Sister Power: July 2021 Book + Bottle Pairing
A few months ago, I received an email promoting a new book coming out this summer. I receive about a hundred of these a week, so most of these don’t grab my attention or even garner a second look as I try to plow through my emails. But this one in particular caught my eye. The author’s name…it sounded so familiar.
As memories started bubbling up to the surface, I did a bit of googling and facebooking, and sure enough. Melissa Scholes Young is the wife of one of my college professors who sat on my thesis committee. She was doing her PhD at the time, and now here she is, a professor of literature at American University in DC and the author of this great new book. I had to reach out to say hi and let her know that I was going to promote the heck out of her book.
THE BOOK
The second I read the premise of the novel, I knew it would be a great story for the summertime and would be making an appearance in our Readers + Drinkers Club. Set in rural Missouri, four sisters grow to depend on each other as young adults as their family’s pest control business changes hands and the life they once knew begins to unravel. I read the first scene of the book just as the summertime heat was rolling into town - the girls in the story are playing and fishing in the Mississippi river where their family used to vacation. It’s not all fun and games though. I love this book because not only does the family drama reel you in and keep you urgently flipping the pages, but there’s substance, too - cultural, economic, and political, reflecting the big changes our country went through back in 2009 when the book is set, without ever becoming overwhelming or unnecessary. The novel is just what you want for the summertime: light, easy-reading, entertaining, and cinematic. It’s perfect for the beach, a cabin vacation, or your couch on a rainy afternoon. If you enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing or are into Little Women, this is the novel for you.
THE WINE
To pair with this story, we mainly needed something chill-able (it is summertime, after all). More than anything, the sisterhood theme of the story stood out to me, and I recalled a yummy wine we had months ago that was made by sisters, but the whole story is even more of a perfect match than I had realized. Suavia is a northern Italian winery that began in 1982 with a young couple who started crushing their own grapes to make wine. They have since turned the family business over to their four daughters, three of whom run the winery today.
The winery Suavia is named after the medieval name for the city of Soave, where the famous wine Soave comes from. Like many European or Old World wines, Soave is called after the place rather than the grape. The grapes used to make this white wine are the green grapes Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave, native, indigenous grapes to this mountainous northern region of Italy.
Additionally, the aromas and flavors of this wine create a perfect pairing for the story found in The Hive. Delicate and easy drinking, the wine has notes of sweet flowers, like honeysuckle and jasmine, crisp fruit like fresh apples, and a pleasant, smooth minerality. But what you’ll also notice is a gentle hint of honey, just like the honey from the hive that the Fehler sisters build in the novel.
I’m especially excited to announce that author Melissa Scholes Young is going to do a virtual author happy hour with us to talk with us about her book - a Readers + Drinkers Club exclusive. Sign up here to register for her virtual event on 21 July 2021 at 7PM. Talk to you then! Cheers!