CV✦The Tasting NotesA CLARA VOSS MYSTERY

THE READER’S COMPANION

Every vintage
has its secrets.

Enter Clara Voss’s world of fine wine, complicated people, and details that deserve a second look.

Explore the series
✦A little curiosity. A careful palate.
No endings revealed.
An original illustration of a burgundy tasting journal, a glass of red wine, and a handwritten cellar note on a warm paper desk
FROM THE WORLD OF CLARA VOSSVOL. 01 / 02

LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER

Inside the story

Meet the people. Follow the connections.
Keep your own tasting notes.

Spoiler-safe by design

✦

The best mysteries reward a second look.

Find your next chapter

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE GLASS

Wine Behind
the Mysteries

The tools, traditions, and small observations that shape Clara’s world. For wine lovers and curious readers alike.

ONE PALATE. MORE THAN ONE MYSTERY.

The reading shelf

The Tasting Notes
by Charles Hollmann

The Tasting Notes – La Tâche by Charles Hollmann: a worn tasting journal and a glass of red wine in a cellar

BOOK 01 PUBLISHED

La Tâche

Newport, Rhode Island

A celebrated wine collection. A Newport estate. A sommelier whose gift for noticing what others miss draws her into a mystery.

Buy on Amazon
The Tasting Notes – 1945 Mouton by Charles Hollmann: two wine bottles, a wine glass, and a sealed letter in a cellar

BOOK 02 IN DEVELOPMENT

1945 Mouton

Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Clara’s world expands into Georgetown’s private cellars and polished social circles. Familiar faces return for another wine-centered mystery.

Book 2 is in development. Its cover and preview details may change before publication.

Book Clubs

Read. Taste. Look a little closer.

Bring The Tasting Notes - La Tâche to your next book-club meeting with a free Clara Voss discussion kit designed for mystery readers, wine lovers, and curious palates.

No wine expertise required. The kit includes spoiler-conscious discussion questions, a simple "Taste Like Clara" activity, approachable wine suggestions, a clearly marked spoiler section, and ideas for hosting a Clara Voss evening.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE BOOK CLUB KIT

Taste Like Clara

Pour one wine for the group without showing the label. Don't try to identify it. Instead, write down:

  • Three things you notice immediately.
  • One thing you expected but did not find.
  • One detail that changes after five minutes in the glass.
  • One question the wine makes you want to ask.

Then reveal the bottle.

The point is not to be right. The point is to notice.

Invite Charles to Your Book Club

Reading The Tasting Notes - La Tâche with your group?

Charles Hollmann is available for select book-club conversations, including virtual visits and local appearances on Maryland's Eastern Shore. A visit can include an author Q&A, a conversation about how wine became part of Clara Voss's investigative world, why Newport was chosen for the first mystery, and a spoiler-safe look ahead at the series.

Use the site's contact form to inquire about a book-club visit.

Suggested host invitation

Join us for an evening of murder, mystery, and wine as we discuss Charles Hollmann's The Tasting Notes - La Tâche, the first Clara Voss Mystery. Wine knowledge is absolutely not required - curiosity is.

Every bottle has a story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Hollmann

Charles Hollmann has spent much of his life collecting stories without necessarily realizing he was doing it.

His career has taken him through the worlds of professional photography, sales, education, and entrepreneurship, including owning and operating his own coffee-roasting business. A lifelong sailor, he has spent years living aboard and traveling the East Coast by sailboat, an experience that has given him an appreciation for interesting places, complicated people, and the stories that emerge when the two come together.

His fascination with wine has been nurtured in no small part by his wife, a sommelier, and by a shared appreciation for the history, personalities, rituals, and occasional mysteries surrounding the world’s great bottles. Those interests eventually came together in the creation of Clara Voss.

The Tasting Notes – La Tâche is the first novel in the Clara Voss Mystery series.

Hollmann lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with his wife and their dog, where he continues to sail, write, and occasionally open a bottle that probably deserved a little more time in the cellar.

A NOTE TO THE AUTHOR

Get in touch

Have a question about Clara Voss, a thought about the books, or a book-club invitation? Charles would love to hear from you.

Send a message to Charles Hollmann

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