The Vine

by Michael Dibdin

Michael Dibdin's first non-fiction book is a story of wine making, wine-makers, the families and feuds that have characterised the business, the science of grape types and cultivation, and the search for vintage growths. But it specifically tells the remarkable tale of one Itailan grape variety, popular in Roman times for its rich, full wine and for the wine's longevity in the bottle, but long thought to have been extinct: the Osar. The Osar is not a bountiful grape; the vine does not yield a big harvest. By the 20th century it had fallen from fashion as other more easily cultivated grapes took precedence. These, though, could not match its fruitiness or fullness. But one North Italian family searched for and found the last remaining vines of the Osar - four only. Over a period of years, and often imperilled by natural and man-made disasters, they propagated the Osar until, in 1995, for the first time, there was enough to produce a few bottles. It remains a rare and exclusive vintage

Paperback

Published October 4, 2002

About the author

Michael Dibdin was born in 1947. He went to school in Northern Ireland, and later to Sussex University and the University of Alberta in Canada. He lived in Seattle. After completing his first novel, The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, in 1978, he spent four years in Italy teaching English at the University of Perugia. His second novel, A Rich Full Death, was published in 1986. It was followed by Ratking in 1988, which won the Gold Dagger Award for the Best Crime Novel of the year and introduced us to his Italian detective - Inspector Aurelio Zen.

Dibdin was married three times, most recently to the novelist K. K. Beck. His death in 2007 followed a short illness.

Series:
* Aurelio Zen