Eight Hundred Grapes

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of miscarriage.

Georgia Ford is the central protagonist of the narrative; she is the daughter of Dan and Jen Ford and the only sister to Finn and Bobby Ford. Physically, she is considered to be the “darker version” of her mother—“my curls the darker version of her curls, my nose tilted like her nose, my eyes dark green like my father’s but shaped like her” (26-27)—reflecting the fact that, like her mother, she has passions and dreams, but may take a different path and pursue them. When she moves to Los Angeles to work as a real estate lawyer, however, Georgia loses her Sonoma County look and takes on what her mother calls her city “armor,” with pencil skirts, lighter hair, stiletto heels, and weight loss. She met Ben, her soon-to-be husband, through her work and had plans to move to London with him once married.

As suggested by her appearance at the beginning, Georgia is a character who is often at odds with herself. While she highly prizes her family and their vineyard, she keeps away from them and is often left out of the goings-on of each family member’s life. Likewise, she has difficulty reconciling the person she is in Los Angeles with the one in Sonoma County and often feels that she wavers “between the two worlds, neither feeling like it fit exactly right” (28). She is, however, fiercely protective of her family and believes that it is her duty to deter her siblings and parents from any bad choice that they may be considering, such as selling the vineyard. While she has no trouble coming to their defense and confronting the likes of Jacob Murray—her eventual boyfriend—the same cannot be said for her own problems. Readers, after all, first meet Georgia as she is running away from her fiancé when she realizes that he has a daughter. She also often depends on the opinions of others to help her make decisions instead of generating them on her own, highlighted when she makes phone calls throughout the narrative to her friend Suzannah. These phone calls are a device that Laura Dave uses to catalyze Georgia’s decisions and drive the plot.

As the narrative moves through different tribulations and compromises, Georgia’s character undergoes a development arc wherein she resolves her conflicts regarding Financial Instability and Career Choices and reclaims her passion of becoming a winemaker like her father. She and Ben inevitably separate, and she undertakes to grow a vineyard of her own.

Ben is Georgia’s main love interest in the story. He has a daughter named Maddie with his ex-girlfriend, Michelle Carter, whom he’s only known for five months. British-born, Ben works as an architect in London and does business in the United States. He meets Georgia over the phone, and they develop a relationship over months of correspondence. He is described as looking like “Superman: the same strong jaw and cheekbones, the same ridiculous shoulders” (104); Georgia’s comparison of Ben with a fictional character reflects their unattainable fantasies about a life in London.

Ben is a mostly flat character, though one in perpetual conflict: he is caught between his commitment to his newfound daughter and the life that he promised Georgia when he proposed to her. While he loves both, the narrative shows him as initially secretive and vague about Maddie so as to not cause any upheavals with Georgia. The conflict, however, is ultimately resolved by Georgia when she forces him to admit that Maddie is his priority and that the life they wished to live together does not align with their circumstances any longer. In the end, Ben goes back to London to try and have a life with his daughter and Michelle Carter.

Dan and Jen Ford are Georgia, Bobby, and Finn’s parents; they form one of the narrative’s romantic subplots. Dan was originally a chemistry professor at a university before he resolved to become a winemaker, while Jen was a cellist in New York. Their happenstance meeting and subsequent love story were held as a romantic myth in their family: By mistake, Dan sat in a yellow buggy that was already occupied by Jen. Instead of leaving, however, Dan only asked her where she was taking him. They dated, got married, and moved to Sonoma County so that Dan could pursue his dream. Jen, meanwhile, compromised on her career and became a music teacher in their town. Dave hence explores patriarchal norms through their marriage and the conflicts within it.

The subplot details the frayed state of their relationship: After years of neglect from her husband, Jen seeks another relationship—though not sexual—with another man, a conductor by the name of Henry Morgan, who sees her and enables her passion for music. Dan is meanwhile struggling with letting go of his vineyard while also dealing with the effects of a first (and later a second) heart attack. It is only after realizing the real and lasting community that he’s succeeded in building that Dan can let go and recommit to Jen.

Bobby Ford is the son of Dan and Jen Ford; he is the older brother to Georgia and the twin brother to Finn Ford, whom he considers his best friend. He is also Margaret’s husband and part of another romantic subplot in the narrative that involves a love triangle between him, Margaret, and Finn. Compared to Finn, Bobby is considered the more successful brother: “The captain of the high school football team, a local legend, a successful venture capitalist with a full life in San Francisco. […] He was five minutes younger than Finn, but in every other way he seemed to always come first” (16). Like Georgia, Bobby is someone who loves his family deeply and tries, in his own way, to take care of them by, for example, buying The Brothers’ Tavern for Finn so that he would have something to do.

