Pairing a Deception

With only a week before her Advanced Sommelier exam, Katie Stillwell and her boyfriend police detective John Dean head for a weekend wine festival in the Santa Barbara region of northern California. In Pairing a Deception by Nadine Nettman, Katie hopes to enjoy the wines from the weekend, maybe study a little for the exam and enjoy her first weekend away with Dean, but quirky events disrupt her plans.

Wine festivals bring out all types of people: those who love wine, those who are afraid of wine and those who can't tell a red from a white! This group is no different. Two characters Walt and Ben, great lovers of wine who wisely decide to leave their car at home. Then there's Master Sommelier and festival emcee Hudson Wiley, who gives off the vibe of someone up to something. Next is the young, petulant woman Jocelyn Rivers, who causes a stir when she spills several glasses of wine on herself and people surrounding her in one of the sessions. 

Katie had hoped for a more relaxing weekend, but it seems not to be especially when she finds the body of a woman outside Hudson Wiley's room. It is Jocelyn Rivers, or the woman who claims to be Jocelyn Rivers. As it turns out that is not her real name.

Dean encourages Katie to let the police investigate, but she is drawn into the murder when Hudson Wiley disappears sending the festival organizer into a turmoil.

I always enjoy the chapter headings in this series. They include the name and location of a wine and a line describing what a person will taste when trying them. I can sometimes tell what fruit flavor is in the wine, but there is no way I could tell you location of the vineyard, year it was bottled and anything as exotic as the sommeliers do. Katie's palate is exceptional and I am assuming the author Nadine Nettman can give her a run for her money.

Does Katie pass the Advanced Sommelier exam? We will have to wait until the next book. I'm rooting for her to make it all the way to Master Sommelier as there are so few women in the field.

The World of Counterfeit Wines

For wine sommelier Katie Stillwell being invited to taste a $19,000 bottle of wine is a once in a lifetime event. In Uncorking a Lie by Nadine Nettmann, the title lets you know where this book is going. With one taste Katie recognizes this wine is not what it is purported to be.

Her host Paul Rafferty has held the 1975 Chateau Clair Bleu wine in high esteem because of its sentimental value to him. With his motley assortment of guests surrounding the dinner table, Paul asks Katie to open and decant the bottle.  As Katie looks at the wine she realizes the color is different than what she expected. It is darker, stronger and does not taste the way it should. One thing she knows for sure, this is not a 1975 Chateau Clair Bleu. A wine that was over 40 years old would not be fruit forward and would probably be fading in the rim color.

Katie confides in Cooper, Rafferty's assistant, about the wine and

he says there is a second bottle from the same dealer in the wine cellar. When Katie discovers Cooper unconscious deep in the wine cellar, she fears this wasn't an accident. When Rafferty asks her to investigate the counterfeit wine and the death of Cooper, Katie dives in.

Here investigation leads to a web of counterfeit wines and murder.

I like the wine pairings suggestions at the top of each chapter heading and learning about wines from someone with more expertise has been fun. The counterfeiting of wines appears to be a widespread problem and if collectors are only collecting and not drinking, it becomes harder to discover the counterfeits.

For other books by Nadine Nettmann, click here.