Angels in the Cellar

Notes from a French Vineyard

Angels in the Cellar
Pages:224 pages
Book Art:25 black and white photos
Size: 6 x 8 inch
Publisher:Chelsea Green Publishing
Pub. Date: September 29, 2026
ISBN: 9781645024156

Angels in the Cellar

Notes from a French Vineyard

Availability: Preorder

Paperback

$19.95



On the verge of a complete breakdown, Peter Hahn quit his globe-trotting corporate job and laid down roots in the French countryside—determined to make a go of winegrowing.

In 2002, Peter bought a run-down, four-hundred-year-old “pile of a house,” ten acres of woodland, and a neglected vineyard in the Vouvray region of the Loire Valley. Angels in the Cellar is his moving back to-nature story, chronicling the demanding but profoundly rewarding work of traditional winegrowing through the seasons—from pruning the vines to harvesting the grapes by hand to pressing and barreling them for fermentation.

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

“A poetic diary of a year among the vines.”—Alice Feiring, author of To Fall in Love, Drink This

“[Peter’s] journey is real and visceral, and like Emerson he has the writer’s skill to invite us into his world and show us his heart, his passion, his journey. Unplug, and join him and his family in a world you will not forget.”—Tor Kenward, proprietor, TOR Wines; author of Reflections of a Vintner

 

Reviews & Praise

“A genuine delight. With sincerity and optimism, Peter writes from the heart, speaking to the quiet part in all of us that longs for new journeys and adventures. His prose is as rich and satisfying as the wine he produces—you will devour this book.”
—Poppy Harlow, award-winning journalist; former CNN anchor; founder, Day 2 Media

“A poetic diary of a year among the vines.”
—Alice Feiring, author of Natural Wine for the People and To Fall in Love, Drink This

“Peter is a brilliant writer, a romantic (though he claims not) with the callus of a winemaker and, more important here, winegrower. His journey is real and visceral, and like Emerson he has the writer’s skill to invite us into his world and show us his heart, his passion, his journey. Unplug, and join him and his family in a world you will not forget.”
—Tor Kenward, proprietor, TOR Wines; author of Reflections of a Vintner

“Peter Hahn has written an engaging and richly evocative book about a year in his artisanal vineyard in the Loire Valley. Offering fascinating insights into the daily life of a vigneron, Peter’s close observation of the changing seasons invites us to slow down and connect to the beauty of the natural world.”
—Beverley Blanning MW, author of Wines of the Loire Valley

“In Angels in the Cellar, the author describes how he discovered another possible relationship with nature. It’s a ravishing, heartbreaking read that puts you in touch with your deepest unmet desires. Thoughtful and beautifully written, Peter Hahn’s attentive journey through four seasons on a French vineyard is an exquisite book.”
—Rana Dasgupta, author of Capital and After Nations
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Peter Hahn

About Peter Hahn

Peter Hahn is a winegrower in France’s Loire Valley. He is an American who spent his childhood and adolescent years in Asia and Australia, subsequently receiving his BA from Tufts University in Massachusetts and his MBA from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. For almost fifteen years he worked in global management consulting and finance. He now lives and works at Le Clos de la Meslerie, a small vineyard in central France, rarely leaving it, growing grapes, making small-batch, organic wines, and reveling in the life the land has given him. He is married and has three children. This is his first book.

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