I guess I would trace the troubled life that found itself coming to this moment, and all the torture and grief that comes from this heinous act. Which ultimately drives our criminal to a path no one expects...

The criminal, looking back on it years later, like Salieri in Amadeus. You could use that movie as a template and borrow the structure.

The difficult part about this premise as a movie is who is the audience going to relate to? What's our "in" to the story?

And ultimately, vines seem like pretty low stakes.

To me, a cop investigating the crime is out. It's just too far removed from why the vines matter to even care. And doesn't seem to be the type of case that could be personal for a cop.

While I really like the idea of the groundskeeper, I would constantly be afraid that the premise would fall into parody. Of all the characters the vines could literally mean something to him. Perhaps he spent his whole life raising them instead of his own children (see, how easily that sounds funny?)

The owner's perspective is probably the most thriller-esque. But it seems relatively one dimensional.

I'd lean to the criminal in this case. The reasons why they are poisoning vines seems like it would be a necessary part of the plot, and also help us identify with the the criminal. "He slept with my wife! I'm poisoning his world famous wine!" (Bad example, I know, but you get the gist).

It also seems to lend itself to the most unforseen twists -- What if the vineyard owner was somehow connected to organized crime and sent out a group of men to track down the criminal. All of a sudden, the stakes have been raised and it becomes a thriller for the criminal. Not only are the police after him, but so are the owners. And they aren't going to be as nice if he is caught.

His little act of revenge that he thought was ultimately harmless, poisoning these vines blows up in his face and can quite literally cost him his life. These French take their wine seriously!

I don't know -- that's my internal monologue on which one I'd choose and why.

The criminal would be my protagonist.

Who would you guys choose?

I'd have some young wine expert from the states investigate - perhaps he's been advising and when the wine turns out bad he has to find out what happened otherwise he'll have to carry the can (being the foreigner/fish out of water he'd get the blame) The crime would definitley be about revenge - going back centuries. The family history of these vineyard is so convoluted it could prove very rich...

Ohh, yes, that's it - as he gets close to solving the crime the vineyard owner would become the antagonist - because in fact his family actually have no rights over the vineyard - nice switch...

Having lived just south of Napa for four years, I don't agree with James that vines are low stakes. The wine industry in the US alone was a 20 billion dollar a year industry a decade ago (the most recent figure I could find), and say what you will about barrels and oaking, etc., the root stock is one of the most protected, valuable, and mysterious elements of winemaking. Some of these vines go back for centuries (not the actual vine itself - they have a shelf-life, but the genetic stock). One of the worst things that happened to the CA industry was an attack by the glassy-eyed sharpshooter, a bug that killed vines. That was some time ago, and people are still traumatized. Once you lose a particular genetic strain of a vine, it's gone forever. By killing these particular heritage vines in Burgundy, the criminal is eradicating a part of culture, stealing it from future generations and bankrupting the family that's made their fortune on this particular kind of wine. You can't just go out and buy new root stock and expect it to be the same. History, culture, a family fortune - sounds like high stakes to me and an excellent idea for a film, though I agree that the criminal is the most appealing way in at first blush.