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THOMAS CAHILL “OUR KING OF
(choir members who know their wines) set about to find out. Tey chose five hymns, each with
its own personality. Ten they chose five wines to complement each hymn. Te following Sunday mem- bers met at organist Walt Rossbach’s home for a contest to guess which wine the panel had paired with each hymn. Tey raised a glass of wine as they deliberated. Jennifer Morgan-Cheng, the
only one who got all the pairings right, joked that she’s happy “to do anything with wine.” When Stan McLeroy was growing
up in neighboring Arlington, Va., “no one said we can’t drink, but we never did.” Since Prohibition days, any drink was considered shady or snobbish, but he’s thankful wine has “come down off its pedestal.” Wine is frequently mentioned in the Bible so pairing it with hymns is logical, he said.
Hymn-wine match One of the first matches was “Shall We Gather at the River” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 423) comple- mented by Louise d’Estree, a spar- kling French wine. Te lyrics tell of a crystal clear river where the water of life flows from the throne of God. Ten they picked “Let the Vine-
yards be Fruitful” (ELW, 182), an offertory proclaiming a foretaste of the feast to come. A hymn that “leaves the listener wanting more deserves a wine which leaves the taster wanting more,” Carl said. So they paired it with a Montes, a fruitful rosé from Chile using a syrah grape. Tis was “a familiar melody to go with a popular wine,” he added. Te group then paired a full-
bodied hymn with a full-bodied wine. A rich merlot from Wash- ington state, Red Diamond, evoked
the boldness of the Jewish melody of “Te God of Abraham Praise” (ELW, 831). Wanting to pay tribute to
the ecumenical spirit of Pope Francis with an appropriate blend, they paired “God, Whose Almighty Word” (ELW, 673) with Chateauneuf-du-Pape’s mix of grenache, mourvedre, dinsault and syrah grapes. Ipsus Passito di Pantelleria, an
Italian dessert wine of moscato grapes, was paired with “I Love to Tell the Story” (ELW, 661), describ- ing God’s word as “wonderfully sweet.” As people enjoy this wine aſter a meal, so do they go forth from the communion table to tell God’s story. In the wine tasting process,
Carl said members found plenty of other pairings: fellowship and thought, music and food, fun and reflection, and the sacred and the secular. “Pairing wine with hymns? It’s something we do each Sunday morning,” he added. When the process comes up
again, the pastor has another pairing proposal. In surrounding Loudoun County
in metropolitan Washington, D.C., old horse estates are being turned into vineyards. Named for the tasting room at an elevation of 868 feet above sea level, 868 Estate Vineyard’s chardonnay would pair nicely with “ ‘Liſt High the Cross’ (ELW, 660),” Carl said—“a high wine in a high place paired with a high hymn.”
Author bio: Kegley is The Lutheran’s correspondent for the Virginia Synod.
“A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT.... [An] effortless illumination of the Renaissance and the Reformation” —James S. Shapiro, author of Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
“WONDERFUL.... Shows how events and a change in philosophical views can uproot and reconfigure entire civilizations.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“REMARKABLE.... An entertaining yet
thought-provoking examination of Western civilization.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
Also available in eBook Read an excerpt and find more at
ThomasCahill.com
Anchor October 2014 37
POPULAR HISTORIANS.” —The Dallas Morning News
Author of How the Irish Saved Civilization
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