Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris: book review

Blackberry Wine (2000) is set on a remote farm in southern France in 1999.

Jay Mackintosh is 37 years old, with a best-selling book, Jackapple Joe, that he wrote 14 years ago. It won the Prix Goncourt in France. He hasn’t written anything of worth since, even with the encouragement of his 25-year-old wife Kerry. He is getting tired of London, and his life.

He recalls 1975, when he was nearly 13 years old. That’s when he met Joseph Cox, the gardener who grew pototoes (jackapples), and made his own wine. Joe lived in Pog Hill Lane in the Yorkshire town of Kirby Monckton. Jay’s memories of Joe are wonderful. He learned so much about gardening from him. Jay ‘began to see in Joe something he had never seen in anyone else. A vocation. A sense of purpose.’

Joe always wanted to have a vineyard in France. But that never eventuated. But he did produce six bottles of 1975 home-made wine, including blackberry wine, that he gave to Jay, and Jay has never opened – until now, 1999.

On a whim, Jay buys the Chateaux Foudouin on a remote property in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes in France, leaving London and his wife. When he arrives in Lansquenet, the spirit of Joe seems to guide Jay as he renovates the property. The villagers must get used to having a best-selling author in their sleepy village.

Jay meets reclusive neighbour, Marise d’Api. She thought the property would be hers, because the previous owner ‘promised’ it to her. But that never eventuated. Marise has a proposition for Jay.

The novel, from the author of Chocolat, is a whimsical tale of nostalgia as Jay Mackintosh slowly remembers the lessons of the past, which help to transform his present. He has to face the realities of his new situation and his dream of a quiet life. For me, the ending is somewhat of a fairy-tale, but loyal readers will love this book.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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