Bobby undergoes a harrowing journey when he realizes that his brother and wife have feelings for each other. Bobby feels betrayed and furious. Though he will eventually forgive his brother and (presumably) his wife, it is not without the realization that part of the blame lies with him for alienating Margaret during the course of their marriage. Ben hence undergoes major character development from a “successful” and assured man to a vulnerable man who learns about prioritizing his marriage and Unfaithfulness and Forgiveness in Familial and Romantic Relationships.

Finn Ford is the son of Dan and Jen Ford; he is the older brother to Georgia and the twin brother to Bobby Ford. Deemed the “good brother” by Georgia (16), he manages the bar, The Brothers’ Tavern, and is considered a great photographer. He has an aloof perspective on working and gainful employment, however, wherein he would only indulge in photography when the mood struck him. His feelings about photography hence contrast with the passions that Dan, Georgia, and Jen express for winemaking and music, respectively. Finn is described as having a similar appearance to his father: “Both of them had these dark eyes, matching piles of dark hair. They were handsome guys, all American” (16). He has a running streak of jail cell visits for misdemeanors but never gets charged as he’s good friends with the deputy sheriff.

Finn forms part of the love triangle subplot with Margaret and his brother. He has had feelings for Margaret, Bobby’s wife, since they were in high school. However, when Margaret kisses him while they have both been drinking, he leaves and does his best not to pursue her out of love for his brother. When Bobby eventually discovers what transpired, Finn resolves to end his feelings, and by the end of the narrative, he’s in a new relationship of his own.

Jacob Murray is an antagonist for much of the novel, told from Georgia’s perspective, for purchasing her father’s vineyard. However, he often comes to her rescue when she needs assistance. Eventually, he even gives her back her father’s original 10 acres of land. He is the grandson of the founder of Murray Grant Wines, a Napa Valley international company that has a bad reputation amongst local winemakers. As its CEO, however, Jacob is attempting to regain a favorable reputation and change the quality of their products by following novel approaches like Dan’s in biodynamic winemaking.

Jacob is charming and is described as “good-looking, in a way, but nowhere near as good-looking as he thought he was, standing there in that brazen East Coast way that reminded [Georgia] of some guys [she’d] met at law school. The Masters of the Universe guys” (53). Though he suffered through a botched wedding, he remains with his girlfriend, Lee, for the vast majority of the narrative. However, he eventually becomes a romantic interest for Georgia. When Lee leaves him to go work in Seattle, he turns his attention fully to Georgia, and by the end of the story, they are in a committed relationship, exemplifying the “enemies to lovers” trope.

Michelle and Maddie Carter are Ben’s ex-girlfriend and four-year-old daughter, respectively. Maddie is a loveable child, one that smiles like her father and eventually shows an interest in Georgia’s family’s vineyard. Though Maddie is what throws Ben and Georgia’s life plans for a loop, Michelle is the one who actively plays the role of a flat antagonist, as she wants Ben back as a romantic partner so that they can raise their daughter together. Ben considers Michelle a good mother, and she hopes that they can become a couple once again so that they can co-parent Maddie together. She is also an internationally famous actress and described as having a “gorgeous face chosen for People magazine’s ‘50 Most Beautiful People’” (71-72). She waited several years before telling Ben that he had a daughter, coinciding her announcement five days after his proposal to Georgia. When she realizes that Ben might marry Georgia, she successfully foments doubt in Georgia that her imagined life in London would be a simple, peaceful, and happy one.

Margaret Ford is Bobby’s wife. Margaret was a friend of Finn’s in high school who was turned down when she confessed her feelings for him. After her disappointment, she decided to date Bobby. Later, she and Bobby marry in haste, as Margaret was pregnant before they were married. She miscarried, however, and she sees the miscarriage as one of the main reasons for her troubles with Bobby throughout their marriage. She is the third part of the love triangle between her, Bobby, and Finn. Though still married to Bobby, she kisses Finn while drunk. She cannot deny her feelings, but she promises she will never have sex with Finn. When her feelings are discovered, she and Bobby eventually decide to take time apart to remember why they loved one another when they first committed to a relationship with each other. While she is unfaithful to Bobby, Dave focuses much of their reconciliation on Bobby’s ability to understand his own romantic failings, making Margaret a rounded character who both causes harm and is harmed in her marriage.