Book description
In 2001, Michael Sanders spent a year abroad creating an eloquent
portrait of rural French life, a story he told through the seasons of
a local restaurant and its patrons, the critically-acclaimed FROM HERE
YOU CAN'T SEE PARIS. After spending some time back in the States,
Sanders decided to return to southern France to complete his journey.
This time he decided to focus on the regional wines.
FAMILIES OF THE VINE invites the reader into the working lives of
three families whose sole crop is the grapes grown in their vineyards,
grapes from which they all make very good, yet quite different, wine,
as they have been doing for more than four generations. FAMILIES OF
THE VINE loosely follows them throughout the winemaking year, from the
hopes of spring, through the drama of a summer drought and heat wave,
to the mad dash of fall harvest, and then into the wine barns heady
with the smells of fermentation and the reek of aging barrels.
Rich with the history and tradition of French winemaking, FAMILIES
OF THE VINE is told through the voices of winemakers and their
friends, from a barrelmaker in Bordeaux to a sommelier in a one-star
restaurant. Whether puzzling over the maddeningly imprecise French
concept of terroir or taking a gentle swipe at the 'science' of wine
tasting, Michael Sanders has an engaging writing style that will
appeal to amateur and enthusiast alike.
Michael Sanders, a former book editor and author of
From Here, You
Can't See Paris
and
The
Yard
, lives in midcoast Maine with his wife and daughter.
