Spilt Wine

46. Back to Reality

Wednesday 30 April 1986

I spent most of Wednesday morning answering and sending faxes. Two weeks ago, I phoned my office to tell them that my return to Vancouver would be delayed, and I was now a week overdue. My six-week buying trip had stretched to seven, and it appeared it would stretch much further. Overnight, a long scroll of paper arrived in response to the fax I sent to Vancouver before going to bed.

I figured that if I could handle the sunken barge from afar, then I could also run the wine-importing business this way. Besides, Lynn handles all the paperwork and administration for me, and she needs little direction.

The reply I was now drafting was to resolve questions Lynn couldn't answer, such as: The order from Giacomo Bologna didn't make it in time for the container consolidation. Do you want to wait for the next container, or move it more quickly? and Mas de Daumas Gassac has sent a price for the '84 and '85, what do I do with this? and The Brand's Laira, Lake's Folly and Plantagenet shipments are stuck in a labour dispute in Melbourne; and Should I get in contact with Empson on the short ship on Poggio Antico, or go directly to them? and a dozen and a half similar things which she had put on hold until my return.

The adjuster's phone call interrupted me partway through, and I was relieved by this excuse to take a break from the process.

"Your barge is afloat again," were the first words I heard upon answering. "It was a long process, but it is now floating. Good morning, you are well?"

"I'm fine, thank you, and you?" I replied to complete the greeting which almost invariably precedes anything else in France. "Great news, how was it accomplished?"

"With Monsieur Dulong's assistance, we brought in a crane and two large pumps. The crane lifted until her scuppers were all above water and we started pumping her out. She holds a lot of water, and of course, she still has a leak. We have one pump still running to keep ahead of the inflow and the other pump is standing by in case the rupture increases."

"She is still at Écluse Aiserey?"

"Yes, but we have a small remorqueur, a yard tug coming later this morning from Saint-Usage to tow her down."

"And the dry dock? Can we get in?"

"Yes, they often push aside schedules for more urgent needs. She will go directly in when she arrives. They have already begun their preparations."

I finished the conversation with Michel and returned to drafting the reply. A few minutes later, a gentle hand on each shoulder stopped me mid-sentence. I looked up from the stack of paper, let my arms fall to my sides and relaxed as Catherine gently kneaded the knots from my concentration.

"I miss you," she said. "You've been away in another world."

"I'm almost finished now ... No! I'm finished now." I hung my head and let it roll to the rhythm of her massage.

"I've interrupted your work," she said softly a few minutes later, as she continued the gentle massage.

"Not really. I'd been sitting here trying to figure out what to do with the new warehousing agreement, and I've gotten nowhere. You've allowed me to relax and stop thinking about it, and I'm beginning to see it more clearly. I'll let it sit for a while longer – give it time to further untie. Let's go check the pièces. The lees will have settled by now from their move. They need to be racked off."

"Also, some of the lighter '84 Premiers Crus need bottling soon. We have the flowchart Louis maintained. It shows his planned workflow for the next few months. He always plotted a schedule, adding as he went, projecting it out several months."

Catherine searched for the flowchart while I gathered my papers and placed them in a folder and into my bag. Then, we sat looking at the chart for a while and allowed it to sink in before I said, "We missed the scheduled stirring of lees on the first of April, but the thieves did that for us. We missed the racking on the 15th and the lees were stirred again on that Sunday when we moved the pièces back here. What date was that?"

Catherine looked at the calendar for a long while, running her finger up and down its squares, then said, "I've lost track of time. That seems so long ago now – I know it isn't, but so much has happened since then. I don't even know what day it is now."

"I'm quite confused myself. I had to look for the date on Le Figaro last night when I wrote the letter to Lynn. Today's 30 April, Wednesday." Placing a finger on that square, I continued, "We brought the wine back on the 20th so the lees have had ten days to settle, but Louis scheduled racking two weeks after bâtonnage. We should follow that."

"That's 4 May." She wrote Racking in the square.

"Nothing else in the cellar coming up, but there's a lot of work needed in the vineyards. Look at all his entries here with long lines from mid-April to mid-May: Débuttage, Bouéchage, Griffage, and here, here's a note to remind him to re-set stakes and to re-tension loose wires as he checked the bud break. Do you have –"

"Bud break! – Louis was talking about checking the bud break when we got home from Paris. He expected it to start happening the following week. I think we need to hire someone, a good viticulturist to care for the vineyards."

"I was always surprised Louis still hadn't hired any help."

"He said if his father and grandfather could do it alone, so could he. He was so tired some days when he came in. I told him so often he needed help."

"He had added so many things to the workload to improve the quality, no wonder he was tired. We can check with FIVB to see if there are any good vineyard workers looking for employment. Get started there and then search for a viticulturist to hire."

"But the money for this? We have a tight budget. Louis always said we couldn't afford to hire help."

"That's not the case anymore. You're no longer selling to Grosskopf at half price. You'll be getting real prices for all your wine now. There should also be a substantial payment coming from your insurers as compensation for loss of value from damage to the wine."

"Funny – I hadn't thought of those. We've been too busy with other things."