Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romance-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine.In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison—a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder—unless he paid a one million euro ransom. Villaine believed it to be a sick joke, but that proved a fatal miscalculation and the crime shocked this fabled region of France. The sinister story that Vanity Fair journalist Maximillian Potter uncovered would lead to a sting operation by some of France's top detectives, the primary suspect's suicide, and a dramatic investigation. This botanical crime threatened to destroy the fiercely traditional culture surrounding the world's greatest wine.Shadows in the Vineyard takes us deep into a captivating world full of fascinating characters, small-town French politics, an unforgettable narrative, and a local culture defined by the twinned veins of excess and vitality and the deep reverent attention to the land that runs through it.
"After all whether boom or bust, it's a bullish market for booze."
The Romanee-Conti Domaine (vineyard), a national treasure in the Burgundian countryside, is overseen by "le grande monsieur", an honorific bestowed on Monsieur de Villaine because "his heart is on the earth." There technically is no French word for winemaker as "French philosophy states that no man makes wine; God does." Burgundian vignerons deal almost exclusively with the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay varietals, with over thirteen hundred varietals grown. A good wine is a mix of the grape, the earth, and the rain. But what one saboteur did in a night in 2010 risked the heritage of the most expensive wine on the market. He drilled minute holes in the root systems then extorted money. What is discussed in this book is not only this heinous crime, but also the history of this Domaine going back to the ancien regime. It was simply fascinating.
The crime mentioned in the title of this book could take up about twenty pages. It is not a particularly compelling crime to begin with and the rest of the book comes across as disjointed filler. The other themes, the 1700's part and the family history of the people involved are ok but it jumps around so much that it was hard to follow. Disappointing.
An informative read. There really isn't enough material about the crime itself to fill a book, but Potter has also provided enough history of the Domaine and its owners to make it interesting. The pages of Louis XV history was not necessary, and the author repeated himself in several cases, but overall it was an informative read, adding some background to almost anyone's knowledge of the region and players in the all important Burgundy region. There was a useful illustration of the Burgundy region, and one of France's wine regions, but it is sad that no photos were included of the criminals, the cabin in the forest, the vineyards, etc. A worthwhile book for those interested in wine.
It is très annoying when an écrivain randomly sprinkles his texte with words en français. It is also annoying that his publisher/editor couldn't be bothered to have someone check the French for errors and missteps, both for language ("senteur" is feminine, not masculine) and cultural references (how can you go on about French Protestants and never mention the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes?). Naturally, by "someone", I mean myself :) Ultimately, this book promises more than it delivers. The plot in question was dreamt up by a lone madman who only figures for a couple of chapters. The story of Aubert de Villaine is slightly more compelling; the story of the prince de Conti, not as well told. And what is with the bizarre formulation of calling Madame de Pompadour "the Madame"? In the Acknowledgements, the author either anticipates such criticisms, or indulges in false modesty, when he writes, "If I have made mistakes in presenting this story, I hope they do not distract from the magic of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Burgundy. My aim was to bottle the truths in such a way as to enthrall and inform, to give readers a context so that should they desire to drink a Burgundy wine they might more fully appreciate all of what is in their glass. Most of all, I aspired to produce a work that captures the essence of Burgundians, and to honor them and their sacred land" (p. 279). While I was not exactly enthralled by this book, I *do* now have a strong desire to return to Burgundy and to drink Burgundy wine.
a true crime category of book, but author reaches for more and we get history of cote d or, the familys' back stories of how the ended up being very very rich farmers, french history of 1750's and how this particular vineyard was named romanee de conti (the prince de conti, louise XV's cousin, the prince and pompadour hated, HATED each other, oh plus the prince just may have tried to goad the protestants and english to attack XV), the crime itself, a rather diabolical but mundane hair brain scheme by 3 time loser bank robber, and lots n lots of talk about wine. a good read for its complexity and synthesis.
A great article (in Vanity Fair) that should have stayed an article. I finally got annoyed about halfway through the book about the way the author was manipulating the flimsy amount of material to hold my interest as a reader for an entire book and went and found the original article online and read that. It's a great article but not a great book.
