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Sam Levitt #1
The Vintage Caper
A globetrotting detective story, filled with the culinary delights and entertaining characters from the national bestselling author of A Year in Provence and our most treasured chronicler of French life.
“Wine and food aficionados will find much to savor.... Light, funny, and packed with a menu’s worth of scrumptious descriptions of exceptional dinners and drinks.” — USA Today
The Vintage Caper begins high above Los Angeles with a world-class heist at the impressive wine cellar of lawyer Danny Roth. Enter Sam Levitt, former lawyer and wine connoisseur, who follows leads to Bordeaux and Provence. The unraveling of the ingenious crime is threaded through with Mayle’s seductive renderings of France’s sensory delights—from a fine Lynch-Bages to the bouillabaisse of Marseille—guaranteed to charm and inform even the most sophisticated palates.
“Wine and food aficionados will find much to savor.... Light, funny, and packed with a menu’s worth of scrumptious descriptions of exceptional dinners and drinks.” — USA Today
The Vintage Caper begins high above Los Angeles with a world-class heist at the impressive wine cellar of lawyer Danny Roth. Enter Sam Levitt, former lawyer and wine connoisseur, who follows leads to Bordeaux and Provence. The unraveling of the ingenious crime is threaded through with Mayle’s seductive renderings of France’s sensory delights—from a fine Lynch-Bages to the bouillabaisse of Marseille—guaranteed to charm and inform even the most sophisticated palates.
240 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2009
242 people are currently reading
2020 people want to read
About the author
Peter Mayle
136 books1,285 followersPeter Mayle was a British author famous for his series of books detailing life in Provence, France. He spent fifteen years in advertising before leaving the business in 1975 to write educational books, including a series on sex education for children and young people. In 1989, A Year in Provence was published and became an international bestseller. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he was a contributing writer to magazines and newspapers. Indeed, his seventh book, A Year in Provence, chronicles a year in the life of a British expatriate who settled in the village of Ménerbes. His book A Good Year was the basis for the eponymous 2006 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring actor Russell Crowe. Peter Mayle died in Provence, France.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 886 reviews
November 9, 2015
This is a thin, silly little mystery by Peter Mayle, who has clearly spent so much time drinking wine in Provence that he's forgotten that mysteries normally contain some element of the mysterious. The Vintage Caper offers little mystery. What it does contain are cliches by the boatload (in case you didn't know, every woman in L.A. is gorgeous but stupid and every lawyer is an a-hole) and a story so flimsy it's ridiculous. The characters are empty and uninspired, and if you haven't figured out whodunit by like page 40, I'm worried about you.
That said, there are two excellent things in this book. Wine and France. These things go a long way with me. I loved Mayle's enthusiastic descriptions of each meal the protagonists eat and the scenery in Paris, Bordeaux and Marseilles. That's what kept me reading and what made me not completely hate this book.
Mayle's best? Absolutely not. A brainless vacation read? Sure. You'll probably never drink wines as fabulous and fabulously expensive as the ones described in this book, so enjoy them vicariously.
That said, there are two excellent things in this book. Wine and France. These things go a long way with me. I loved Mayle's enthusiastic descriptions of each meal the protagonists eat and the scenery in Paris, Bordeaux and Marseilles. That's what kept me reading and what made me not completely hate this book.
Mayle's best? Absolutely not. A brainless vacation read? Sure. You'll probably never drink wines as fabulous and fabulously expensive as the ones described in this book, so enjoy them vicariously.
September 23, 2023
The Vintage Caper is meant to be the start of a new mystery series. It’s one I won’t be bothering to follow. It’s not that the book is bad. It’s just meh. It was so light as to be forgettable. Trite is the word that comes to mind. The characters felt two dimensional and there was no depth to the plot.
The story revolves around the theft of $3 million worth of French wine from an obnoxious entertainment lawyer’s wine cellar in Los Angeles. Sam Levitt is brought in by the insurance company to recover the wine. Sam takes off on an improbable trip to France for leads. There, he is matched with Sophie, who works for the French arm of the insurance company.
It’s been ages since I read Peter Mayle’s A Year in France. I loved his descriptions of the food, wine and people. Here, the writing is bland. Even the ending was flat and disappointing. I kept waiting for a little excitement only to be disappointed. Yes, he throws in lots of descriptions about the food and wine. But it all just felt like padding.
I debated not finishing this but it was only 7 hours, so I persevered. I was thinking I’d find something to entertain me while waiting for Martin Walker’s next Bruno book. But the difference between the two series was immense. Mayle could take a lesson or two from Walker.
I listened to this and the narration was lacking. Eric Davies’ accents were cliches.
The story revolves around the theft of $3 million worth of French wine from an obnoxious entertainment lawyer’s wine cellar in Los Angeles. Sam Levitt is brought in by the insurance company to recover the wine. Sam takes off on an improbable trip to France for leads. There, he is matched with Sophie, who works for the French arm of the insurance company.
