Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine Examination. She’s failed twice before; her third attempt will be her last. Suddenly finding herself without a job and with the test a few months away, she travels to Burgundy, to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There she can bolster her shaky knowledge of Burgundian vintages and reconnect with her cousin Nico and his wife Heather, who now oversee the grapes’ day-to-day management. The one person Kate hopes to avoid is Jean-Luc, a neighbor vintner and her first love. At the vineyard house, Kate is eager to help her cousins clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, behind a large armoire, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history—a search that takes her back to the dark days of the Second World War and introduces her to a relative she never knew existed, a great half-aunt who was teenager during the Nazi occupation. As she learns more about her family, the line between Resistance and Collaboration blurs, driving Kate to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
I read Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah 2 years ago and absolutely adored it. It's my kind of fall book: immersive historical fiction with a vibrant and evocative setting. The Lost Vintage was no different.
Kate's family has owned a winery in Burgundy for centuries, which she visited growing up and while studying abroad in France during college. Now, ten years later, she's returned to prepare for the Master of Wine examination in order to advance her career as a sommelier. While categorizing wines in the family's massive cellar, she discovers the journal of a relative she never knew about: Marie-Helene Charpin, who worked with the Resistance during WWII. But, if she was on the right side of history, why does no one ever speak of her? Kate makes it her mission to find out.
Ann Mah is a master of setting -- not just the physical aspects of time and place, but the feeling of it as well. Her stories are well-researched and informative (I'm starting to see that my favorite authors are often journalists). I learned a lot about French history, wine, and food! Historical fiction about WWII has been overdone in recent years, but I haven't read a story from the perspective of the French people during the Occupation. What they endured is genuinely unreal.
I'd love to read something by her set in Italy. Ann, if you're taking requests, just something to keep in mind, ya know?
***4.5 stars***