Feature Work
“To be clear, I blame Peter Mayle.”
A chance reading of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence sends restless senior executive Lauren Kent into a tailspin. On a whim she leaves her successful career and city life behind to adopt a simpler life in wine country. But this is no fairytale: for Lauren, life in wine country is more drink, fuck, leave than Eat, Pray, Love.
Her romantic notion of life among the vines may be crushed but what Lauren experiences along the way is the wine of life.
Before the pages turn … a preamble to chapter four, “Crush—on meat draws and bingo”
At this point in the story Lauren Kent is living in wine country working as a cellar assistant at Eastside Cellars.
Lauren moved there in September, starting her wine career at the beginning of a new vintage, the harvesting of the grapes. Alongside migrant workers and local viticulture students, Lauren worked part time among the vines for a few weeks, safe in the knowledge that it would come to an end shortly—Eastside’s total production is only 3,500 cases from less than 20 acres.
Following the harvest, Lauren experienced the brief excitement of participating in the Fall Wine Festival events and galas as “industry” instead of as Joe consumer.
Unfortunately, her research (which essentially consisted of reading A Year in Provence) did not prepare Lauren for the subsequent back-breaking work of crush and primary fermentation, which was an additional sixty days, from dawn until dusk. No glamor. No parties. Just a lot of hard work. For someone who left a desk job to perform unskilled labor for the first time in her life this crush season almost broke her.
By the time December hit all Lauren wanted to do is sleep, take long hot baths and do next to nothing in the cellars. Almost half the town has left to get away somewhere sunny for a few months and forget about making wine. Lauren was starting to feel lonely, longing for the city life and friends she had left behind.
Lauren, now rested, is restless and looking for adventure in a small town.
© Wendy Rose 2011–2025. All Rights Reserved. Excerpted from Crush—Innocence Lost in Wine Country
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