Spilt Wine

49. Progress on Three Fronts

The decision on the two cellar workers was easy. When I contacted Gerrard, he said, "We can each work half-time if my wife can work with me. We're a good team in the cellar." He was delighted when I told him we needed two workers.

Catherine and I interviewed the couple together. They were deeply tanned and bright-eyed, having recently returned from a wild adventure. In the early summer of '84, after the cellar work had wound down before harvest, they left their jobs at Faiveley and bought a small sailboat in La Rochelle. After repairing and outfitting it, they sailed south in the autumn.

A year and a half into the voyage, halfway around, they ran short of money and sold the boat in Auckland. They then enjoyed the rest of southern summer travelling and exploring wine in New Zealand and Australia. They had returned eager to get back to work and start building another kitty.

After the quick interview, Catherine amused herself with some of the strange interpretations from her shopping list as she unpacked and stowed items from the three cartons that had been delivered. I took Gerrard and Sophie to the cellar to show them around before continuing to rack the Genavrières with them, hiring them before we finished the first pièce.

Catherine and I sat on the couch in the early evening sharing our separate notes from the afternoon's interviews. We had liked both viticulturists equally and were trying to decide between them.

"Both have solid credentials and good experience with Pinot Noir," I said. "Each spoke from an obvious enjoyment of their work, from an appreciation of natural cycles. Both chose shepherd as their role with the vines, not the other options we gave – master or tamer."

"Jean-Paul had been seven years with Jacob until the family reorganisation earlier this year." Catherine ran her finger across her notes. "Straight out of Montpellier. Loic has slightly shorter experience, four years here with Drouhin, then two and a half years in California with Chandon, until he came back to care for his mother. But he has experience in both the old and the new world methods."

"They both seem full of energy ... eager. It's a tough choice ... What if you hire both? For six months, until after the harvest. There's so much catching up to do in the vineyards, anyway. You can make a decision later." I paused and raised a finger while I thought further. "That might be difficult for one or both of them – the uncertainty, the lack of commitment."

After another pause, Catherine said, "We can assure them they'll be free to continue seeking a position elsewhere. Looking for a commitment elsewhere."

"You can give them time to pursue other openings. It's an unusual proposal, but you can start by seeing if they are interested in it. Otherwise, you'll have to decide between them now."

As I got up from the couch to go phone Jean-Paul and Loic with the unusual employment proposal, Catherine said, "We finally have some fresh food in the house, I'll go start preparing dinner."

"Rather early for dinner, isn't it?"

She tilted her head and smiled. "We can go cuddle in bed early. You still need learn to how to relax with me there."

Tuesday 6 May 1986

"Employment law is changing in France in the use of fixed-term contracts. With changes of governments, they were liberalised in 1979, pulled back and restricted in 1982, and the movement now is back toward a more widespread use." These were the comments of the lawyer as Catherine and I sat with him trying to sort out the terms of the employment contracts for Loic and Jean-Paul.

Both had accepted the proposal, and they were coming at fourteen hundred to meet each other and to examine their terms of employment. On Monday afternoon, after we had hired the young couple for the cellar, Catherine had phoned their lawyer, the one Louis and his father had used for many years. He said he would shuffle his next day's appointments and be here before noon. The gendarmes screened him in at eleven twenty.