It’s been ages since I read Peter Mayle’s A Year in France. I loved his descriptions of the food, wine and people. Here, the writing is bland. Even the ending was flat and disappointing. I kept waiting for a little excitement only to be disappointed. Yes, he throws in lots of descriptions about the food and wine. But it all just felt like padding.
I debated not finishing this but it was only 7 hours, so I persevered. I was thinking I’d find something to entertain me while waiting for Martin Walker’s next Bruno book. But the difference between the two series was immense. Mayle could take a lesson or two from Walker.
I listened to this and the narration was lacking. Eric Davies’ accents were cliches.
July 6, 2021
A mindless read, thin on mystery, cliched characters with uninspired descriptions as if lifted from American noir of the thirties. Termed a caper, but it lacks an ensemble of thieves with an inventive plan to carry out a heist. There is no bumbling police, just a detective who is an expert in wine and good-looking women.
Was hoping for more, but it was an innocuous way to spend a few hours if you really love France and wine.
Was hoping for more, but it was an innocuous way to spend a few hours if you really love France and wine.
March 25, 2013
Famous for his delightful non-fiction, particularly ‘A Year in Provence’ which was, and is, a best seller, (and a charming film with John Thaw performing to his usual brilliant best,) Peter Mayle also writes novels. Well written, easy to read and thoroughly entertaining and amusing novels like ‘Hotel Pastis’ and ‘Anything Considered’. I found them terrific reads, but my favourite was ‘Chasing Cezanne’, that is until his latest, ‘The Vintage Caper’, came out. Peter Mayle has an ease with words and a lovely dry wit, very understated, in an intelligent English style. His novels are also funny. I tell all the grumpy library patrons who complain bitterly that there is nothing to read these days except books stuffed full of too much sex, violence, and weird creatures, that Peter Mayle is just what they need. They usually agree.
‘The Vintage Caper’ involves wine. Wealthy, nouveau riche, ostentatious and thoroughly loathsome American, Danny Roth boasts of his fabulous collection of the creme de la creme of French wines in a snobbish magazine. Some weeks later the pick of these vintages vanishes from his locked and guarded wine cellar. The insurance company, desperate not to pay the nearly three million US dollars the wine was insured for, seek an investigator who knows wine, and who doesn’t mind taking a few risks.
Enter Sam Levitt, once a corporate lawyer, then a corporate criminal, with a remarkable knowledge of wine, and all the shady deals corporations, and people, get up to. He soon tracks the wine to France, but how is he to recover it? I’m not going to spoil the plot, but what happens is hilarious and quite brilliant. If you are tired of depressing reads or can’t stomach more mash, serial killer, or vampire novels, get hold of a copy of ‘The Vintage Caper’. You won’t regret reading it.
December 30, 2019
Do not read this when you are hungry!!! The food descriptions are mouth-watering and if you are a oenophile, you may pour yourself a glass while enjoying a light read. When I realized that a friend had let me borrow a book which was the second in a series, I had to get this one out of the library and read first.
Sam Leavitt is a reformed (well sort of) thief and now working with the police on occasion. He is a wine connoisseur and is called in on an insurance investigation of a theft of 3 million dollars worth of expensive wines. His lead takes him from L.A. to the south of France where the fun begins as he seeks the stolen wine and enjoys the wine and gastronomic delights of the French.
Theft apparently is in the eye of the beholder, for one notorious thief puts it, he arranges a change of ownership for his clients. HA!
On to the next caper!!!!!
Sam Leavitt is a reformed (well sort of) thief and now working with the police on occasion. He is a wine connoisseur and is called in on an insurance investigation of a theft of 3 million dollars worth of expensive wines. His lead takes him from L.A. to the south of France where the fun begins as he seeks the stolen wine and enjoys the wine and gastronomic delights of the French.
Theft apparently is in the eye of the beholder, for one notorious thief puts it, he arranges a change of ownership for his clients. HA!
On to the next caper!!!!!
September 26, 2010
If you expect anything more of this than light caper and heavy gastronomy, you haven't done your homework. Mayle writes with no other purpose than to entertain and to wave the tri-color with unabashed enthusiasm. For a Francophile who loves reading about food and wine almost as much as she does consuming it, this was a pleasant lark. Plot? Bah. Character development? Snort. Believability? Oh, honestly! Who would waste time in the south of France looking for the real world? A world to which I now return, totally homesick for Provence, craving bouillabaisse and hoping someday for the chance to tipple a glass of d'Yquem...
January 31, 2020
This was a charming book by famed travel writer Peter Mayle. It opened up a wine world of which I know nothing, and managed to have suspenseful intrigue with a gentle touch. I would definitely read more from him like this!