This was tough for a star rating - The author (Potter) initially wrote this story for a magazine. I bet condensed into a magazine article it was probably really interesting and great to read. As a book - not so much. It is an interesting story, but I feel like the author literally took his article and to make it a book wrote pages and pages about the history of each and every person that remotely touched the story. It was distracting, WAY too much detail, and confused me as the reader. The first two chapters I really enjoyed - I was into the pacing, it was relaxing and interesting to learn about Burgundy and how they make the wine. But then it left the vineyard and the book left the interesting realm and went to drudgery. Why would an editor allow this?
I am a Francophile so I was extremely annoyed when the author admitted in the beginning of the book that he spent months in France researching this story - AND DIDN'T SPEAK FRENCH! What??!!! How do you interview people? This is the remote countryside, I guarantee many of the people don't speak English. AND he admits he doesn't drink much wine. WHAT??!!! This book is about the best wine in the world. He also threw in a few "We American's rescued the French" comments that I found annoying. His tone and style of writing I found incredibly condescending and irritating after chapter 2. I wanted to find out the ending of the central poisoning plot (Had to wade through chapters on people that literally were never spoken of again) so I ended up skimming a lot of his people history sections. Four pages on the chief police inspector - why? Many pages on a NEIGHBOR of the vineyard that is NEVER spoken of again.
How can he assume to know exactly what that person felt? Said? I knew that those sections were probably exaggerated or made up. He talks about the Prince de Conti from the 1700's but you can't really find the tie to why... other than that the Prince owned the vineyard. This was not well written or tied in. I can't help but feel the private Aubert de Villaine would be appalled by this book. He presumes to understand Aubert's French heart without understanding French or wine. Que dommage! The book concludes much as how it read... disappointing. Built up to think it was going to be interesting... but not.
Honestly I got so frustrated at the non sequitor history that I googled the story so I would know what happened!
Settle back (perhaps with a glass of wine) and relax. “Shadows in the Vineyard” is a thoughtful, smart, elegant look at a nasty attack on the “storied” vineyard known as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. DRC if you’re in the know.
I am not,
Given the heightened terrorism fears in France and across Europe as I write this review (January 2015), it’s hard to put this particular attack in context. But Maximillian Potter does—and he sees the 2010 extortion-by-poison as a big-picture event with roots, so to speak, in history.
“Shadows in the Vineyard” covers lots of ground and (sorry for all the agriculture metaphors) and tills the soil with care. Fans of heart-stopping true crime stuff, seek else.
The attack was wicked and required enormous dedication—carefully drilling holes in over 700 precious vines and threatening to inject them all unless an exorbitant ransom is paid.
Potter intersperses tales of the crime and the events as they unfolded with glimpses of history—Louis XV, Madame Pompadour, the Prince de Conti all get screen time as Potter demonstrates the growing reverence for wine. The shadows in the vineyard of DRC are shadows first cast a few centuries ago—and Potter’s case is well prosecuted. Along the way are questions about classism, snobbery and outright religious oppression.
In fact, the chase for the suspect is hardly heart-pounding (despite several dead ends that stump the elite team of investigators) and the center of gravity for the book shifts to the growing decay and troubles under the reign of Louis XV.
As the narrative flips back and forth, you may feel at times like you’ve strayed way too far from the inciting crime of this story. But Potter brings the threads back together in deft manner at the end and we see how one vineyard took on such exalted status that it could be compared to a work of art—and, as such, draw the attention of French government officials to protect the purity of the lineage and, well, bloodline. As a crime, in the end, was audacious but didn't amount to all that much. But Potter takes the case like a cutting, nurtures it carefully, and gives us all a narrative we can sit back and savor.
Interesting. There's a book on everything!!! But who has heard of the sinister plot to poison a vineyard? And ALL the history that is behind this particular vineyard? Royalty! Intrigue! Dark Criminal Mind! Plot to ransom antidote to poisoned vines! Family turned on family in vineyard ownership! Distribution intrigue! And the "Vine Whisperer", The 'Grand Monsieur' de Villaine, who coaxes the grapes to perfection in a bottle. I'm glad the poisoning was caught in time. However, that brings me not one sip closer to ever having a glass of this most expensive fermented grape juice potion in the world. Enjoyed all the aspects of this true story. Read much of it aloud to Winston when traveling. We enjoyed it. Read it for the "whodunit" and the History.
