A Vineyard in the Dordogne: How an English Family Made Their Dream of Wine, Good Food and Sunshine Come True - Tapa blanda

A generation ago, the Ryman family arrived in the Dordogne to follow a dream. To live in France. To make excellent wine in a vineyard of their own. And to have an elegant chateau as a home. Is this not everyone's secret desire? It did not take them long to discover and fall in love with Chateau de la Jaubertie, a beautiful 400 year old country mansion, built from soft golden sandstone and set in the heart of the lush green valley of the Dordogne. Together, the family, Nick Ryman a multi-millionaire from selling his stationery business, his wife Anne, a professional cordonbleu cook, and their three children Hugh, Corinne and Camilla the Rymans embarked on a search for a new life a la francaise. But they had not anticipated the steep learning curve required to deal with the local French people and their customs; nor the passions and rifts that were to erupt within the family. In taking a vineyard producing barely drinkable wine they created the finest wines in Bergerac, thereby beating the French at their own game but the family would never be the same again - the search for their dream almost tore them apart.

Jeremy Joseph's books include Swastika Over Paris, Dr Jack: Calcutta's Pavement Doctor (which was made into a BBC documentary), Hungerford: One Man's Massacre, Murder in the Family and Saving Grace. Trained as a barrister, he moved to France with his family in 1992 to take up a post in the law faculty at Montpellier University.