Vintage (36 page)

Absolutely. In our little family, we eat dinner together at the table every night. I'm not fond of TV trays or microwave dinners. Communing around a table and a meal, even a very simple one . . . it's an important part of every culture, no matter how large or small. My daughter and I like to bake things together. She's a fan of dessert: the sweeter, the better.

All of my fondest memories as a kid were at family meals, whether it was an epic four-hour meal on the balcony of my uncle's apartment in Berlin on one side of the family, or around the big farmhouse table at my grandparents' farm in rural Illinois on the other side. They were two completely different cultures, but the same magical things happened around the table. Stories. Arguments. Laughter. And then more stories . . . always more stories.

My grandmothers were both amazing cooks, but in very different ways. Preparing food for us was a very obvious act of love. That's why I dedicated the book to them.

Can you tell us about any upcoming writing projects? What will you serve up next?

I'm working on a novel that's rooted in a beautiful, overlooked corner of Missouri where we lived for a few years, and it's great to travel back there in memory. I'm hoping it'll be a little sad and a little funny and have a number of great meals in it.

On the film side, I'm in production on a documentary about the decline of coral reefs. It's a very different and sobering, even frightening, subject. But it's something that needs to be told.

I'm also just beginning to develop a documentary about the legendary Burgundian wine festival that served as a model for the bacchanal scene in
Vintage
. If it comes together as we hope, it will be a great opportunity to return to Burgundy to explore some of the real-world counterparts to the people and events that appear in the book.

There is so much story potential when it comes to food and wine, and I expect I'll always be working on something connected to that world.

© TRUEN PENCE

David Baker attributes his fascination with wine to a chance train stop in Beaune, which led to time spent working in commercial vineyards, a film, a novel and a dozen years making passable Pinot Noir in his garage. He holds an MFA from Columbia College Chicago, and is the director of
American Wine Story
. He lives in Oregon's Willamette Valley with his wife and daughter.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 by David Baker

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First Touchstone hardcover edition September 2015

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Interior design by Akasha Archer

Jacket design and illustration by Patrick Barry

Wine stain © Mart/Shutterstock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Baker, David, 1971-

 Vintage : a novel / David Baker.—First Touchstone hardcover edition.

  pages  cm

 Summary: “A humorous and evocative debut novel about a food journalist's desperate attempt to save his career—and possibly, his marriage—by tracking an extremely valuable bottle of wine stolen by the Nazis over half a century ago”—Provided by publisher.

 1. Food journalists—Fiction. 2. Receiving stolen goods—Fiction. 3. Losers—Fiction.  4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.

 PR6102.A3375V56 2015

 823'.92—dc23

2015008747

ISBN 978-1-5011-1251-5

ISBN 978-1-5011-1255-3 (ebook)