Your Twin Peaks Season 3 Wine Pairing Guide: Episode 9

Whew-after the surrealist Big-BOB creation story of last week, Part IX seems like candyfloss, doesn’t it? We got back under the magnificent fir canopy of Twin Peaks and checked in with everyone from Andy And Lucy to Bobby Briggs and Hawk, Bobby’s mom, the owl cave glyph and the Roadhouse bar, and even poor Johnny Horne, who might have been this episode’s sole, and inexplicable, casualty. There were “twin” red armchairs, a bunch of progress toward finding not only Cooper (luckily Hawk seems to know exactly what “two Coopers” might mean) but solving the strange disappearance of Garland Briggs. We got Diane dialing down the “Fuck you” factor (but still swilling airplane vodka minis) and even got a foreshadowing of what I can only think is the return of Audrey Horne.

In honor of the relatively light, but complicated, nature of this episode and our return to the land of the evergreens, I’m suggesting Efeste Evergreen Riesling.

Like the episode, this wine’s relatively clear, a golden color with green tinges. It’s a brilliant wine, equal parts elegance and opulence. Riesling aromatics are largely sweet and honeyed even if the wine itself is dry-a combination also mastered by Mr. David Lynch. In this one we get an explosive bouquet of ripe apricot, honeysuckle, neroli and lime zest. The dominant palate note is pear (get it? pair? because everything has a double in this show? C’mon, it’s witty. OK maybe not that witty…) along with a strong mineral component, lemons, pastry cream, oranges, chamomile and honey. Sweetness and stone, sentiment and structure. Oh, and a finish that does not quit. Kind of like the ruthlessly laconic pacing of the show.