What do you think?
Rate this book
The Accidental Vineyard: An Old House, New Vines, and a Changed Life in Wine Country
In a story reminiscent of
A Year in Provence
and We Bought a Zoo, a spontaneous drive from San Francisco to wine country leads a harried corporate executive and his family to a dilapidated 19th century Victorian home.
They set out to return the house to its former grandeur—a journey that yields much more, ultimately restoring their hope for a well-rounded life.
Consulting with internationally known CEOs and participating in high-stakes projects with millions of dollars and thousands of jobs on the line, Rich Moran knew the there’s no room for error—no fumbling, misgivings, or delays.
While attempting to lull a crying son to sleep, a wrong turn on a drive through Sonoma County sets him and his family on a life-changing adventure. They can’t resist a promise-laden 19th century home, looking past its rotting wraparound porch and leaky roof. When a good neighbor shows up with grapevines, the transformation of the property grows to include planting a vineyard and making wine.
Before long, the family of city slickers morphs into country mice and joins an unexpected menagerie of people and critters in the shadow of Mount Saint Helena.
Filled to the brim with all the eccentric follies you expect from a chance undertaking turned passion project, The Accidental Vineyard is a raucous, tender-hearted tale of planting the seeds of your passions and cultivating the life you want.
They set out to return the house to its former grandeur—a journey that yields much more, ultimately restoring their hope for a well-rounded life.
Consulting with internationally known CEOs and participating in high-stakes projects with millions of dollars and thousands of jobs on the line, Rich Moran knew the there’s no room for error—no fumbling, misgivings, or delays.
While attempting to lull a crying son to sleep, a wrong turn on a drive through Sonoma County sets him and his family on a life-changing adventure. They can’t resist a promise-laden 19th century home, looking past its rotting wraparound porch and leaky roof. When a good neighbor shows up with grapevines, the transformation of the property grows to include planting a vineyard and making wine.
Before long, the family of city slickers morphs into country mice and joins an unexpected menagerie of people and critters in the shadow of Mount Saint Helena.
Filled to the brim with all the eccentric follies you expect from a chance undertaking turned passion project, The Accidental Vineyard is a raucous, tender-hearted tale of planting the seeds of your passions and cultivating the life you want.
- GenresNonfiction
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2025
5 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 15, 2025
Such a fun book! Wonderful long view into the evolution of an inspiring, entertaining family business (an estate winery). Rich is a client of mine, and his incredible storytelling skills are on full display here. Highly recommended!
September 18, 2025
From the moment I requested a copy of The Accidental Vineyard, I had a feeling reading it would be a tug-of-war between my curiosity about wine making and my limited ability to swallow the amount of wealth and privilege necessary for Moran to take on such a project. This initial impression was entirely correct. This book was a war in a wineglass.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are many places in his memoir where Moran comes off as quite likable. It’s clear he loves his family – though his wife is not the only one who thinks he’s being real weird about his daughter’s future wedding while she’s still in the single digits. And facing down a chimneyfull of bats is not only amusing to read about but proves to be a great equalizer. Rich or poor, there’s only so many bat drive-bys your sanity can take.
But then there’s the anecdote where Moran pats himself on the back for the job cuts his advice to a company resulted in. That guy is so much happier working with his hands in construction rather than sitting at a desk. Granted, contractor work can, in fact, pay decently—because it's frequently unionized. It can also be physically grueling, especially if you’re not used to it. Even giving Moran the benefit of the doubt and assuming that conversation really happened, I can’t help but think the guy laid off must have received a helluva golden parachute, to be content with his life being upended that way.
The valorizing of ‘simple’ physical labor over office and executive work haunts nigh-every page of this book. Instead of cozy, it comes off as Luddite to a reactionary point. I can’t help but think of Marie Antoinette playing shepherdess in her specially constructed royal garden, or Lev Tolstoy, a landed noble whose wife edited and copied all his writing, waxing poetic about the purity of a ploughman’s work. While I appreciate Moran giving credit where credit is due and admitting that most of the hard, specialized labor on his home restoration and vineyard was done by professionals, his characterization of those workers as happy, simple, and totally not being exploited for their underpaid, backbreaking labor leaves a bit to be desired. I’m also unimpressed by his specifically pausing to mention the superstition of the Latino workers in particular. It might have helped if he knew/mentioned any of those workers by name, instead of lumping them all together. In contrast, other landowners from the region, the ones he actually makes friends with, sure do get named. Moreover, since Moran couldn’t get hands on with a lot of the work being done, the reader therefore misses much of the visceral, entertaining detail on that work.
I’m sure the Moran Manor wine’s delicious. I’ll even admit I’m tempted to try it. And as I mentioned previously, Moran picked a tricky tightrope to walk. I badly needed him to have a bit more self-awareness of his privilege, but let’s be real, if this book was self-flagellation all the way down, I would have rolled my eyes at that too. I’m not entirely unsympathetic to this rock-and-a-hard-place. But I would also need more wine, less smug, to give this book anything above two stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ben Bella Books for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are many places in his memoir where Moran comes off as quite likable. It’s clear he loves his family – though his wife is not the only one who thinks he’s being real weird about his daughter’s future wedding while she’s still in the single digits. And facing down a chimneyfull of bats is not only amusing to read about but proves to be a great equalizer. Rich or poor, there’s only so many bat drive-bys your sanity can take.