June 23, 2010
This book, from the author of A Year in Provence and A Good Year (with Russell Crowe driving a Smart Car in France, who could resist the movie?) is a delightful little escapist read about wine. It covers the gamut too, with wine snobs and wine collectors but it always elevates wine to the place it needs to be: being enjoyed in good company without posturing.
There are so many wonderful meals associated, I feel as though I gained ten pounds just reading this. Still it is a quick read and absolutely delightful for anyone who enjoys wine regions, especially in Bordeaux and Provence.
Mayle's writing has always been delightful, but before this one, the complete story was sometimes cobbled together out of these gorgeous vignettes about wine life. The pieces were always fun but you sometimes left not believing that it worked as a whole. This one works all the way through. I’m not suggesting that this is Faulkner, but at least the guy knows which Bordeaux vintages were good and how lovely a Batard-Montrachet, a gorgeous white Burgundy of the highest order, is drunk with a friend. This time it fits together quite nicely without sacrificing the background about the wine and the food.
There are so many wonderful meals associated, I feel as though I gained ten pounds just reading this. Still it is a quick read and absolutely delightful for anyone who enjoys wine regions, especially in Bordeaux and Provence.
Mayle's writing has always been delightful, but before this one, the complete story was sometimes cobbled together out of these gorgeous vignettes about wine life. The pieces were always fun but you sometimes left not believing that it worked as a whole. This one works all the way through. I’m not suggesting that this is Faulkner, but at least the guy knows which Bordeaux vintages were good and how lovely a Batard-Montrachet, a gorgeous white Burgundy of the highest order, is drunk with a friend. This time it fits together quite nicely without sacrificing the background about the wine and the food.
June 19, 2019
I think if I was an oenophile (or even drank wine!), I might have appreciated this book more. I did like the descriptions of France and of the food, but I thought some of the characters, though funny, were somewhat caricatures. It was a pleasant book overall, but I would not feel inclined to read the sequel.
September 15, 2019
Digital audio performed by Eric Davies
3.5***
This is book #1 in the Sam Levitt series. Sam's a former corporate attorney and now something of a crime expert; he's also a lover of good food, good wine and beautiful women. When he's asked by his former girlfriend, and lead insurance investigator, to help discover the truth behind a $3 million wine heist, Sam agrees. After all, it involves an expenses-paid trip to France.
Mayle has given the reader a crime caper with a plausible (if fantastic) plot, a wonderful cast of characters, and mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine. (Fair warning: You may find that you are constantly hungry when reading this.) Mayle’s love of France shines through; I could practically smell the aromas from a restaurant’s kitchen and feel the sun on my face. And I love that twisty ending! A fast, fun, delicious read.
Eric Davies does a fine job reading the audiobook. He sets a good pace and has the skill to differentiate the characters. I loved his interpretation of Reboul.
3.5***
This is book #1 in the Sam Levitt series. Sam's a former corporate attorney and now something of a crime expert; he's also a lover of good food, good wine and beautiful women. When he's asked by his former girlfriend, and lead insurance investigator, to help discover the truth behind a $3 million wine heist, Sam agrees. After all, it involves an expenses-paid trip to France.
Mayle has given the reader a crime caper with a plausible (if fantastic) plot, a wonderful cast of characters, and mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine. (Fair warning: You may find that you are constantly hungry when reading this.) Mayle’s love of France shines through; I could practically smell the aromas from a restaurant’s kitchen and feel the sun on my face. And I love that twisty ending! A fast, fun, delicious read.
Eric Davies does a fine job reading the audiobook. He sets a good pace and has the skill to differentiate the characters. I loved his interpretation of Reboul.
September 30, 2016
This is ridiculous. If this is any reflection of the cruise company that recommended this novel prior to a trip to Bordeaux then we should consider cancelling our trip. It begins with a shallow, affluent Hollywood character with every stereotype of what a billionaire jerk might be. Then it goes to similar description and character in Paris, Bordeaux, and Marsalis. Women are objectified on both sides of the Atlantic, valued only for their legs and successful plastic surgery. They are referred to as "girls" for Petes sake. Place descriptions are cheap and banal, not even worthy of brochure descriptions distributed by travel companies. And there is no mystery or suspense one might expect from a book with "caper" in the title.
February 26, 2017
This book was okay. The characters were shallow and predictable and the mystery wasn't actually a mystery--there was only one suspect and everything was set up from the beginning. This is not the worst book in the world but there are many better ones.
December 30, 2016
A light-hearted caper that seemed to me to get a bit bogged down after a while (our hero arrives in Paris and we get a chapter's worth of tourist guide) and thereafter seemed never quite able to unbog itself.
A vile Hollywood lawyer, after engineering a major newspaper feature on his wine collection so that he can be snooty to his rich pals, is rewarded by the heisting soon afterwards of millions of bucks' worth of his best bottles. The insurance company brings in crook-turned-PI Sam Levitt to investigate, and he travels to Paris and then Marseille in search of the fugitive hooch. Far too soon, Sam and his cronies -- lovely divorcee Sophie Costes of the insurance company's Bordeaux branch, and her louche journalist cousin Philippe -- discover what seems to be the vino in question, but then there's the long and somewhat dull process of establishing that these really are the stolen bottles. Throughout, the characters all wine-snob interminably at each other, which I'm sure must be great fun for wine-snob readers but which for a philistine like moi, who can basically tell good plonk from bad, soon became a tad tedious.
The text is brightened by the occasional clever turn of phrase -- for example,
All in all, moderately good fun in a sort of sub-Carl Hiaasen way.
A vile Hollywood lawyer, after engineering a major newspaper feature on his wine collection so that he can be snooty to his rich pals, is rewarded by the heisting soon afterwards of millions of bucks' worth of his best bottles. The insurance company brings in crook-turned-PI Sam Levitt to investigate, and he travels to Paris and then Marseille in search of the fugitive hooch. Far too soon, Sam and his cronies -- lovely divorcee Sophie Costes of the insurance company's Bordeaux branch, and her louche journalist cousin Philippe -- discover what seems to be the vino in question, but then there's the long and somewhat dull process of establishing that these really are the stolen bottles. Throughout, the characters all wine-snob interminably at each other, which I'm sure must be great fun for wine-snob readers but which for a philistine like moi, who can basically tell good plonk from bad, soon became a tad tedious.
The text is brightened by the occasional clever turn of phrase -- for example,
Had they not known that he was in charge of [the posh wine] cellar, they would have taken him for a professor, or perhaps a poet fallen on good times.
All in all, moderately good fun in a sort of sub-Carl Hiaasen way.
July 23, 2017
What a fun read!
I guess technically this is a mystery but it's really a joy-filled romp filled with exciting places from Beverly Hills to Paris to Bordeaux and Marseilles with interesting characters including a pompous lawyer, a patriotic billionaire and an academic winemaster - not to mention all the incredible food and drink!
Danny Roth is an entertainment attorney and lover of beautiful things (hence his current trophy wife). He wants to raise his profile in Hollywood so he decides to publicize his multi-million dollar wine cellar. Consequently, of course, there is a wine heist!
Sam Levitt is reluctantly called into the case by his former love interest Elena who works for the insurance company that holds the policy for the stolen wine. Sam has a complicated and somewhat shady past and a lavish lifestyle to maintain. He decides to take the case hoping to patch things up with Elena - and his fee - even though he really dislikes the client (but then, so does everyone). The trail leads him to France where he meets with former associates, and gets schooled on the finer points of local French cuisines.
In addition to all the details that make foodies' mouths water, there are these wonderfully accurate sketches of the various characters that are quite funny without being malicious. Then there are the great cultural commentaries.
If the rest of the books are written in this vein, "caper" is definitely the best catchword for these adventures. This would be a great movie!
I guess technically this is a mystery but it's really a joy-filled romp filled with exciting places from Beverly Hills to Paris to Bordeaux and Marseilles with interesting characters including a pompous lawyer, a patriotic billionaire and an academic winemaster - not to mention all the incredible food and drink!
Danny Roth is an entertainment attorney and lover of beautiful things (hence his current trophy wife). He wants to raise his profile in Hollywood so he decides to publicize his multi-million dollar wine cellar. Consequently, of course, there is a wine heist!
Sam Levitt is reluctantly called into the case by his former love interest Elena who works for the insurance company that holds the policy for the stolen wine. Sam has a complicated and somewhat shady past and a lavish lifestyle to maintain. He decides to take the case hoping to patch things up with Elena - and his fee - even though he really dislikes the client (but then, so does everyone). The trail leads him to France where he meets with former associates, and gets schooled on the finer points of local French cuisines.
In addition to all the details that make foodies' mouths water, there are these wonderfully accurate sketches of the various characters that are quite funny without being malicious. Then there are the great cultural commentaries.
If the rest of the books are written in this vein, "caper" is definitely the best catchword for these adventures. This would be a great movie!
March 26, 2025
What a delightful novel set in the world of wine! Peter Mayle has been one of my favorite authors for nearly 15 years because of his memoirs about living in Provence, but I had yet to read any of his fiction. I’m heading to Provence myself this summer (inspired by his adventures, in fact!) and decided to dive into his novels set in Marseilles, Aix, Luberon, and beyond. I started with this one on a whim, and I enjoyed it so much! The characters felt authentic, the settings in Los Angeles and Marseilles were evocative, the food and wine descriptions were beyond, and I actually learned a lot about French wine culture, too. The mystery was intriguing and well-paced without being overly complicated, and the writing, as always with Peter Mayle, was excellent. This is escapist reading at its finest.
December 21, 2019
niezbyt wysokich lotów historyjka z Francją i winem w tle
przeczytane w zasadzie tylko dla opisów wina i kuchni francuskiej
1.5
przeczytane w zasadzie tylko dla opisów wina i kuchni francuskiej
1.5
February 20, 2017
I love Peter Mayle's Provence books, where he details his life after moving there from England. He apparently also has a series of detective novels that focus on food and wine, a combination of two things I enjoy quite a bit, so I thought I'd give them a try.
Mayle's a strong writer, and that does come through here, but the story itself was a bit silly. This follows Sam Settler, a once-thief now working as a private detective, as he tries to track down millions of dollars of stolen wine. I imagine his alliterative name is a throwback to Sam Spade and the golden era of detective fiction, but that's really where the comparisons stop.
My main problem with this novel is that there's just no reason at all to care. I think, in detective fiction, readers want to see the crime solved for the following reasons:
Sympathy for the victim - The victim here, the wine collector, is portrayed as a complete douchbag. He's an entertainment lawyer who treats everyone around him with contempt, who values impressing others above all else. You are meant to hate him from the first page of this novel.
Seeking justice for the crime - The crime itself is serious, the theft of something worth millions, but it isn't a murder. If the thief is never caught, the wine will just have a new owner, potentially even one that will appreciate it more. I supposed if you felt really strongly about wine collecting, the idea of this happening would sting, but I doubt most people would lose sleep over it.
The detective's life is threatened - In many detective or crime novels, the detective's life may be at stake. They may need to solve the crime to prove themselves innocent or to bring down the criminals who may now be targeting them after getting involved. At the very least, it's a crime from the past that went unsolved and has haunted them ever since. Sam is under no pressure in this. If he's not investigating, he's just having nice dinners or sightseeing.
The detective's livelihood is threatened - Most detective or crime fiction protagonists need to solve these cases in order to continue paying rent, whether that's keeping their job in the police force or just making money as a private consultant. They need to get paid. Sam Settler is independently wealthy from his previous life of crime, so he really doesn't need to solve this. He travels to France with a first class plane ticket and eats caviar multiple times.
It feels a bit weird reading someone's fiction when you know them for their non-fiction. I imagine it feels a bit like watching a friend act on stage for the first time, making it harder to see the character rather than the actor, but it didn't take too long to adjust. As I said, Mayle is a very good writer. I especially enjoyed any scene in which the characters were eating. This feels like food travel writing with a fictional plot thrown in, which I would absolutely love if it was done well.
If you're the sort of person that complains about George R.R. Martin spending too much time describing food, I'd avoid this. Even though I was disappointed with the plot, I might give the next book a try. He might have just been finding his footing with this one, and I really want a detective series full of food and travel writing.
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Mayle's a strong writer, and that does come through here, but the story itself was a bit silly. This follows Sam Settler, a once-thief now working as a private detective, as he tries to track down millions of dollars of stolen wine. I imagine his alliterative name is a throwback to Sam Spade and the golden era of detective fiction, but that's really where the comparisons stop.
My main problem with this novel is that there's just no reason at all to care. I think, in detective fiction, readers want to see the crime solved for the following reasons:
Sympathy for the victim - The victim here, the wine collector, is portrayed as a complete douchbag. He's an entertainment lawyer who treats everyone around him with contempt, who values impressing others above all else. You are meant to hate him from the first page of this novel.
Seeking justice for the crime - The crime itself is serious, the theft of something worth millions, but it isn't a murder. If the thief is never caught, the wine will just have a new owner, potentially even one that will appreciate it more. I supposed if you felt really strongly about wine collecting, the idea of this happening would sting, but I doubt most people would lose sleep over it.
The detective's life is threatened - In many detective or crime novels, the detective's life may be at stake. They may need to solve the crime to prove themselves innocent or to bring down the criminals who may now be targeting them after getting involved. At the very least, it's a crime from the past that went unsolved and has haunted them ever since. Sam is under no pressure in this. If he's not investigating, he's just having nice dinners or sightseeing.
The detective's livelihood is threatened - Most detective or crime fiction protagonists need to solve these cases in order to continue paying rent, whether that's keeping their job in the police force or just making money as a private consultant. They need to get paid. Sam Settler is independently wealthy from his previous life of crime, so he really doesn't need to solve this. He travels to France with a first class plane ticket and eats caviar multiple times.
It feels a bit weird reading someone's fiction when you know them for their non-fiction. I imagine it feels a bit like watching a friend act on stage for the first time, making it harder to see the character rather than the actor, but it didn't take too long to adjust. As I said, Mayle is a very good writer. I especially enjoyed any scene in which the characters were eating. This feels like food travel writing with a fictional plot thrown in, which I would absolutely love if it was done well.
If you're the sort of person that complains about George R.R. Martin spending too much time describing food, I'd avoid this. Even though I was disappointed with the plot, I might give the next book a try. He might have just been finding his footing with this one, and I really want a detective series full of food and travel writing.
