Wine Fuels the Storytelling at Books Take Flight

In every glass of wine is a story waiting to be told. Combine that fable of fermentation with literature itself, and there exists a complex interplay of previously untapped narrative connections that go beyond the simple, isolated acts of having a drink or reading a book.

“It’s the stories behind the wine that make them connect with why the bottle is special.”

For Natalie Hamilton, co-owner, wine director and sommelier at Melancholy, these stories matter deeply. They comprise the thematic backbone in her work pairing wine with books for Books Take Flight, the monthly book club hosted at Melancholy. “You can tell people a lot of scientific facts about wine, and that’s not necessarily what makes them connect with why a bottle is special, or why a wine is unique,” Hamilton says. “It’s the stories behind the wine, the history, or the unique little ins and outs of the varietal.”

“When you pair wines, you’re typically pairing to an occasion or food, or to specific flavor markings. But this very much has a storytelling-meets-storytelling component.”

Hamilton draws upon her background and professional sommelier training to pair a flight of three wines with the month’s chosen novel. She says that because the books are usually fiction, and recently often lean in a feminist and even dystopian direction, the connections she draws are highly literary. “When you pair wines, you’re typically pairing to an occasion or food, or to specific flavor markings,” Hamilton explains. “But this very much has a storytelling-meets-storytelling component.”

The club’s recent read was Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. In it, Hamilton says, the protagonist experiences a few self-imposed obstacles. For this reason she paired it with a zinfandel, a dark red wine varietal that has a hard time ripening evenly. “It has some grapes that get ripe and some grapes that don’t ripen on time,” Hamilton explains. “It can be an interesting challenge to make wine from it because there’s growth and then there’s setbacks.”

“I try to procure wine that is intentionally different from the Utah market. We have a really unique global selection that isn’t just the day-to-day wines you find all the time.”

The book club attendees positively drank it up – both the facts about the wine, as well as the parallels and metaphors she helps to draw between the wine and the characters and themes in the books. It helps to have a pro sommelier at the helm of the monthly events, someone who literally travels the world in search of new and distinctive varietals. “I try to procure wine that is intentionally different from the Utah market,” Hamilton says. “We have a really unique global selection that isn’t just the day-to-day wines you find all the time.”

Attendees get to peruse facts about the three wines and why they were chosen, using that as a launching pad for discussion at each meeting. They also have an appointed discussion leader, Becca Rettenberger, who was once one of the club’s first attendees. Now, she comes each time equipped with notes and questions to grease the wheels of conversation (the wine helps with greasing the social wheels).

“We do have regulars,” Hamilton says, “and what I’ve noticed from book clubs in my life is it’s often hard to get you and all your friends on the same page, or it falls apart and someone doesn’t read. But this is an opportunity to have a club there for you, and there will always be other people there who want to discuss the books.” With Rettenberger’s leadership and Hamilton’s wine curation, Books Take Flight is not only the sole public, “boozy” book club in Salt Lake City, but also probably one of the highest functioning book clubs in existence. It’s even taken a life of its own, with members often suggesting the books they read.

The group’s chosen book for April is The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Sign-up is available at melancholyslc.com. It sells out every month, so Hamilton recommends watching for the “book drops” on their Instagram @melancholyslc near the beginning of the month and signing up as soon as you can.

With national reading levels in decline, there seems to be no better motivator to read books and make new friends than Books Take Flight.

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