‘Reading Between the Wines’ is the boozy book club of your dreams, but what wines would the hosts pair with their favorite podcasts?

April 8, 2022

This Friday, Dax and Alesha are joined by the hosts of “Reading Between the Wines,” Winnona Glass and Keagan Moore. Their podcast can be described as a boozy book club, where the two discuss books they love and the perfect glass (or bottle) of wine to pair with it.

Winnona tells us that the podcast is for people who perhaps forgot to read the book for book club. Each episode, they pick a popular book club book and provide an easy-listening cliffs notes review so anyone can convincingly pretend like they’ve read the novel. She says that the first half of the episode is meant to be listened to on the way to book club (or 30 minutes before the Zoom call starts), and the second half is meant to make listeners more educated wine buyers. Winnona and Keagan found themselves reading lots of books and drinking lots of wine in quarantine, so they figured they might share this sort of self-care routine with the podcasting world.

Keagan is a certified sommelier who shares that she has at least 150 bottles of wine in her house at this very moment. She tells Dax and Alesha her secret sauce for pairing wines with books, which is sometimes more difficult depending on the book. She says that if there’s a wedding in the story, obviously they’re going with champagne. But sometimes she needs to dig deeper than that, finding if there’s a specific country or region characters travel to and basing a pairing off of that. And, of course, murder mysteries can only be enjoyed with a deep cabernet sauvignon, since neither blood nor red wine are coming out of your carpet easily.

Winnona’s favorite episode thus far has been “Vampires and Vouvray” where they paired The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires with a Vouvray. Thankfully, Keagan explains to us that Vouvray is a region in the Loire Valley in France that produces many variations of white wine but is ultimately based on the Chenin Blanc grape. The book is based on a group of women who meet under the guise of a book club (getting very meta on our already meta podcast…) in order to plan how to kill a vampire amongst them.

Dax asks the two not only for some podcast recommendations, but also a book recommendation and wine recommendation. Winnona says she’s very invested in Wondery’s “Business Wars,” specifically referencing the Hallmark v. Lifetime Christmas Movie Wars, which she would naturally pair with a Chardonnay. But if you’re into their Crypto Wars series, she suggests a merlot. Alesha suggests a heavy bourbon-barrel aged wine, and Winnona says she has been a fan of bourbon-barrel wines for a long time, recommending the brand Southern Bell who were one of the first to start the trend.

Keagan says she’s a fan of podcasting about investing and neuroscience, and loves “Huberman Lab” (who doesn’t?) which she would pair with a wine with a much lower alcohol content like a Riesling. She also shouts out the podcast “Bedrock Wine Conversations,” from Bedrock Wine Company, which she says is not only surprisingly funny but perfect for anyone looking to nerd out over wine. She and Alesha also bond over their love for “Lex Fridman Podcast.”

Be sure to check out “Reading Between the Wines” if you’ve been slacking on all of those books you promised yourself you’d read, or if you’re looking for your new favorite bottle of wine.