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May 31, 2018
This book was horribly and unrepentantly pretentious. It was also boring and completely predictable. I'm probably not the target demographic for this book because I don't have millions of dollars and I have never purchased a bottle of wine upwards of twenty dollars. But there is not a single relatable character in this book. In fact, all the characters are rather flat.
Danny Roth is a celebrity lawyer with a nice home in Hollywood where he cultivates a wine cellar worth millions of dollars. Not content to only showing his cellar off to the half dozen visitors he gets to his home per year, he requests that the LA Times do a piece featuring him and his wine cellar. In the piece, he brilliantly describes most of his collection. Not surprisingly, 3 million dollars worth of wine gets stolen from his wine cellar while he's off hobnobbing in Aspen. And if that description of the first few chapters doesn't instantly turn you off to the book, read on.
Of course, Mr. Roth, disappointed that the police are not frantically investigating this robbery, calls his insurance to see if he can get paid the worth of the wine. The insurance company does not want to pay out millions of dollars, so they recruit Sam Levitt, ex-lawyer turned ex-con, to see if he can figure out what happened to the wine. Naturally, Sam's search leads him to France where he spends the majority of the time eating in French restaurants and drinking French wine while putting everything on the insurance company's tab. He meets up with a French insurance agent from their French office and they begin searching out clues.
They are lead to a multibillionaire's home. They suspect he may have stolen the wine. But how to get into a billionaire's home, you ask? Simple. Pretend to be writing a book about the greatest privately owned wine cellars in the world. You will get immediate and almost unrestricted access to the wine cellar. And then, when you want to check the bottles for prints, just take the guy who runs the cellar out for dinner. Then one person can check for prints while more people eat on the insurance company's dime. Once you find out the prints are what you need, you know you need to get the wine back. But the billionaire is just so nice! And so is the guy who runs the cellar. We can't implicate them in this crime that they absolutely committed. Instead, we'll steal the wine out of the cellar, once again getting the sommelier out of the way by taking him to dinner. We'll put the stolen wine into cases and take them in a rented van to an abandoned farmhouse conveniently owned by one of the people in the story. Then we'll leave the wine in a safe, public place and have our journalist friend discover its whereabouts thanks to an anonymous tip and the wine will go back home.
Seriously, that's the whole book. 223 pages summarized for you here in this review. Every idea the characters came up with worked without a hitch. And their ideas were pretty dumb, let's be honest. If I was a billionaire, you better believe I would be investigating anyone who claimed to be writing a book before I let them into my wine cellar. The whole thing was just cheesy and stupid. And pointless. I will never read a book by this author again. I will, however, relish a glass of wine from the $5 bottle I have currently awaiting me in the wine rack. Relish it.
Danny Roth is a celebrity lawyer with a nice home in Hollywood where he cultivates a wine cellar worth millions of dollars. Not content to only showing his cellar off to the half dozen visitors he gets to his home per year, he requests that the LA Times do a piece featuring him and his wine cellar. In the piece, he brilliantly describes most of his collection. Not surprisingly, 3 million dollars worth of wine gets stolen from his wine cellar while he's off hobnobbing in Aspen. And if that description of the first few chapters doesn't instantly turn you off to the book, read on.
Of course, Mr. Roth, disappointed that the police are not frantically investigating this robbery, calls his insurance to see if he can get paid the worth of the wine. The insurance company does not want to pay out millions of dollars, so they recruit Sam Levitt, ex-lawyer turned ex-con, to see if he can figure out what happened to the wine. Naturally, Sam's search leads him to France where he spends the majority of the time eating in French restaurants and drinking French wine while putting everything on the insurance company's tab. He meets up with a French insurance agent from their French office and they begin searching out clues.
They are lead to a multibillionaire's home. They suspect he may have stolen the wine. But how to get into a billionaire's home, you ask? Simple. Pretend to be writing a book about the greatest privately owned wine cellars in the world. You will get immediate and almost unrestricted access to the wine cellar. And then, when you want to check the bottles for prints, just take the guy who runs the cellar out for dinner. Then one person can check for prints while more people eat on the insurance company's dime. Once you find out the prints are what you need, you know you need to get the wine back. But the billionaire is just so nice! And so is the guy who runs the cellar. We can't implicate them in this crime that they absolutely committed. Instead, we'll steal the wine out of the cellar, once again getting the sommelier out of the way by taking him to dinner. We'll put the stolen wine into cases and take them in a rented van to an abandoned farmhouse conveniently owned by one of the people in the story. Then we'll leave the wine in a safe, public place and have our journalist friend discover its whereabouts thanks to an anonymous tip and the wine will go back home.
Seriously, that's the whole book. 223 pages summarized for you here in this review. Every idea the characters came up with worked without a hitch. And their ideas were pretty dumb, let's be honest. If I was a billionaire, you better believe I would be investigating anyone who claimed to be writing a book before I let them into my wine cellar. The whole thing was just cheesy and stupid. And pointless. I will never read a book by this author again. I will, however, relish a glass of wine from the $5 bottle I have currently awaiting me in the wine rack. Relish it.
