PRIME VINTAGE

By R.Z. Sheppard

If most Americans would stick to beer and whiskey, the grape farmers in Bill Barich's first novel, Carson Valley (Pantheon; 337 pages; $25), would not have to work as hard as they do. Slaking the thirst of the growing number of wine drinkers takes time and muscle. So where does Arthur Atwater, manager of Victor Torelli's vineyard, find the energy to have a grand cru romance with Anna, the boss's daughter? From the same source of instinctive vitality that drives every other plant and creature in California's wantonly fertile Sonoma County.

Barich, a journalist who has written memorably about horse racing (Laughing in the Hills) and the Golden State (Big Dreams), produces a lot of heat as he cuts across generations and cultures. But Carson Valley is not just another brand of romantic plonk. Barich is a social realist with a fine feel for the similarities between agriculture and love. Both require risk and constant cultivation with no guarantee of success. That is not lost on Arthur and Anna Torelli, who have gone through divorces and are skittish about new commitments. Added to the mix are elements of lonely-guy touchiness and status. He is a hired hand who lives in a trailer; she is a modern Ms. with a summa cum laude degree from Berkeley. When not visiting her parents, she runs her own bookstore in New York City.

Within the cycle of a single season, from winter pruning to fall harvest, Barich constructs a coherent world whose natural beauty can be coldly indifferent. Disease, obsolescence and bad timing threaten both man and grape. Arthur, the working stiff, confronts that fate with inconspicuous stoicism. Intellectual Anna is more expressive: "Everything on earth was frail and fleeting, destined to crumble," she reflects. "All you could cling to in the end were those loving particulars." Among them are Atwater's favorite lopping shears, which he uses to clear deadwood to make way for new growth. They are the unmistakable metaphor at the heart of this artful and compassionate novel.

--By R.Z. Sheppard