Unknown Diners

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The sommelier arrived with two bottles and four glasses. "We thought you'd find it interesting to play the desserts against a totally botrytis affected Gewürztraminer and a Riesling Ice Wine." He showed them the labels and poured.

"The chef has challenged himself with this. Tough to match the intensity of these wines." Lorne looked at the sommelier. "We haven't seen the packages, the literature yet. Who's the chef?"

"He prefers to remain in the background..." The sommelier paused and glanced around. "This is private, but they rotate and prefer to kept their identities quiet."

"You know me, Geoff. You can trust it won't go beyond here."

"My job. I'd love to, but —"

"Okay. No problem. I've been following your career progress, pleased you've continued so well. Congratulations on the SWE."

"Thanks. Your courses and mentoring made it so simple for me to..." He looked down and clicked the buzzing light button on his belt pack. "Being called." Geoff left, and Lorne and Catherine sat gazing at the moon and nosing their wines.

Lorne held the glass of Gewürztraminer to his nose again. "Seems strange to me. So much more complexity, greater depth of aroma and flavour, so much more excitement in the botrytis late harvest wines than in the Ice Wines. Huge complexity versus simple balanced sweet."

"Marketing. There's so much more Ice Wine than TBA. Ice Wine has to be pushed, so the consumers have to pay the marketing costs. Simple market economics. There's nowhere near enough TBA produced for marketing expenses to make sense, so the prices for their magnificence languish in comparison. Stupid, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

They nosed again between the two. "Complexity, multi-layered subtleness or monotone expensiveness. I guess the generic Ice Wines attract the insecure who relate price with quality."

"The generic, yes. But there are a few great ones which deserve their strong prices. The rest of them seem to ride on their coattails. Even the counterfeit Chinese chem lab ones are as good as the following herd, sometimes better."

"I wonder..." She was interrupted by the click of the door opening behind them.

"You wonder?"

"Wonder at many things marketing related, most marketing — bafflegab overriding reality. Manipulating emotions and doubt and insecurity. Replacing them with perceived gratification. Justifying the gratifications and polishing the egos of the deceived. It's a great money mill. Keep turning the crank and grinding out the gold, leaving the chaff thinking they're happy."

The waitress stood listening, and when Catherine had finished speaking, she said, "I agree fully, it's so obvious..." She stopped herself. "Sorry, not my place... Your dessert sampler." She placed the platter on the table between them.

"What a splendid assortment." Catherine turned and smiled up at the waitress. "Any special instructions?"

"You both know what it's about. I love your energy, the both of you. Chef hopes you enjoy these samplings."

Lorne and Catherine explored the assortment, enjoying the wide range of sensations, from harmonious to complementary tension of flavours with each wine. All the while, they looked out over the marina at the moon, now much higher and around toward the south.

"Look at the moonlight playing with the wake down there... No, not moonlight, but a trail of phosphorescence behind the boat."

"I've always loved watching that at night, bioluminescence Dad called it." As the boat entered the small harbour and moored at the float, Catherine asked, "Isn't that Molly's tender?"