3.5 stars. The subtitle is a bit misleading here. Although it is about the plot to poison the world's "greatest" wine, it's much more about a wider range of history centered around one famous vineyard. I loved it because I found that broader history interesting, but I could see someone else being frustrated if they went in expecting a lot of true crime reporting. I thought this was solid writing and very interesting all the way through.
This book makes me want to try a burgundy wine, the La Tâche 2008 vintage to be precise, which belongs to the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
Maximillian Porter, a self-proclaimed beer and whiskey lover, describes the wines and the vineyards and his reactions to them in an extremely poetic manner and transports you into this incredible alternative world that the non-wine drinker has no idea exists. This writing deserves 4 or 5 stars.
The storytelling itself though, which are accounts of events dating from before French King Louis XV until present day, can be a bit convoluted as he jumps back and forth in time, mentions dozens of characters and dozens of events, making it difficult to place yourself in the correct timeline to comprehend how it all eventually ties together. You do finally get to it, but it is not an easy road. This writing has 2 stars.
To be honest, there was so much information that at some point I thought that the book should have probably been made in two parts: part 1 with all the historical accounts and part 2 the present-day telling of the famous vigneron, Monsieur Aubert de Villaine, and his struggles with the domaine since he was a child, until the recent plot to threaten his famous vineyard.
However, the author must be commended on his courage to undertake writing about a topic he wasn't familiar with and was just introduced to, so the final score is an average of 3 stars.
Once I got into this book (past the first 50 pages or so) it really pulled me in. While the story of the plot to poison vines and extort great sums of $$ from a Burgundy Grand Cru winery played out in only a few months time, Potter does an excellent job of storytelling - to give the history behind La Romanee'-Conti as well as all the players in story. He intersperses the history of the vineyard, Burgundy, significant wine events with the plot to extort the owners of DRC.
For those who love wine - especially Burgundy wine, this is a must read!
The crime that is the focus of the book takes up a total of maybe 10 pages and is pretty underwhelming in the end. The rest of the book is deep dives into the family and history of just about any person who had anything to do with the Domaine, Burgundy, or the crime reaching back even 1,000 years ago. The book constantly skips around in time, place and subject so it could be hard to follow, and there were more than a few typos in my edition, which is a distraction. Overall my 3 stars are mostly for the history and wine knowledge I gained.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read this book was an experience. For several moments I saw myself planning a trip to France, more specifically to Bourgogne and its Côte-d’Or. The book follows the crime against the DRC in 2010, but it is much more than this, it is a book that covers centuries of wine and history and interesting figures.. I strongly recommend this reading, but keep a glass of wine in a short distance.
Interesting story about a wine crime that could have been told in an essay, as it originally was told in Vanity Fair. However, I found the other information within the book more enjoyable; I especially nerded-out on the histories of wine and wine production in Burgundy and Northern California, and also how significant historical events impacted vineyards and wine productions. If you are a wine history nerd, you will enjoy this book.
This was probably 3.5 stars for me. I was expecting more of a true crime story, even tough the friend that recommended it told me it went deeply into the history of making Burgundy wine in France, Parts of it were pretty interesting to me, but I am not a big wine drinker, and I would think this may be more compelling for those that have an interest in that subject.
This seems to have been an attempt at narrative non-fiction but instead, I got a story that jumped from the present to the reign of Louis XV to the time around WWI to the time around WWII and back and I had no idea why.
