Which wines go with Children of the Night, our vampire play? Are there certain terroirs that excite your sense of drama, Gothic comedy, & murderous travel? Which wines are best suited for enjoying while watching monsters showing off their familial side and dealing with bloody heartbreak?
Reds, one would suppose.
Drinking a thick, red wine certainly has a gory, vampiric joy to it. You can watch the vampires drain a victim while you drain a glass of Cabarnet, Pinot Grigio, or Zinfandel. Merlot is also a popular varietal that is widely grown in Eastern Europe, Transylvania, and even along the coast of the Baltic sea.
“Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.”
– William Shakespeare, Othello, II. iii. (315)
White wines and blushes also have a place in the playhouse. Perhaps they’re Helena’s favorite varieties of wine?
Some wines are pricey, some are cheap
Why do some wines carry such a high price tag? Supply and demand certainly play a role, along with quality and scarcity. Marketing and fancy labels can also shift the demand curve. High quality wines (which often take a lot of labor to carefully grow, pick at just the right time, and then expertly fermented, and carefully aged via élevage) are going to cost more than plunk. But, there’s a lot of price elasticity based on *perceived* value.
For example, take a certain artisinal wine from Italy. The artist who created it decided to grow a rooftop vineyard and produce less than 30 bottles a year. He sells those wine bottles for $5,000 a pop and discourages buyers from drinking them. Unless someone donates a bottle to our show, we will be drinking much more affordable bottles not created merely for conspicuous consumption.
Do you like your wine from a thick bottle, with a punt at the bottom? Do you prefer one with a cork or screw top? Or, is a box of wine more your speed? There’s no wrong answer. In the comments below, we’d love to hear which wines you think pair best with vampires!
“Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”
– Ernest Hemingway, “Death in the Afternoon.”
