The Vine Whisperer

Book excerpt: The Vine Whisperer is a remarkable story about one man's love for the land and his battle to defend it. Filippo Testa was born and brought up in Palermo, the son of a Sicilian count. A budding musician, he was determined to follow a career as a jazz pianist until his father died and he inherited the family vineyards. Unschooled in the ways of the countryside, spurred on by the challenge of reviving what was a failing and unproductive estate, and driven by a strange but irresistible fascination for the unknown, he launched himself into a world of joy, wonder and fear that was to change his life forever. Based on stories, diary entries and interviews collated by Filippo Testa and Susannah Elliott, The Vine Whisperer interweaves fact, fiction and poetry into a beautiful but spine-chilling chronicle of life in the vineyards of western Sicily.