Taken by the Vintner

Sera Mbeki's palate is better than her résumé. It gets her a two-week trial at La Maison Belrose, where the pinot is legendary and the owner hasn't smiled in photographs since 1998. Julien Belrose is fifty, arrogant, and the last independent grand cru in his valley. On Sera's third day she corrects his tasting note in front of buyers. He should fire her. He keeps her through the autumn instead. Then the harvest arrives with an American offer attached, and the broker handling the deal is Julien's own daughter. Sera is offered a fortune to go quietly and a career to stay. She stays. Through the storm, the sixteen-hour days, the shareholder vote, and a night in a loft cot that neither of them planned, she stays. When the estate is finally safe, Julien does not ask her to stay. He walks down to the cellar and finds her already there, finishing the fermentation, with the cellar door unlocked.