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

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
Publisher: Twelve
Published: 07/28/2015
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781455516094
ISBN10: 1455516090
BISAC Categories:
- True Crime | General
- Cooking | Beverages | Alcoholic- General
- History | Europe | France

About the Author
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 advisor 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.