Overview

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.

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9781843580188

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Reviews

Living in a French chateau in the beautiful Dordogne region and running a top-quality vineyard sounds like a dream come true. It certainly seemed that way to Nick Ryman, a multi-millionaire from his successful stationery business, who with his family moved into the beautiful Chateau de la Jaubertie and set about transforming a struggling vineyard into a highly successful one. Of course it was not an easy task, as this frank account make clear. Ryman went through several fortunes in his bid to revitalise the business, and his relationship with his wife - a cordon bleu chef - and their three children was put under enormous strain and never really recovered. In the end he succeeded, creating the finest wines in Bergerac to the astonishment of the French, but the cost was a vast one. Josephs describes the trials the family underwent - including the inevitable problems with French bureaucracy and the local people - with honesty and understanding, and does not shrink from discussing the difficulties and contradictions of Ryman's character. The result is an interesting read which avoids the rose-tinted glasses of similar titles to focus on the reality of following a dream and the joys and hardships involved. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

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.

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