Sotto Voce

Wine critic Kurt Hummel can make or break careers with his column for Taste Magazine. But when his publisher orders him to spend a year profiling rising stars of California's wine country and organizing a competition between the big name wineries of Napa and the smaller artisan wineries of Sonoma, his world gets turned upside-down by an enigmatic young winemaker who puts art before business.

Author's Notes: I'm a winemaker. Not by profession, but by hobby, with a small backyard vineyard of Syrah and Zinfandel. I love learning this craft. And, of course, I love the product that results from it. California's "Wine Country" (there are actually many wine appellations in California, but the counties of Napa and Sonoma are what is commonly referred to as "Wine Country") is an illustration of contrasts. Both valleys produce world class wine. Napa has the biggest names, the glizziest restaurants and the highest price tags. Sonoma also has some big name wineries, but still has a huge number of smaller, boutique, family wineries that have largely disappeared from Napa's costly landscape. For the record, I love both regions, but there is something about Sonoma that tugs at my heart. Last fall, as I was wrapping up Postcards, I saw this Klaine art by minj500: It was right about the time that I was hosting a meeting at the Lodge at Sonoma, and hosting a dinner at one of my favorite small wineries which specializes in Syrah and Syrah blends. .... And an idea was hatched. I owe a debt of thanks to several people who have given me guidance, support, ideas and direction: iconicklaine, whose words and ideas I treasure; sillygleekt and winterlit, who can both proof and cheerlead with the best of them; knittywriter, who with a single word has given this story a conclusion; and buckeyegrrl, who made this amazing Sotto Voce cover art. There will likely be passages along the road on the technical aspects of viticulture and winemaking. When that happens, I'll be sure to include some chapter notes to clarify what's happening. Finally, I own nothing. If anything, these characters and wineries own me. Addendum: Sotto Voce is a victim of an occasional programming glitch on S &C that prevents it from being added to the S &C home page's feature "Most Recent." If that's how you follow WIPs, you won't see that this has updated. The site admins suggested that if you like it and want to follow it, to mark it as a "favorite" so you will get emails when it updates. Sorry for the inconvenience!