Maximillian Potter, the author of Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine, writes at the very end of his book: "I wanted to hold [my wife and my children] and tell them that life is good; that no matter what evil there is in the world, there is Burgundy, there is wine, there is light, there is love." This little book is the current selection for my local library book group, and I am going to predict that is won't be much praised. I love France and I love good wine, so my interest was held in spite of the rather laborious read. It is a true story, but somehow I think there would have been a better way of making this a more captivating tale.... in fact, I was thinking that a good mystery writer could have gone about this in a totally different style, building up the backstories of the true perpetrators in a mesmerizing way. But instead there is an effort to create a great mystery with overtones of revenge and historical comeuppances which just don't work.... that said, it was quite intriguing to read more about Madame de Pompadour and her hate and rivalry with the Prince de Conti, the near invasion of the English in support of a Huguenot uprising, and lots of other historical tidbits. And I quite liked the real person of the Grand Monsieur, the man at the heart of the Romanée-Conti vineyard which was the victim of this "crime." So although overall I was underwhelmed by the book, I still found enough in it to keep my interest alive throughout. And I had to love this info: "When World War I began in the summer of 1914, Burgundy had been preparing for harvest. As it mobilized for war, the French government did its best to accommodate wineries, allowing vignerons to delay reporting for duty until after the grapes were picked. Wineries were even allowed to keep their horses until the work was complete." And the best: "After that first war the Americans got the idea that drinking alcohol was bad for them and fell into the Great Depression." I was rolling in the aisles....
Why did I want to read (listen) to this book? Wine fascinates me. It has been talked about since biblical times and has taken on the prestige drink of celebrations, congratulations, acceptable item to bring to a dinner party, an accompaniment to dinner, with friends, or yes… while reading a book. While I myself am not a big wine drinker (I like sweeter wines, I refer to them as “baby wines”), I am still fascinated by the process and the beauty of wine in a glass.
Shadows in the vineyard is an engaging true story. It was interesting to learn about this event in our not too distant history and the impact it had on this community. The story line is well paced and kept me fascinated in what was happening. If you have interest in true events this book may be just the one for you.
I found this book interesting! I didn't read it for it's "good story" content; but read it to learn about Burgundy; and I did. I listened to the book; I will now read it. As I want to log into my brain the names of people, dates and domaines and chateaux! I thought the author did a great job of adding a little mystery and intrigue to anotherwise recitation of historical facts around Burgundy. What I found amazing is how he could weave all the history together and how much I learned by reading the book. Assuming that his characterizations of the people are accurate, I learned alot about the love and character of a vignior.(sp?) If you are interested in Burgundy wines, then it's a great read. If you are looking for simply a mystery, I can see where you would not like the book. I think it's amazing and encouraging though that Mr. Potter learned so much about wines in what is probably a fairly short period of time.
Se spune că podgoria de la Romanée-Conti, Burgundia, Franța, produce printre cele mai bune vinuri din lume. Cele mai rafinate. Dar sigur printre cele mai scumpe. Non-fiction-ul de față pleacă de la o încercare de șantaj asupra proprietarului viilor cu suma de 1 milion de euro, făcută în 2010, pentru a realiza o adevărată istorie a Domeniului, a Burgundiei, a vinurilor franceze, a degustatului și pasiunii viticultorilor de tradiție, a importului vinului francez în SUA și producția de acolo. Foarte bine scrisă, foarte pasionantă, mai ales că în majoritatea paginilor te afli în centrul unui adevărat roman polițist, pentru urmărirea infractorilor, a acțiunilor acestora și asupra implicațiilor în privința recoltei și calității vinului. Parcă ți se face poftă să redevii pasionat de vinul de calitate. Stilul mi-a amintit de Truman Capote.
There is an interesting story in here about the plot to poison vineyards, but it is about the length of a good Vanity Fair article. The rest of the book is full of digression and totally tangential detail. Sometimes this consumed whole chapters that were totally unnecessary, and all that extra baggage made it hard to get into or excited about the core story. I wish it had been just an article - that would have been so much more enjoyable!
On the plus side, it did make me want to drop $10K on one of these bottles of wine. Also, the quality of the language is very good. The sentences are a pleasure to read.
I think the plot summary of this book is misleading in that the book had a few paragraphs about the criminal plan to poison a vineyard, but was mostly about french and american wine making history. I don't even feel it's important to comment on the crime. I ended up learning quite a lot about french history, and plan on trying some good burgundy soon. But if you're looking for a thrilling crime mystery it's best you look elsewhere!
I like the subject matter of the book, interesting and compelling. However, the style and format of the writing left me cold. Couldn't connect with the authors way of telling the story
Fascinating as a complete amateur occasional wine drinker. I enjoyed learning some of the history of the French wine industry. It's a little less intimidating to me now.