Game of Thrones fan makes real-life Dornish wine, Imp’s delight
By Dan Selcke
For five books and seven seasons of television, people in Westeros — mostly Lannisters — have been raving about Dornish wine, largely considered among the finest beverages produced on the continent. (Give or take Arbor gold, but let’s not lose focus.) In 2016, after watching a scene where Tyrion shares his dream of one day opening his own winery, winemaker Thibault Bardet decided to try and make it a reality. “We thought that it may be very interesting to have the possibility to drink the wine from Dorne,” he told Unfiltered. “Sadly, after some research, I discovered that there wasn’t a wine like that. So I decided to make my own.”
Bardet works at the Vignobles Bardet winery in Saint-Émilion, in the Bordeaux region of France, so he had the means to achieve his vision. But first he had to do his research. “[I]n the TV show, they don’t speak a lot about the Dornish wine taste, but in the book, there are so many descriptions about it,” Bardet explained. “After reading all [of the books], I had more than 40 pages of wine information. The main information was: fruity, powerful but easy to drink, and [with] intense dark color.”
This will come as no surprise to Song of Ice and Fire fans, who are intimately familiar with George R.R. Martin’s fondness for describing food and drink. Anyway, the warm, dry summer of 2016 mimicked the climate of Dorne and proved the perfect time to make this wine. And thus it was:
What is happening at 1:28 in this video? It looks like Khal Drogo melting down the gold he’s about to dump on Viserys’ head.
Must be a winemaker thing. Anyway, Bardet produced two wines: the Dornish Wine Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux Red 2016 and The Imp’s Delight St.-Emilion Red 2016. Towards the end of the video, he asks people to help by letting him know “where you are your favorite wine-seller are.” Feel free to leave a comment on the video, or visit the Vignobles Bardet website.
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As long as we’re talking about the food and drink of Westeros, a restaurant in Los Angeles’ Chinatown district — Lately — is hosting a special event for Game of Thrones fans on January 19: for $145 a head, they’ll be treated to a multi-course meal packed with Westerosi delicacies, all of it accompanied by chamber music performed by Salastina.
- Aperitif: The world of fire and ice — Campari ice, grapefruit, szechuan chile
- First course: Winter is coming — Venison pithivier, sherry sauce
- Second course: Bitterness & Power — Treviso, brown butter, beets, black radish, anchovy
- Third course: Braavos & the Faceless Men — Octopus, squid ink tagliatelle, sea broth, thai chile, grains of paradise (Music: “Valar Morghulis”)
- Fourth course: The Red Wedding — 48 hour short ribs, burgundy sauce, horseradish, daikon (Music: “The Rains of Castamere”)
- Fifth course: Beauty & Brutality — Iced berries, white chocolate, fernet branca (Music: “Moro, lasso al mio duolo”)
Naturally, it looks like the event is already sold out, but with that kind of popularity, hopefully they’ll bring it back.
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h/t Uproxx