Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781455516100)

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.

Author: Maximillian Potter
ISBN-10: 1455516104
ISBN-13: 9781455516100
Publisher: Twelve
Language: English
Published: 07/29/2014
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.12lbs
Size: 9.52h x 6.24w x 1.05d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/23/2014
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2014
New York Times Book Review 12/07/2014 pg. 86