North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

Poly Crisis Averted

For my lunch with Victoria, I brought in some BBQ from my family's favorite place. Grass-fed. Organic. No hormones or antibiotics. No corn 'finishing'. If I am going to be a Vampire, and therefore eat meat, I am damn well going to make an effort to make sure that the animals are treated well while they are alive.

I would still rather be a vegetarian, but that is not what being the apex predator is designed for.

I am having an IPA with my BBQ. One could argue that BBQ would perhaps match a lager beer, but I am an IPA person. Besides; Victoria is drinking white wine that she brought.

White wine. With BBQ. That she brought!

Victoria knows me well enough to know I don't NORMALLY keep any white wine in stock, but I was a little insulted because I know HER preferences well, and knowing this meeting was coming I laid in a bottle of... something in the white wine range. I don't know what it is. White label. Green bottle. Wine from a Napa Valley vineyard.

When picking out the bottle for Victoria, I knew better than to ask Helen for an opinion on white wine. I would get an opinion. Not a useful one.

That may be wrong: Helen might know Victoria's preference. She is political that way. Still: Even if she knew what to get, it would have been proceeded by a tirade of wine-related invective.

The person at Spec's Liquor Warehouse said the one I bought and chilled for this meeting is good. A relative term, even to me. One can call a garbage dump a good one if the pit is designed to capture methane, and not leak into the surrounding ground. It is still a trash pit.

As a practicing hedonist who loves flavor, when I drink wine, I drink Red. White wine, to me, is like Vodka. Something you ferment when you do not want actual flavor. Only alcohol.

'My' winery only makes Reds. Helen would never let Claremont make a white while she ran the place, and I am loathe to change that policy. I am not sure how Fiona, the woman that actually runs the place, would react to the idea of Claremont making a white, but I know how Helen would, and I would not enjoy it.

I pissed Helen off when I made an experimental Champagne-style wine with Champagne yeast but based upon our lighter Red. It can't technically be Champagne. Not made in the right region for that. I thought the Champagne-like wine was terrific, but Helen accused me of being a heathen.

As if she did not experiment when Claremont was her place. What's wrong with Champagne-like wine with actual flavors other than yeast and Oak?

We did not make much, and only sold it in the Estate gift shop and served it in the restaurant for a short while. It sold out fast.

Helen drank everything I put in front of her from that experiment so I think she doth protest too much. It was light, well balanced, not at all sweet. Extra Brut. The red 'champagne' came out at nearly 15% alcohol and it was deceptive. It did not taste that strong. Helen had been VERY amorous that evening. I am going to keep making that style from time to time. She gave me the winery, after all. It's like putting me on Council: If you don't want me to do things like this, don't make it so I can.

The same goes for white-wine-with-BBQ Victoria.

My mind is wandering, cast adrift by Victoria not thinking I know she drinks the wine apostate white. What kind of host does she think I am?

Victoria is making noises at the BBQ. "This is SO good." She said, helping herself to more. Over twelve hundred years old, looking for all the world like an All-American girl fresh off the track and cleaned up to a shine, Victoria is deceptive looking as all hell. Looking at her one would think she is the model for 'Track Star Barbie' right down to the shiny blonde hair, but without the permanently pointed toes. Not an ancient Vampire and the head of what is currently the most influential and rule-breaking region in the Vampire world.