“The Lost Vintage” by Ann Mah – The Room Behind the Armoire
On the verge of studying for her last attempt at becoming a wine expert, Kate decides to travel to Burgundy and reconnect with her family's ancestral vineyard, as well as Nico and his wife Heather, now in charge of the whole thing. As she digs into her family's history, she stumbles onto a secret they've been keeping since the Second World War.
The Tour of Wine and War with Ann Mah
No matter where you come from or who your ancestors are, chances are good there are some deep secrets hidden somewhere in your family tree, possibly gone for evermore.
We generally accept the things our families might have done, and I think most will agree it is at times better to let old secrets lay in the dirt rather than digging them up and causing unnecessary pain with no possibility of restitution.
Unfortunately, there are those for whom this might not exactly be an option, as is the case for the young Kate in Ann Mah's The Lost Vintage.
The story begins to unfold rather normally, with Kate getting ready to study for her third try at becoming a certified wine expert, one of only a few hundred in the world. If she fails this attempt, it will be her last.
Thusly, she decides to take a bit of time off and travel to Burgundy where her family's ancestral vineyard awaits her, its needs tended to by Nico and his wife Heather. The only problem in her way is the general existence of Jean-Luc, her first love and a talented winemaker in his own right.
When being asked to help clear out the basement of the vineyard house, Kate makes a discovery deep in the cellar: a secret room hidden behind a large old armoire. In this room is a dingy little cot, some resistance pamphlets, as well as a large cache of extremely valuable wine.
Needless to say, the place piques Kate's curiosity through the roof, and so she makes the discovery of a family member she never knew she had, the brave great half-aunt who was only a teenager during the Nazi occupation.
Her curiosity never satiated, Kate digs deeper and deeper into the woman's story, and must eventually find the real answer to the difficult question: who did her family ultimately help during the Nazi invasion?
The Decisions we Can't Redact
As you may have gathered from my short summary of the novel's content, there are essentially two stories taking place here. Firstly, there is Kate searching for herself and trying to become one of the few fabled wine experts on the planet, all while navigating the pitfalls of love and family.
However, to begin this review I would like to draw the attention to the second story taking place, the one of the great-half aunt who lived during the Nazi occupation.
In my personal opinion, as fantastic of a protagonist as Kate might make for, the real spotlight falls on Helene Marie Charpin and her travails during the years of occupation.
The various bits of information the author feeds us about her predicament all contain some important truths and observations about life in occupied France, the fears, hopes and ambitions people of those times were experiencing.
While it certainly never comes close to being a full historical textbook, there are definitely some valuable and eye-opening elements, especially for those who are not yet well-acquainted with the subject.
Helene's story, without offering you any spoilers, is where most of the intrigue and the tension came from for me. Though the events may have taken place eighty years ago now, it always felt like the stakes were very real and even managed to crawl through into the present. The author is quite adept at keeping us on the line of vagueness when it comes to Helene's loyalty during the war.
I believe Ann Mah managed to express in this book something many authors try but unfortunately fail at: there is no black and white during a war, only the needs of our survival and how we reconcile them with our morality. It's a fascinating character study which will definitely give you a lot to think about once you make it through the whole thing.
The Search for Self in Wine and Family
Taking the story of Helene aside, a fair chunk of the book is dedicated to the present day and Kate's attempts at making her shaky life stick together. As one might expect, this part of the book is much lighter in tone when compared with Helene's story of living under the Nazi gun.
As a matter of fact, I would go as far as saying Kate's segments are relaxing and stress-free, which creates an interesting contrast with Helene's plot. In a sense, it allows us to detach ourselves further from the horrors of war and take in the beauty of the world when need be.
There are definitely some interesting plot elements to take in, and Kate's whole journey from discovering the secrets of the vineyard to her discussions with Nico and Heather do paint the picture of an interesting life going towards the unknown.
While it is definitely true these sections lacked the tension of Helene's story, the stakes still remained quite real as Kate became increasingly obsessed with finding out what side of the war her family was really on... whether one cares about history or not, I think none of us would take lightly to the knowledge of our family having potentially helped Nazis.
The Final Verdict
The Last Vintage by Ann Mah is a fantastic little novel about family secrets, partisanship in Occupied France, love, and the search for self in the wondrous world of winemaking. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys soul-searching stories with a historical dash of World War II to spice things up a bit.
 | Ann MahPersonal site Ann Mah is a food and travel writer doing her work out of Paris and Washington, D.C.. So far she has authored two novels, Kitchen Chinese and The Lost Vintage, in addition to which she also penned a food memoir (Mastering the Art of French Eating) as well as a cookbook titled Instantly French. Her articles regularly appear in the New York Times Travel section, and she is the recipient of the James Beard Foundation culinary scholarship. |
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