Blood of the Vine

The body of an old man is discovered lying next to a glass of wine, alongside empty glasses.

Benjamin and his assistant Silvere go to Jarnac to audit the Castle Aludel.

Benjamin’s daughter and her boyfriend, the sales director of a famous Bordelais chateau, get into a terrible car accident.

An elderly couple approaches Benjamin at a book signing to appraise 40 bottles of rare Sauternes.

An eminent family is hit by successive deaths: the young heir in a riding accident and the father dying in his sleep.

A famous actor asks for Benjamin’s help in selecting wine for a charity auction.

While on tour in Burgundy, Benjamin is approached by the son of a notable estate owner seeking his professional expertise.

A journalist is killed in Alsace while investigating an old client of Benjamin's.

Benjamin is invited as the guest of honor to a wine-tasting event in Burgundy.

Benjamin reluctantly agrees to meet with a business partner to discuss an appraisal of a failing estate, but is not immediately aware of the estate's tumultuous history.

A determined author insists on having Benjamin's old articles from his youth published, but soon after dies in a suspicious hit-and-run accident.

An unknown body is discovered in a vat containing a batch of wine; a discovery that seems intended to ruin the reputation of the estate's owner.

Benjamin is hired to advise in the fate of a coastal wine estate after the owner's death, which the widow Angèle Marcarol wants to donate to a Catholic monastery, but the notary Coutil dies before he can execute the deed from slow poison administered over time and the monks won't be linked to such bloody scandal. Benjamin finds the widow and her confident estate manager are targeted since long. Her estranged daughter is the latest conquest of ambitious local reality show star hunk Thibault Berger, who hopes to play the lead I a biopic on Benjamin, but gets shot in a confusing incident at the estate. paramilitary police captain Paul Lescaut finds his master in Benjamin.

Benjamin leaves Silvère do all his tasting while he's invited to write an article and give wine expert advice at doc René Grimaud's rehab clinic's program from alcohol addicts. Dealing with gendarmes commandant Caubère, a police acquaintance recently transferred to this most prestigious Bordeaux region, Benjamin is first to find the long-missing MD, while one of his patients is found murdered. His lover France, whose buddy Macha implored help, joins his undercover investigation.

Benjamin Lebel is knocked unconscious and is in a coma for a couple of days. He wakes but has partial amnesia. Against the advice of his doctors and family/friends he decides to take matters into his own hands in order to find his notebook which was stolen at the time of his attack

Benjamin has due reserves when he accept to attend the funeral in Nantes of a wine grower who died from a shark attack 'because' he followed Lebel's advice to try his ambitions of originality in South Africa. Heiress daughter Gloria Guillemin surprises Benjamin by announcing unilaterally he's to head the 'posthumous' innovation project, outranking the present estate manager, Yann Coussou, who died from a gun shot the police stubbornly considers a plausible suicide. Lebel still is the prime suspect in case of murder, having arrived just then while ignoring Yann's intentions, so he resolves to clear the case himself, digging into family and estate backgrounds.

Benjamin and Mathilde arrive in Beaujolais to advise on the possible sale of vineyards between bickering parties. They rich main estate owner is murdered. Benjamin and the police must look into both his heirs and passed-over gay playmate with AIDS Eric Beaujeu as well as a bunch of less wealthy, scheming locals, one if which gets 'accidentally' killed in a nocturnal boar elimination campaign in non-hunting season. Benjamin unravels a web of infidelity and manipulation, while his semi-rival Edgard Loewen is brought in after he's ousted form the consultation job, only intriguing him further.