December 8, 2009
Never mind that The Vintage Caper is light on caper (spoiler alert: freelance insurance investigator Sam Levitt steals back $2.3 million worth of stolen wine), completely lacks suspense (no one stops him), and except for the fingerprints on the bottles, neither the crime, nor its motive, is ever verified. Because that's not why I read Mayle. Over the rainy Thanksgiving weekend in Bar Harbor, I rushed through the copy left behind by my oenophile uncle, before my stepfather could get his hands on it! Why? For the well-researched, humorous travelogue style Mayle trademarked in his breakout memoir of 1991: A Year in Provence — cheeky insidery descriptions of all pleasures French: wine, food, quirky characters, and glorious locales, preferably in Provence.
Being a white wine drinker, Mayle's wine details were lost on me. But any red wine lover, or curious oenophile, should be spellbound by Sam's visits to several of the great Bordeaux châteaux in search of clues to the stolen bottles from the great vintages of premier cru ("first growth") claret (red blends) ('53 Lafite Rothschild, '61 Latour, '83 Margaux, '82 Figeac, '70 Petrus). What I will remember from this book is the explanation of the initials BCBG, used to describe Sophie Costes, Sam's French contact from the insurance company. For years, I've seen the fashion label on shoes and clothes, but never knew that it meant "bon chic, bon genre," or "good style, good attitude." A term that could easily apply to Mayle: the man who wrote about buying $1,300 hand-built shoes in London for GQ (included in "Acquired Tastes," 1993), the man who sparked the American obsession with the south of France, and who was awarded the Legion D'Honneur in 2002 for his efforts to promote France.
Being a white wine drinker, Mayle's wine details were lost on me. But any red wine lover, or curious oenophile, should be spellbound by Sam's visits to several of the great Bordeaux châteaux in search of clues to the stolen bottles from the great vintages of premier cru ("first growth") claret (red blends) ('53 Lafite Rothschild, '61 Latour, '83 Margaux, '82 Figeac, '70 Petrus). What I will remember from this book is the explanation of the initials BCBG, used to describe Sophie Costes, Sam's French contact from the insurance company. For years, I've seen the fashion label on shoes and clothes, but never knew that it meant "bon chic, bon genre," or "good style, good attitude." A term that could easily apply to Mayle: the man who wrote about buying $1,300 hand-built shoes in London for GQ (included in "Acquired Tastes," 1993), the man who sparked the American obsession with the south of France, and who was awarded the Legion D'Honneur in 2002 for his efforts to promote France.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 12, 2016
Пітер Мейл - це автор, який змушує читача відпочивати. Саме так: змушує. Якою б утомленою я не бралася за його книги, вже кілька десятків сторінок якимось дивним чином розслаблюють мене, відходять на задній план клопоти, зникає напруга, забуваються проблеми, і ти просто мандруєш разом із автором неперевершеною Францією, яку він палко любить, милуєшся пейзажами, насолоджуєшся сонцем, а ще - куштуєш вина та страви, заплющуєш очі від захо��лення напоєм, вилизуєш тарілки до останньої краплі соусу на них і... просто стаєш іншою.
Втім, цей роман дещо не схожий на книги автора у стилі "Рік у Провансі". Це - детектив. І детектив, мушу сказати, посередньої якості - як детектив, звісно))) А от як книга для повного й абсолютного відпочинку, це - те що треба. Ненав'язливий сюжет, мінімум психологізму (який я так ціную в хороших детективах, але тут це було б зайвим), цікаві вродливі герої і, звісно, Франція! Яка у романі Франція! Сонячна (бо ж Марсель), казкова (бо - Марсель же!), смачна (який же Марсель без рибних страв?) і хмільна (бо вино, та ще й якого гатунку!).
Коротше, читайте Пітера Мейла, якщо відчуваєте, що вам час у відпустку. Ви там побуваєте, навіть якщо шеф не підпише заяви, а квитки до Франції будуть не по кишені))
Втім, цей роман дещо не схожий на книги автора у стилі "Рік у Провансі". Це - детектив. І детектив, мушу сказати, посередньої якості - як детектив, звісно))) А от як книга для повного й абсолютного відпочинку, це - те що треба. Ненав'язливий сюжет, мінімум психологізму (який я так ціную в хороших детективах, але тут це було б зайвим), цікаві вродливі герої і, звісно, Франція! Яка у романі Франція! Сонячна (бо ж Марсель), казкова (бо - Марсель же!), смачна (який же Марсель без рибних страв?) і хмільна (бо вино, та ще й якого гатунку!).
