. It’s crisp and refreshing. It’s beautiful and I love it. Here are some examples of books I will always be here for.

• Dragon Spring Road
• Song of Blood and Stone
• Age of Swords or basically anything by my fave epic fantasy authors Michael J Sullivan, Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, etc.

And now we get into the white wines that are blegh.

Riesling

Riesling is not the worst, but I actually refuse to drink it. It’s so sweet, and I can’t. It stays with you forever. So to me, this is a book that everyone else seems to love but I, personally, hate. So… I tend not to do reviews for books I dislike like this, but Hunted by Meagan Spooner comes to mind. Also Reign the Earth by AC Gaughen – This one specifically is a good example, because it was pretty terrible and boring, but it had one good scene on consent that got it an extra star from me. It’s not the actual worst, but it’s close.

Minda also says The Couple Next Door. Sounds like she doesn’t disdain Riesling like I do.

Moscato

And now we get to the garbage that is Moscato. It’s entirely too sweet. There are entirely too many types of Moscato. This is the wine that you drink when you’re young and don’t know what good wine is supposed to taste like. It’s low alcohol, so you have to drink MORE to get what you want from it. It’s just BAD. Books like Legend and Ruin of Stars which ended series that had so much potential but that this last book were TRASH. Other books, like the Frostblood series which were so trope-y and cookie cutter that you hate read it.

There you have it! Your mini-guide to what we mean when we pair a book with white wine (or at least some varieties). See more books we’d pair with and be on the lookout for more Behind the Bar features.

COMMENT DOWN BELOW: What’s your favorite white wine? Do you have any books that we should pair with White Wine?