Bottoms up

Which wine pairs best with Jane Austen’s novels?

As someone whose annual alcohol consumption can be measured in teaspoons, I wouldn’t know. So I was bemused to run across a recent story headlined “Enjoy The Worlds of Jane Austen with a Glass of Bubbly,” on a champagne marketing site called—yes—Glass of Bubbly.

According to the site, the perfect pairing for Austen’s novels is “a bottle of Vintage Champagne. . . . rich and complex in flavours and aromas, smooth, creamy and persistent, which stands the test of time.”

Not coincidentally, the story claims that this same beverage also pairs marvelously with the new coffee table book The Worlds of Jane Austen: The Influences and Inspiration Behind the Novels, by Austen scholar Helena Kelly. Kelly’s book, plus a bottle of the sparkly stuff, would make “a great Christmas gift,” the piece concludes, in words that sound straight out of an advertisement.

In fact, Glass of Bubbly’s feature may well be a paid advertisement: at this site, the line between news and advertising seems a tad blurry. But never mind: The intriguing question is why champagne marketers, or book marketers--or both!--think that champagne drinkers read Austen, or that Austen readers drink champagne.

The answer, surely, lies in a phenomenon I’ve noted before: These days, Jane Austen™ functions as a brand signifier denoting that which is classy yet accessible, elegant yet unintimidating. She’s highbrow taste on a middlebrow budget--a bit like a moderately priced bottle of bubbly.

Needless to say, Jane Austen™ bears only a notional relationship to Jane Austen the writer--giant of EngLit, pioneer of the novel, and creator of surprisingly complex works of art. But all of that is harder to capture in a glass.