“It shouldn’t be taboo to tango with history.” Daniel Grace

This week on 15 with Fosca, I sit down with Daniel Grace: novelist, winemaker, former advertising agency owner, and mythologist at heart.

Daniel divides his time between San Francisco and Panzano in Chianti, where he produces critically acclaimed Tuscan wines at his family’s estate, Il Molino di Grace.

His debut novel, In the Wake of Golgotha, is a literary thriller that reimagines Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate in modern-day New York City, condemned to revisit the consequences of one of history’s most charged moments. This is not Christian fiction, nor a simple historical retelling. Instead, Daniel asks what happens when ancient figures become flattened by time — turned into symbols, villains, verbs — and what fiction can do to restore complexity, discomfort, and humanity.

We talk about Tuscany as a place of beauty and blood, wine as storytelling, the relationship between religion and law, capital punishment, addiction, and the moral weight of myth.

Biography

Daniel Grace is a London-born, California-bred former owner of an international advertising agency who now produces critically acclaimed Tuscan wines at his family winery, Il Molino di Grace, in Panzano-in-Chianti, Italy.

A storyteller by trade, a winemaker by day, and a mythologist at heart, Daniel spent decades building brands and crafting stories before turning to literary fiction.

His debut novel, In the Wake of Golgotha, published by Koehler Books in March 2026, is a literary thriller that reimagines Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate in a violent, modern collision of crime, punishment, guilt, and possible redemption.

Links

Daniel Grace official website: https://danielmarkgrace.com/

Book page: https://danielmarkgrace.com/book

Author bio: https://danielmarkgrace.com/about

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielmarkgrace/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/243299522-in-the-wake-of-golgotha

Publisher page, Koehler Books: https://www.koehlerbooks.com/book/in-the-wake-of-golgotha/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wake-Golgotha-Daniel-Grace/dp/B0FY3WCZWR

Il Molino di Grace: https://www.ilmolinodigrace.it/Home.html

Il Molino di Grace Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilmolinodigrace/

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Podcast Producer: Andrew Niklas Curtis

Recorded via Zoom, post-production Lorenzo Maiani, Faminore Sound Agency