Wine

Our friends at The Wine Trials have generously agreed to match Algonquin Book Club titles with distinctive bottles of wine. Pretty swell of them, eh? Their suggested pairing for In the Time of the Butterflies is divinely inspired. (I mean, it’s not every day that you find a bottle of wine with butterflies on the bottle, right?) But don’t just listen to us, grab a bottle and try it for yourself!

Wine: Mania Rueda
Bodegas Felix Lorenzo Cachazo

Style Light white Old World Country Spain Price $14
Vintage tasted 2009 Grapes Verdejo, Viura
Website www.mundiserv.com/cachazo

Overview This blend of two Spanish light white grapes (Viura and Verdejo) is crisp, fruity, and extremely likable. It may not bowl you over with complex aromas or intense flavors, but it’s fresh and will go equally well with a hot day or a simple fish course. Anyone who would turn their noses up at a wine like this clearly hasn’t spent time with a chilled bottle on a summer afternoon.

Nose It’s floral and fruity, with refreshing citrus.

Mouth There’s more citrus here, with just enough acidity to counter the fruit. One blind taster even detected a slight, refreshing prickle.

Recipes

We’ve also gathered some recipes, everything from appetizers to desserts, for fabulous Dominican food: a sweet iced coffee drink (named La Mariposa, or The Butterfly), rice and beans, fried plantains, the quintessential dish known as The Dominican Flag, and flan. Three of the recipes–the La Mariposa drink, Dominican Beans & Rice, and Flan–come directly from Julia Alvarez and her husband, Bill Eichner. In fact, the beans and rice and the flan recipes are featured in Bill Eichner’s wonderful cookbook, The New Family Cookbook: Recipes For Nourishing Yourself and Those You Love. Make some (or all) of these delectable dishes and your book club gathering is sure to be a hit.

La Mariposa drink – RECIPE TO COME
We suggest using the Tres Mariposas blend of coffee from the Vermont Coffee Company, which also sells a Café Alta Gracia blend from Julia Alvarez and Bill Eichner ‘s organic coffee farm (Alta Gracia) in the Jarabacoa community in the Dominican Republic.

Tostones (Flattened fried plantains)
“Tostones is, without doubt, Dominican’s favorite side dish and to make them even more delicious and tender I have added my own touch.”

Dominican Beans

Arroz Blanco (White rice) – RECIPE TO COME

La Bandera Dominicana (The Dominican Flag)
“Typically prepared for lunch and is the most important meal in Dominican Republic … A combination of beans, rice, meat/seafood, and salad … It is very filling and satisfying and is quite healthy also because it is made with fresh ingredients.”

Flan – RECIPE TO COME
Julia Alvarez’s own recipe