Beneath the veneer of a burgeoning wine empire in post-war Napa Valley, deceit, lies, and forbidden secrets threaten to destroy a family and everyone they love

SYNOPSIS:

Adaptation of The Winemakers by Jan Moran, published by St. Martin’s Press US/UK, Goldmann/Random House (Germany), Newton Compton (Italy), and other publishers in Russia, Poland, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Lithuania, among others.

Synopsis: To escape tragic, secretive events that occurred during Mussolini’s reign in Italy, the Rosetta family flees Tuscany to stake a claim to a Napa Valley vineyard in the final years of Prohibition. Now in 1956, after the boom-and-bust cycle of World War II, Napa vintners fight to create a legacy of American wine on the world stage, while at Mille Étoiles Vineyards, the Rosetta family faces dangerous threats and harbors secrets that could ruin them all.

While hiding her husband’s murderous past, Ava Rosetta struggles to guide the vineyard and elevate Napa wines, while her high-spirited, passionate daughter Caterina—a wine-blending savant—has inherited Ava’s talent for crafting wine and guarding damaging secrets. Against their strict Catholic faith, Caterina conceals a fact that could ruin her: An illegitimate daughter whose father, Santo, abandoned Caterina without explanation, leaving her with nowhere to turn.

Devastated, Caterina journeys to their ancestral vineyard in Tuscany to seize the chance to start a new life. There for the first time, she meets her unknown extended family and discovers devastating secrets: Could her father Luca still be alive, or did her mother murder him? Was her mother’s love interest, Raphael Casini, once a Mussolini Black Shirt with a past? Why did her lover Santo leave, and why does her mother insist on keeping them apart? Could the shocking claim that Santo is her half-brother be true?

Dire events force Caterina to return to save the family wine empire and search for the truth that could destroy them all. Pressed with the financial collapse of the vineyard, Caterina and Santo present their special blend of Cabernet Sauvignon at the world’s finest wine competition in Paris. Amid a controversial win, they return not to celebration, but to turmoil.

On the news of their victory, Luca surfaces after two decades and in a legal power play threatens the estate before turning his physical wrath on the family. Ava suffers a crisis as her relationship with Raphael, the vineyard’s mysterious caretaker, threatens her faith. In a climax of fury, deep within the vineyard’s wine cave the two women struggle against Luca’s rage—culminating in his death. In the end, grace blesses the family when Santo’s deceased mother’s diary reveals the truth: Luca lied about an affair with Santo’s mother in order to destroy her marriage, and Santo is not Caterina’s brother.