I was raised by two oenophiles, so this book intrigued me from the start. I grew up going to wine tastings and exploring our friends’ wine cellars, but it wasn’t until the last year that I started branching out into “natural wine,” which is basically wine’s cooler, younger, less inhibited sister.
I loved the parts of this memoir that dealt directly with the wine-making process, as well as the vignettes of Signer’s travels to lesser known locales, like Slovakia and Tblisi. She is an exciting and detailed wine and food writer, and those sections drew me in and made me very, very hungry.
However, I struggled with the more personal aspect of this memoir. Signer lives what many would call a charmed life, but seems to lack the self-awareness to be appreciative of what she has in any given moment. The crux of the memoir centers around her having to choose between starting a wine-bar in Paris with her best friend, or moving to Australia to make wine with the love of her life. While I’m sure this was a difficult decision to make, the way that she describes her thought-process in the book made it difficult for me to muster up much sympathy, and at times tested my patience.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to go beyond a basic understanding of wine (I learned a lot!), likes travelogues, and loves reading about Paris...like, a lot.

This book fulfilled my dreams of being a Parisian girl sitting at a sidewalk cafe with a glass of wine and a baguette. Think “Emily in Paris” meets Lena Dunham’s “Girls”. It’s a story of fearless passion, trading in your comfortable life for the (slightly scarier) life you have always wanted. Taking a gamble on yourself and your dreams. Although some of the wine lingo and background gets a little too detailed for those of us who are not sommeliers, the book is an interesting and inspiring read for those of us who are also figuring out our lives, one glass of wine at a time.

📚Book Reflection📚
Thank you for the advanced copy, @netgalley! First image was screenshot from @rachsig website.
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I love a glass of wine. I'm not in any way knowledgeable or particularly picky (though I loathe chardonnay). I also love memoirs, so Rachel Signer's book, set to be released in September, caught my eye.
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I knew absolutely nothing about Signer (creator of multiple magazines devoted to wine), nor natural wine, but from her first description, I was hooked. The 'Pieges à Filles', a "bubbly, pink liquid", was "elegant, pretty, and aromatic, and it looked fantastic, too, with its cloudy haze,"
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Listen I know NOTHING about wines. All of Signer's extolations and adulations went over my head, but I was still able to enjoy myself. It was like being on an adventure with someone who is super passionate about a topic you have a passing fancy in. I may never remember all the details, but I do definitely want to try out the wines.
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I will say that reading her constant complaints about her romantic life felt like listening to a girlfriend who doesn't know how good she has it. First she contains about a lack of serious romance (yet she is still having frequent romantic encounters), then, when a guy is pulling out all the stops to let her know she's special, she complains that it's too much. Perhaps this is only irritating to me, someone who has been single single (not even flirtatious and random hookups, such as Signer has) for years. But, like I said, it's like listening to a girlfriend. Just when it began tipping to the truly annoying side, she would reference her own contrarian attitude, and move on, reminding you why you like her so much.
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Signer's writing is elegant, fun, and straightforward. She manages to write about the complex world of wine in an extremely approachable manner. Much like her beloved wines, no extra sugar is added to this memoir, leaving the reader to fully experience the natural taste of her adventures, sediment and all (did I use that right? 😂)
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#bookstagrammer #bookstagram #memoir #netgalley #pet-nat #rachelsigner #pippette #terre #wine #winewriting #lovestory #bookreflection #bookreview

Rachel Signer's "You Had Me at Pet-Nat" is her story of how she went from being a single New York journalist and wine seller to a winemaker living in rural Australia with the husband she met along the way. Signer's book is in the same vein as similar wine memoirs from Victoria James (Wine Girl) and Bianca Bosker (Cork Dork). Signer's is different in that she's very focused on just natural wines and doesn't try to hide that or dive into anything more mainstream or accessible.
The parts of the book not focused on her winemaking and wine exploration read almost like a romance novel as we get to know Wildman, a winemaker from Australia she meets while on a journalism trip to the country of Georgia. She's authentic in discussing their problems and her hesitation to dive into a relationship with a man who lives on the other side of the world.
There are some parts of the book where Signer gets a bit in the weeds on wine varieties/growing techniques but they don't take away from the rest of the book and are easily skimmable if you aren't interested in the intricacies of wine. Towards the beginning, especially when she is first in Paris, she uses a lot of French words without translation but that goes away even as she continues traveling around Europe.
You Had Me at Pet-Nat made me want to seek out the natural wines Signer mentions throughout the book (they're all very small wineries and very hard to find) and reminded me of the perks of leaving the beaten path when traveling so you can indulge in the local cuisines and have your own adventures.