Shadows in the vineyard

the long version

In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romanee-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 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 would lead to a sting operation by some of France's top detectives, the primary suspect's suicide, and a dramatic investigation. Potter takes us deep into a world full of fascinating characters, small-town French politics, 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.