Food & Culture

Local Wine Club Pairs Books and Bottles

Book Cru, based out of Molly's Bottle Shop in Sunset Hill, combines thoughtful drinking and indulgent reading

By Ariel Shearer May 3, 2020

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This article originally appeared in the May 2020 issue of Seattle Magazine.

This article appears in print in the May 2020 issue. Click here to subscribe. 

If book clubs are a reason for reading and drinking together, Book Cru is a full-fledged call to action. The monthly pairing program ($50, nonmembers $60) offers curated book and bottle combinations along with discussion groups based out of Molly’s Bottle Shop in Ballard. But consider yourself warned: This club isn’t for the faint of heart or palate. Books are plucked from a lit lover’s shelf—all fiction, written exclusively by female and nonbinary authors—and each of the wines, which are natural, is paired with a book based on the imagery and feelings that work evokes. “Like a book, [natural wine] changes, doesn’t always taste the same or hit you the same way,” says Kim Kent, who has a background in poetry, editing and service industry jobs, and who launched Book Cru while working as a wine seller at Molly’s. Her goal: to help her own interests coalesce while inspiring others to start reading more—and drinking more. Think Joy Williams with French plum wine, or Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel Prize-winning Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead with a dark and earthy Lambrusco. Pairings can be purchased at Molly’s Bottle Shop throughout the month on a first-come basis or paid for in advance through a monthly member subscription, with discussion groups, led by Kent, and new pairing announcements taking place on the second Sunday of every month. “It’s a place where book lovers who also love wine can be their full selves,” Kent says. 

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