Urban Invention, Love Improvisation, and a Wine that's Sangiovese, Jim, but Not as We Know It

This week, I read and loved…Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind’s Greatest Invention by Ben Wilson and Yes & I Love You by Roni Laren

Big, meaty histories are my bedtime reading of choice, and for the past month I’ve been slowly turning the pages Ben Wilson’s history of the city. I am very much a child of suburbia, with the city being a place that I visited a few times a year as as special treat, so urban life has always held a certain fascination for me. Wilson chronicles the city from its beginnings in Mesopotamia to the cutting edge of megacities in Asia and Africa, while also talking about what makes cities different from everywhere else - their particular cocktail of sociability and alienation, the dirt and the excitement, their endless variety. This book is worth having just for its chapters on the city in the twentieth century, and its examination of suburbia and the environment. I’m moving back to London early next year, and this book made me really excited about living in a big city again.

As opposed to my slow reading of Metropolis, I started reading Yes & I Love You in the evening, and the first thing I did, before even making coffee, was read the rest. The main characters are a delight: Freelance writer Hollyn is sweet and shy and oh-so-terrified of other people, and improv actor/barista Jasper is a chaos muppet par excellence who just wants to make everyone laugh. In the way of all the best romance, these two are each other’s biggest challenge and greatest reward. It’s also a super-eloquent book about leading a happy, fulfilling life with neurodivergence (Hollyn lives with severe anxiety and Tourette’s, while Jasper has ADHD), so if you were looking for a book with good representation, this is it.

Other books I read this past week: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

And I drank…Carbonic Sangiovese from Coquelicot Estate Vineyard

A caveat: I have no qualifications whatsoever to write about wine. I buy and drink it based on two principles: it’s a grape I’ve had and loved before, or someone I trust has told me I’ll love it based on what I’ve told them I already enjoy. So please take this the same way you do my cocktail recommendations, as the vaguely-formed thoughts of an enthusiastic amateur.

So! Last night for dinner, I roasted Carli Lalli Music’s Herbed Faux-tisserie Chicken and Potatoes, and twice-cooked some broccoli rabe My kitchen was full of the scent of garlic and fennel seeds and hardy herbs. Such a good meal deserved a nice glass of wine on the side. A Mediterranean-flavored chicken would normally be a rosé kind of operation, but it was gray and damp outside and my cold bones wanted a red.

Other people have written up the carbonic maceration process, but long story short: it makes red wines lighter, less tannic, and fruitier than they would be made the conventional way. Sangiovese is normally a big, brawny red that goes well with slow-cooked ragu, but with carbonic maceration it becomes an easy-going drink with lots of cranberry and raspberry flavors in it. It balanced out all the rich schmaltz without stomping all over my chicken’s flavor. Highly recommended!