Коротше, читайте Пітера Мейла, якщо відчуваєте, що вам час у відпустку. Ви там побуваєте, навіть якщо шеф не підпише заяви, а квитки до Франції будуть не по кишені))
November 17, 2015
Unless you love the author or enjoy reading about France, wine and good food, give this book a miss. The title of the book is a misnomer...."Vintage" when talking about wine is reserved for the best and "Caper" often means something is done that is exciting or interesting. None of these words represents what is in the novel. It is boring, no mystery, no caper, no daring do, bland characters, who are not well developed. They just float from breakfast to lunch to dinner and their dialogue is poor. Never is there any feeling that they are in any danger and the fact that a potential romantic angle was missed between two of the main characters did little to help the plot along.
What was good as always in the descriptive narrative of food and location, anyone remotely familar with the author is well aware that this is Mayle's forte......and it is for this reason that I made it through this rather disappointing book.
What was good as always in the descriptive narrative of food and location, anyone remotely familar with the author is well aware that this is Mayle's forte......and it is for this reason that I made it through this rather disappointing book.
January 5, 2017
I always enjoy my trip to France when I read one of Peter Mayles' books. They are filled with descriptions of the local food and wine, in this case of Marseille. To me, the story is almost incidental. Just tell me all about the food and I'm all set. If I must mention the storyline, our hero Sam is hired to find some very expensive wine stolen from a collector in L.A. So, off the France he goes. Story, food, story, wine, more story, more food, more story, more wine. Delicious.
October 10, 2016
I remember "Toujours Provence" well, and it was so great. I lived in Provence for one and half years and it was fairly accurate. This book is full of misogynistic references and it was worse to read it while Donald Trump is on the news revealing his penchant for sexual assault. This will be the last Peter Mayle book I read.
June 6, 2019
There are hints of his humour generously found in his memoirs. The marriage of food and wine detailed in the fictional caper make a satisfying novel
December 30, 2022
There is nothing vintage about this dull little book pages and pages describing wine and French vineyards and nothing in the way of compelling plot what an utter disappointment.
did-not-finish
March 20, 2020DNF at 14%. Imagine thinking of and writing about women in such an objectifying way. I was going to give Mayle a pass because it turns out in the first chapter he’s describing an antagonist of the book (he sort of tricks you into thinking that the man he’s describing will be the book’s protagonist) who’s a chauvinistic ass. So then, when we got to the real protagonist’s description/history, I expected someone who wasn’t so misogynistic. You know, someone ANTITHETICAL to the ass he was first describing? I was disappointed.
I was also just bored with this book. Which is extra not good because I WANTED to be a Peter Mayle fan, I really did. I was trying so hard to like the book, but I just couldn’t. The protagonist was so privileged white male and gross. Sorry I’m not sorry to put this book down permanently.
I was also just bored with this book. Which is extra not good because I WANTED to be a Peter Mayle fan, I really did. I was trying so hard to like the book, but I just couldn’t. The protagonist was so privileged white male and gross. Sorry I’m not sorry to put this book down permanently.
October 17, 2022
After some heavy reading on serious subjects, I craved something light and amusing... a literary palette cleanser as it were. Palette cleanser... food and froth.... why Peter Mayle of course! I had read and enjoyed several of his books on the pleasures of his adopted province of Provence, perhaps I could find another.
Off to the local branch library and there I found The Vintage Caper, a nonviolent lightweight "mystery" guaranteed not to strain the cerebrum with the focus on France (not just Paris but also Marseille), exotic wines, chic women, and, of course, French cuisine. Parfait!
Off to the local branch library and there I found The Vintage Caper, a nonviolent lightweight "mystery" guaranteed not to strain the cerebrum with the focus on France (not just Paris but also Marseille), exotic wines, chic women, and, of course, French cuisine. Parfait!
February 11, 2019
Okay, so I wouldn’t actually classify this as a mystery, because there’s very little question of whodunit and there’s also no real explanation. As a mystery, this is flimsy and overdone. However, if you’re looking for a book that’s feel-good and has no huge conflicts (albeit no major cliffhanger parts either), this would be one for you. It’s calm, the descriptions are enjoyable, and overall this felt more like a way for Mayle to write a fictionalized love letter to France than anything else.
July 14, 2020
A fun little mystery by my favorite author (passed away in 2018) who wrote about Provence. I had read two of the series (#2 and #3 - The Vintage Caper is #1)) and didn't find them quite as entertaining. One special aspect of this book was that it made me jealous because of the focus on drinking wine. I haven't had a glass for almost 6 months as part of the quarantine and a weight loss goal. It has been a challenge but not eating out made it easier.
April 20, 2017
I'm not really a mystery person but this story was cute and entertaining. The descriptions of Marseilles and the French countryside were glorious.....and all that food and wine.....ooh la la! This is the second of Mayle's books I've read/listened to and they really are worth checking out, especially if you love France, food and wine. The ending was fairly predictable, so a light read at best but still a fun trip to France.
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