If your idea of the perfect summer holiday read calls for secrets, temptation and eyebrow-raising excess, then Lush by Rochelle Dowden-Lord deserves top billing on your TBR list. Its premise is deliciously intriguing: the elderly and charismatic owner of a French vineyard extends a wine-tasting invitation to four well-known figures from the industry. At the end of their stay, his guests will be rewarded with a sup from the last remaining bottle of one of the rarest and most valuable wines in the world. A hedonistic unravelling follows in a suitably potent commentary on ambition, prejudice and our cultural relationship with alcohol,
The vineyard owner is a mysterious character, known as the Master. The story opens at his home, as husband, Tao, makes preparations for the arriving guests, and ruminates on the Master’s quest to reinvigorate his world with new, upcoming and exciting wine people. To this end, Tao is waiting to greet social media influencer, Avery, star sommelier, Cosmo, food and wine writer, Maëlys, and Sonny, the wealthy owner of a supermarket wine brand.
Avery and Cosmo are the first guests to arrive. Cosmo is ‘boarding-school’ posh, awkward and jittery in the presence of Avery, who shows him her recent Instagram post, naked in a bubble bath with a glass of red, #womeninwine. Enter American millionaire Sonny, with perfect veneered teeth and a carrier bag of his own company wines, the three of them coolly observed by Maëlys, whose journalistic instincts are already very much engaged. Each character is dealing with personal tribulations, their hopes inextricably linked with the nectar (or poison) they spend their lives promoting.
Predictably, the wine is flowing from the outset, at least one of the quartet already has a serious drink problem. Alliances are formed, sexual attraction fizzes, and tensions simmer, but Dowden-Lord’s accomplished debut is not just a seductive drama. She has some serious points to make.
Themes of prejudice run through the novel. As a young, black woman and former sommelier, Avery has had to battle with various kinds. She tells us that there are no black female master sommeliers in the world, her initial desire to become one hampered by exploitative bosses and sullied by sleazy, inebriated men.
Meanwhile, Sonny with his supermarket brand, knows the others look down on him. On presenting his vino to the group to taste, these ‘fancy people’ leave him under no illusions. Sonny may have money but he doesn’t have class.
The Master observes this boozy bunch in a coolly detached way. He arranges blind tastings, games by candlelight, lets them explore his glorious wine cellar. Avery wonders why he chose them out of all the sommeliers, wine writers and vintners in the world. Meanwhile, wine glasses and bottles accumulate around them, ‘…bottles empty and overturned like fainted women…antique decanters, catching and throwing light like stars, half full or empty and unwashed’.
Already pretty messy, events are about to take a dark turn.
A provocative and assured debut from a writer to watch.
Lush by Rochelle Dowden-Lord is published by Serpent’s Tail, 336 pages.
