When wine label designer Darcy Bell notices a single misplaced digit on the most prestigious bottle ever released by Blackwater Ridge Vineyard, she assumes it is nothing more than a printing oversight. But the vintage year in question-1986-is tied to a harvest whispered about only in fragments among the older workers, a season marked by ruin, scandal, and a sudden fortune that saved the vineyard from collapse.
Before Darcy can learn why the mistake matters so much, the vineyard's meticulous archivist, Roland Venter, is found dead in the underground barrel vault beside a stack of sealed crates dating back to that very harvest.
Everyone insists Roland's death was a tragic accident. Everyone except Darcy.
Armed with an artist's eye for tiny inconsistencies and surrounded by a close-knit wine community where gossip travels faster than the mountain winds, Darcy uncorks decades of secrets involving forged records, hidden ownership deals, and a harvest that should never have existed at all.
But in a valley where reputation is worth more than gold, someone is willing to kill to keep the truth buried beneath the dust of the cellar.
