How do you pair wine with a book set in an urban café? Well, you do and you don’t. G. P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped series of cozy mysteries, and her main character, Alene Baron, is a nice woman trying to take care of her ailing father, raise her three kids, and run the corner café featuring delicious and healthful snacks as well as great coffee.
Set in Chicago, the series brings that city delightfully to life as Alene and her best friend try to work around the neighboring bodies that turn up. Well, it is a mystery. Oh, and Alene falls in love with the local homicide cop, which is fun. Both Battered and the sequel Smothered are tremendous fun.
But, but, but…
What wine do you pair with delicious vegan baked goods? Seriously, the recipes in the book sound so good that even we want to try them, and we are not vegans. Not by a long shot. Then there’s the problem of sweet flavors and dry wines, and Anne really can’t stand that combination.
Michael brought up the idea that how you like your coffee will offer a clue to what kind of wine you like. If you like strong, black coffee, then you’ll probably like something robust and red in a wine. Want cream and sugar in your coffee, then you’ll want a lighter, fruitier wine.
But there’s also the emphasis on vegan, healthful snacks in the books. As it happens, we know the perfect winery – Angeleno Wine Company. They make wines that are natively fermented and vegan. They’re also damn good, and their Late Harvest Zinfandel is fruity without being jammy, with nice hints of pepper.
You can buy Gottlieb’s books directly from her website here, and the Zin from Angeleno Wine here.