Shadows in the Vineyard, Maximillian Potter
Shadows in the Vineyard, Maximillian Potter
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Shadows in the Vineyard
The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine

Author: Maximillian Potter

Narrator: Donald Corren

Unabridged: 8 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 07/29/2014


Synopsis

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.

About Maximillian Potter

Maximillian Potter is Esquire magazine's Editor-at-Large. Formerly the executive editor of 5280: Denver's Magazine, he has been a staff writer at Premiere, Philadelphia, and GQ, and a contributor to Vanity Fair. He was a senior adviser to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, with whom he co-authored the governor's memoir. Potter is native of Philadelphia with a BA from Allegheny College and MSJ from Northwestern University's Medill School.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Daniel on December 22, 2014

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 arou......more

Goodreads review by Paul on November 10, 2014

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 overa......more

Goodreads review by Tuck on January 04, 2016

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 p......more

Goodreads review by Waverly on November 03, 2014

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......more

Goodreads review by Romina on January 30, 2018

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 t......more