The Lost Vintage: A Novel
This novel follows a familiar model—a young American woman travels to Europe and discovers truths about herself by exploring the life of a woman in the past—but this elegantly written tale is much more. It’s a meditation on what Americans have given up in their quest for self-definition: a sense of rootedness in a piece of land; a sense of home. Kate, the aspiring wine expert who narrates the story, calls what she’s missing a sense of “chez moi”—and envies the security and pride in their craft that she sees in the relatives she visits in the vineyards of Burgundy. When she encounters the story of Hélène (her great-great-aunt), who endured and apparently died during the Nazi occupation of France, she begins to realize that the French devotion to tradition comes at a terrible cost.
Just as she has tried to forget her romantic history with the handsome owner of the neighboring estate, her family has buried the memories of its forebears’ collaboration under Vichy. A discovery of a long-buried wine cellar, however, sends Kate on a quest to discover the truth about Hélène and to locate a hidden cache of the family’s precious Gouttes d’Or (Drops of Gold) wine. The novel switches between the present-day narrative, rich with descriptions of delicious food, wine, and the gorgeous Meursault countryside, and Hélène’s journal, in which we begin to discover the widening gap between the family’s perception of their disgraced ancestor and her reality. Both stories come to a satisfying (if a little too tidy) conclusion, leaving the reader satisfied but probably longing for just one more glass of white Burgundy.
