The food of Alsace includes suckling pig, beef tartare and fish with sauerkraut. Accompanied by a grand cru riesling white. In this mountainous region, the grape harvest continues into late autumn, sometimes right up to Christmas. Cooker and his assistant Virgile, who as usual is equally as interested in women as in wine, are here to sample the Deutzler vineyard's wines and help another vintner turn out a quality wine less sweet than normal. But reports of vandalism to the vines have reached the press, and the alarming incidents continue. Cooker's car tyres are slashed before he even reaches his destination. How much more serious will it get?

Among wines I noted is gewurztraminer which tastes of ginger and honeysuckle. Best with ripe cheese. We learn that Reisling needs steep slopes and southern sun. This makes no odds to the Deutzler family in turbulence, the father having lost his legs when his tractor rolled over on the mountainside, the mother having died from distress, the daughter-in-law expecting a baby. The murdered grape vines are a tragedy. Cooker and Virgile, as usual, find themselves in the midst of a drama when all they wanted was a wine-tasting. Down in the town, the locals boast that in this area, everyone always knows who did it, but the guilty will pay for silence. This attitude seems to stretch back to the Second World War. Cooker is reminded that revenge is a dish best served cold. But Virgile is determined to track down the culprit, at whatever risk to himself.

All this talk of duck and sour cherry terrine has made me hungry, so I'm off to the kitchen. Make sure LATE HARVEST HAVOC the latest offering from Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen is on your menu, if you enjoy foodie or travel stories and crime. The translation by Sally Pane is as always first rate. I highly recommend this feast for the senses.

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