Angels in the Cellar Notes from a French Vineyard

About this book

Twenty years ago Peter Hahn had a breakdown while in the back of a London taxi. Emotionally exhausted by his corporate life, he no longer recognised himself, but knew he had to find a path out. Since then Peter has found his way to Le Clos de la Meslerie, a small ancient farm in the Loire Valley, where he grows and makes small-batch organic wines.

Angels in the Cellar invites us to spend a year in Peter's company among the vines, where he reflects on the land, his life, regenerative farming and the lives of the small group of people he works with. We join Peter through each season, pruning the wines and harvesting the grapes by hand, before we follow him to the wine cellar, where the alchemy begins – and the angels take charge.

An evocative, poetic account of a year spent working with nature, Angels in the Cellar is also a powerful repudiation of the global economy, its obsession with hyper-consumption and its impacts on the land and its ecosystems.

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Biography

Peter Hahn grew up in Australia and Asia, and for two decades has been a winegrower at Le Clos de la Meslerie, a small vineyard in the Loire Valley, rarely leaving it, growing grapes and making organic wine. He is married and has three children. Angels in the Cellar is his first book.