Angels in the Cellar by Peter Hahn
Angels in the Cellar | Notes from a French Vineyard by Peter Hahn is a poetic memoir of renewal and connection to the land, following a former corporate executive’s journey through a year of organic winemaking in France’s Loire Valley.
Twenty years ago, Peter Hahn had a breakdown while in the back of a London cab. Emotionally exhausted, he no longer recognized himself inside the corporate world that demanded so much of him. It became urgently clear that the only way to stop the downward spiral was to find a path out. Since then, Peter has found his way to Le Clos de la Meslerie, a small, ancient farm in the Loire Valley, where he grows and makes small-batch organic wines.
Angels in the Cellar invites us to spend a year in Peter’s company among the vines, where he reflects on the land, his life, regenerative farming, and the lives of the small group of people with whom he works. We join Peter through the seasons, pruning the vines and harvesting the grapes by hand, before we follow him to the cellar, where the alchemy begins – and the angels take charge.
An evocative, poetic account of a year spent working with nature, Angels in the Cellar is also a powerful repudiation of the global economy, its obsession with hyper-consumption and its impacts on the land and its ecosystems.
Peter Hahn grew up in Australia and Asia, and for two decades has been a winegrower at Le Clos de la Meslerie, a small vineyard in the Loire Valley, rarely leaving it, growing grapes and making organic wine. He is married and has three children. Angels in the Cellar is Peter’s first book.
- ISBN-10: 1915068444
- ISBN-13: 978-1915068446
- 186 pages
- April 14, 2025
Published by: Little Toller Books