But then there’s the anecdote where Moran pats himself on the back for the job cuts his advice to a company resulted in. That guy is so much happier working with his hands in construction rather than sitting at a desk. Granted, contractor work can, in fact, pay decently—because it's frequently unionized. It can also be physically grueling, especially if you’re not used to it. Even giving Moran the benefit of the doubt and assuming that conversation really happened, I can’t help but think the guy laid off must have received a helluva golden parachute, to be content with his life being upended that way.
The valorizing of ‘simple’ physical labor over office and executive work haunts nigh-every page of this book. Instead of cozy, it comes off as Luddite to a reactionary point. I can’t help but think of Marie Antoinette playing shepherdess in her specially constructed royal garden, or Lev Tolstoy, a landed noble whose wife edited and copied all his writing, waxing poetic about the purity of a ploughman’s work. While I appreciate Moran giving credit where credit is due and admitting that most of the hard, specialized labor on his home restoration and vineyard was done by professionals, his characterization of those workers as happy, simple, and totally not being exploited for their underpaid, backbreaking labor leaves a bit to be desired. I’m also unimpressed by his specifically pausing to mention the superstition of the Latino workers in particular. It might have helped if he knew/mentioned any of those workers by name, instead of lumping them all together. In contrast, other landowners from the region, the ones he actually makes friends with, sure do get named. Moreover, since Moran couldn’t get hands on with a lot of the work being done, the reader therefore misses much of the visceral, entertaining detail on that work.
I’m sure the Moran Manor wine’s delicious. I’ll even admit I’m tempted to try it. And as I mentioned previously, Moran picked a tricky tightrope to walk. I badly needed him to have a bit more self-awareness of his privilege, but let’s be real, if this book was self-flagellation all the way down, I would have rolled my eyes at that too. I’m not entirely unsympathetic to this rock-and-a-hard-place. But I would also need more wine, less smug, to give this book anything above two stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ben Bella Books for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.
October 4, 2025
This book was wonderful fun - listening to it made me want to head to wine country north of San Fransico and visit some wineries. I loved this story and especially loved his style. When they first moved to the house and were there with their tennis rackets at the ready to combat the bats, I just laughed aloud. And then later, when he describes the workers falling to their knees when thousands of bats come flying out of the walls, but the same workers had no trouble taking care of the snakes in the overgrown pool - I kept laughing. It was heartwarming and wonderful to hear this story. I did feel like they were really lucky to be able to take on this adventure and work on the house for so many years, while also having a house and career in the city, but that didn't upset me, as it did some readers; it just made me wish I could do something like this.
The turquoise truck, the dog, the tv commercial, the vines from the neighbor, and of course, the wedding that finally happens on the historic stairs of this historic house - I loved it all.
I have already recommended this book to many people and look forward to visiting Moran Manor the next time I am in the Bay Area. Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
The turquoise truck, the dog, the tv commercial, the vines from the neighbor, and of course, the wedding that finally happens on the historic stairs of this historic house - I loved it all.
I have already recommended this book to many people and look forward to visiting Moran Manor the next time I am in the Bay Area. Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
September 19, 2025
The Accidental Vineyard was everything I hoped it would be. I enjoyed hearing the Moran family's story. Living in California I am familiar with the iconic Golden Gate bridge and Sonoma/Napa wine country. Richard's descriptive writing was very well done and made it easy to visualize the road trip, the city, his small town growing up, and ultimately the family vineyard. In a world where there is so much unknown right now, it was nice to read about a family following their dream and taking a leap of faith to live the life they wanted.
George Newbern did a wonderful job with the narration. I really felt like I was listening to Richard Moran tell his story, which technically I was. His voice was easy to listen to and the emotions of going from the big city to small town country life came through effortlessly.
Thank you NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for honest thoughts.
George Newbern did a wonderful job with the narration. I really felt like I was listening to Richard Moran tell his story, which technically I was. His voice was easy to listen to and the emotions of going from the big city to small town country life came through effortlessly.
Thank you NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for honest thoughts.
October 6, 2025
Enjoyable and entertaining!
November 19, 2025
If, like me, are a fan of House Hunters Renovations or any of the European television shows dealing with old house renovations, then you will like this book. The author, a reorg specialist from San Francisco, and his wife find a rundown mansion about an hour out from the city. They buy it and renovate it. Where the story is rather different from most other shows like it, the author has plenty of money to hire the best workers, use the best materials, and have the biggest plans. Nothing against that, I wish that it were I in that position, and it makes for a good story. Moran is a good writer, you should have no problem following him as he goes about the renovation. It's an interesting story. And not being satisfied with the mind-blowing renovation, he decides to plant a vineyard on the property, and goes about creating great wine. I enjoyed his journey.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews