Name: Patricia Nelson's review of The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
Item: The Lost Vintage
Rating: 5
Author: Patricia Nelson

Ann Mah

“If you enjoyed Sarah’s Key and Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, then this wonderful book by Ann Mah is for you.” -- Tatiana de Rosnay Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II. To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination. She’s failed twice before; her third attempt will be her last chance. Suddenly finding herself without a job and with the test a few months away, she travels to Burgundy to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There she can bolster her shaky knowledge of Burgundian vintages and reconnect with her cousin Nico and his wife, Heather, who now oversee day-to-day management of the grapes. The one person Kate hopes to avoid is Jean-Luc, a talented young winemaker and her first love. At the vineyard house, Kate is eager to help her cousin clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, behind a large armoire, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history—a search that takes her back to the dark days of World War II and introduces her to a relative she never knew existed, a great–half aunt who was a teenager during the Nazi occupation. As she learns more about her family, the line between resistance and collaboration blurs, driving Kate to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?

A Novel

The Lost Vintage

Clara Concejo

Valle Fernandez

Patricia Nelson

This book does an excellent job of painting a picture of not only what it might have been like in France during WWII, but also offers a glimpse into the world of wine today. The author does a wonderful job of pulling the reader into the story and I felt a connection to the characters of both time frames. It made me want to learn more about that aspect of WWII and also about the wines from that part of France. There is much to think about after finishing the book.

I received a copy of this book as part of the Harper Collins Book Club Girl book club. I am not required to review the book, nor am I receiving compensation for doing so. This opinion is my own.

Courtney

I felt immediately transported to the lush French countryside and indulged in the wonderful atmosphere this novel created! It was a lovely bookish vacation that I needed very much. I consider myself fairly novice when it comes to the knowledge of wine, but I learned quite a bit in this story! There was also fair amount of French and while I didn’t know exactly what they were saying, I was able to easily understand the point of the conversations. This book is perfect for those evenings that you just need to getaway while you sip on a scrumptious glass of wine! I enjoyed following Kate in her endeavor to study for the very difficult Master of Wine Examination and uncover deep dark family secrets! Set mostly in Burgundy, France, Kate visits family to expand her already vast knowledge on the vintage wines and assist in clearing out an old cellar where they stumble upon a hidden compartment containing an enormous cache of wine, Resistance documents, and many discarded personal items of great interest! The story oscillates between Kate and a family member’s diary memoirs that chronicled living at the vineyard during WWII. There are many questions that arise as Kate and her cousins dig deeper into the cellar and their secret family history!

Alex Flagg

I usually love WW2 historical fiction but this was a disappointing read for me. It flips between present day and WW2 era and to be honest I wasn’t compelled by either story line. I found there to be many confusing side stories and there’s frequently French phrases used without translation so I feel like overall this was just a slow read that took more brain power for me to keep track of what was happening. Also the love story side of this book was so boring you almost didn’t know it was happening until the end.... I wanted to like but I just didn’t (more like 2.5 stars but anything less than 3 makes me feel bad)

Sahi K

It’s probably more of a 2.5 but I’m gonna be generous and round up to 3.

I discovered this book while reading an article about wines and found it really intriguing. It felt even more exciting when I got the library copy immediately but after finishing this in almost a single sitting, I am not exactly sure what I feel about it.

Our main protagonist Kate comes to Burgundy, her mother’s birthplace with an excuse that she needs to prepare for the Master of Wine test, but she mostly just wants to find a path forward in her life. I liked how she and Heather immersed themselves in finding the truth about her long lost family member Helène. While I understood that this unraveling of family history made Kate understand the importance of family legacy and protecting it for future generations, I frankly don’t understand what purpose it served for the novel as a whole. There is a second chance romance in the novel but we don’t get much of a glimpse into their love story either in the past nor is anything explored in the present, so I was completely disinterested in the whole thing. None of the other characters really made much of an impression on me, except Helène from the past and I was mostly looking forward to reading her letters rather than the remaining part of the book. 

While the author sets the plotting of the story a bit like some other awesome books I’ve read, I didn’t feel very invested here. The story is pretty fast paced and I was able to read very quickly, but there wasn’t much happening for almost the first half. The author also tries to set up the WWII storyline as a mystery, but it was almost too easy to guess what might have happened, and then it was just an excruciating wait for the characters to realize the same. I do have to commend the author for the amount of research that must have been done to understand the process of making wines, and various other aspects of the industry which I can’t still fathom. The descriptions of the vineyards, how work is done on the land during the seasons and the way these lands are an important cultural heritage of the families is told in a beautiful manner and I was definitely mesmerized by it all. The desperation faced by people during the war and the reasons for their decisions are also explained in a very neutral manner, which leaves the reader a choice to feel however we want to about both the people of the resistance and the collaborators. Despite some of these well written elements, it’s the execution of everything else that I felt faltered a bit. 

There are so many plot points that just didn’t make sense or weren’t handled well. Kate (and Heather) are so scared to bring up the history of the family with her uncle but within just one scene, he is totally okay with digging into the painful past, which he has strongly opposed for years. While Heather’s initial reaction to discovering Helène’s past was visceral and very much understandable, I was very disappointed that the much more gruesome truths which were discovered later on were not given the same weight. The conclusion to Helène’s storyline also felt very unsatisfactory - it’s probably very realistic to what must have happened to similar survivors of the war, but I guess I just wanted something more for this amazing and resilient woman, who was my favorite character in this book. There are also some plot points with Louise and Walker that looked like having some mystery associated with them but were completely abandoned. 

Finally, I can say that I’m not actually disappointed with this book, mostly just indifferent. The setting of the book is gorgeous and everything written about the wines and vineyards is fascinating, but the same can’t be said about the plot, the characters or the romance. The gloom and doom of the war is also captured very realistically but it’s only a very small part of the story. This book has lots of great reviews and it might work for you if you’re looking for a lighter and atmospheric read, but if you’re interested in more emotional and heart wrenching books with similar themes, I would highly recommend The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah or Map of the Heart by Susan Wiggs.

Jan Talkington

There was a lot about this book I liked. A nice dual time line told through modern day and a journal that is character driven.

Valle Fernandez &
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah

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Valle Fernandez &The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Valle Fernandez &
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah