The Winemaker Detective series: wine plus crime in French vineyardsAn immersion in French countryside and gourmet attitude with two amateur sleuths gumshoeing around French wine country.  The Winemaker Detective series delves into the underworld of a global luxury industry, where there’s money, deceit, death, crime, inheritance, jealousy—all the ingredients needed to distill a fine detective series! That and a decent dose of Epicurean enjoyment of fine food and beverage. It follows master winemaker Benjamin Cooker and his sidekick Virgile Lanssien in their adventures solving mysteries in vineyards throughout France and beyond. Each book is a homage to wine and winemakers.Made for TVThe series is being adapted to television in France, attracting an audience of over 4 million. The series is a huge success in France, Belgium and Switzerland.Blood of the Vine is also available on DVD, with English subtitles.Get the omnibusMysteries 1-3An ideal gift for mystery and wine loversGET THE BOX SETMysteries 4-6More fun and mayhem for mystery and wine lovers.

Book 1: Treachery in BordeauxBook 2: Grand Cru HeistBarrels at the prestigious grand cru Moniales Haut-Brion wine estate in Bordeaux have been contaminated. Is it negligence or sabotage? Cooker and his assistant Virgile Lanssien search the city and the vineyards for answers, giving readers and inside view of this famous wine region.After Benjamin Cooker’s world gets turned upside down one night in Paris, he retreats to the region around Tours to recover.  There, he and his assistant Virgile turn PI to solve two murders and very particular heist. Who stole those bottles of grand cru classé?Book 3: Nightmare in BurgundyBook 4: Deadly TastingThe Winemaker Detective leaves his native Bordeaux for a dream wine tasting trip to Burgundy that turns into a troubling nightmare when he stumbles upon a mystery revolving around messages from another era. What do they mean? What dark secrets from the deep past are haunting the Clos de Vougeot? In a new Winemaker Detective adventure, a serial killer stalks Bordeaux.

To understand the wine-related symbolism, the local police call on the famous wine critic Benjamin Cooker. The investigation leads them to the dark hours of France’s history, as the mystery thickens among the once-peaceful vineyards of Pomerol.Book 5: Cognac ConspiraciesThe heirs to one of the oldest Cognac estates in France face a hostile takeover by foreign investors. best wine for valentineRenowned wine expert Benjamin Cooker is called in to audit the books. man o war red wineIn what he thought was a sleepy provincial town, he and his assistant Virgile have their loyalties tested.    dry red wine no 1Book 6: Mayhem in MargauxSummer brings the Winemaker Detective's daughter to Bordeaux, along with a heatwave. Local vintners are on edge, But Benjamin Cooker is focused on solving a mystery that touches him very personally.

Along the way he finds out more than he'd like to know about the makings of a grand cru classé wine.Book 7: Flambé in ArmagnacThe Winemaker Detective heads to Gascony, where a fire has ravaged the warehouse of one of the region's finest Armagnac producers, and a small town holds fiercely onto its secrets.Book 8: Montmartre MysteriesThe Winemaker Detective visits a favorite wine shop in Paris and stumbles upon an attempted murder, drawing him into investigation that leads them from the Foreign Legion to the Côte du Rhône.Book 10: Late Harvest HavocBook 9: Backstabbing in BeaujolaisA business magnate calls on wine expert Benjamin Cooker to kickstart his new wine business in Beaujolais, sparking bitter rivalries. Can the Winemaker Detective and his assistant keep calculating real estate agents, taciturn winegrowers, dubious wine merchants and suspicious deaths from delaying delivery of the world-famous Beaujolais Nouveau?Christmas is in the air, while disaster strikes the vineyards in Alsace.

Vintners are tense and old grudges surface. The Winemaker Detective's reputation is on the line as he must find the cause before the late harvest starts.Book 12: Red-handed in Romanée-ContiIn between enjoying sumptuous food and wine, the Winemaker Detective grapples with deceit and deception in Old World Europe, while his assistant manages business in Bordeaux and unravels a mystery of his own.When world-renowned wine expert Benjamin Cooker’s elderly father needs him most, the erudite consultant and his dashing assistant Virgile Lanssien are called away to Burgundy to orchestrate the harvest, where a catastrophic hailstorm endangers some of France’s most celebrated wines and a mysterious murder jeopardizes Cooker's reputation.Unique wines with Mediterranean colours and aromas Taking part in a race towards global excellence, the winemakers in Languedoc-Roussillon grow sparkling wines, sweet wines, red wines, white wines, and a range of rosé wines… Unique wines with Mediterranean colours and aromas which are becoming increasingly sought after.

Both in France and overseas. “The Greeks were the first to plant vineyards in our region,” says a producer at the Collioure market. The history of wine growing on these shores of the Mediterranean dates back to the fifth century BC. Later, the Romans were also very successful in further developments of wine-growing. At that time, the wines produced between Nîmes and Narbonne were in competition with Italian wines. So much so, that Emperor Dominitien brought Languedoc wine prosperity to a halt in the year 92 by banning new vines from being planted within the empire, and by ordering that half of the vines within the provinces be uprooted. The vines as a source of power and wealth would then be rescued by the monks. Languedoc wine growing had to face a series of crises from 1850. Powdery mildew had a devastating effect. Just like phylloxera in 1863, and the downy mildew in the late nineteenth century. Once a solution had been found, cultivation began to increase rapidly. The Languedoc vineyard was being flaunted as one of the largest in France at the beginning of the twentieth century.