All This I Will Give to You by Dolores Redondo

Author:Dolores Redondo [Redondo, Dolores]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503902541
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Published: 2018-08-31T18:30:00+00:00

SKELETONS

The farewells and the revving engines of the winery crew’s pickups faded into the distance. Through the window Manuel saw the enologist in lively conversation with a couple of the last to leave. The conversation was inaudible, but the satisfied expressions on both sides showed him the transactions had gone well.

The entrance to the winery and the parking area next door had been crowded with vehicles when he’d arrived that afternoon. The narrow road offered hardly enough maneuvering room for the station wagons and tractors towing small trailers painted in gaudy colors. He left his car at the top of the drive and walked the rest of the way. Cultivators engaged in lively talk stood between the vehicles and bright-colored trailers piled high with grapes. He saw curiosity in growers’ eyes as he passed them. They were also checking out the fruits of their competitors’ harvests. Grapes glistened like jewels in the brilliant early-afternoon sun.

Daniel was stationed by the loading docks, where the sliding doors had been pulled all the way open. He watched laborers hoisting cartons of grapes onto the industrial scale and warehousemen carrying them to storage after the weighing. He looked up, caught sight of Manuel, smiled, and beckoned energetically. Daniel greeted him heartily. “Hey, Manuel! You’re just in time; we’re only getting started with the processing. Come over here, and I’ll explain how it works.”

Manuel watched the growers setting up tightly packed towers of crates, five layers high. Daniel recorded the weights in a receipt book along with the grower’s name, and after the weighing he tore out the carbon copy and gave it to the owner. The process was repeated until the grower’s entire harvest had been weighed. Then day workers carried the crates inside and dumped the grapes out on a steel table. Four men were stationed there, their sleeves rolled up to their elbows. Lucas was one of them. They were picking out leaves, twigs, dirt clods, and stones that had wound up mixed in with the harvested grapes. The official enologist from the Institute of Denomination of Origin monitored the table and cataloged the grapes. The grower stood next to him. Manuel observed the process at first, but soon he felt the need to participate, attracted by the busy flow, the constant rhythm of the work, and the laughter of men celebrating a fine crop. As they handled the dark grapes covered with must, the quality of the harvest was evident to everyone.

He rolled up his sleeves and went to the table. Daniel, who’d stayed by the scale and kept an eye on him, gestured to a worker to give him a work coat. After the employee secured it about him, he looked like a surgeon ready for the operating room. He found the work intense. All afternoon he participated as the grapes were dumped into the press. It rapidly crushed them. Sweet juices rich with sun and fortified by the mists gushed along channels to the chilled tanks waiting below.

The sun had already set by the time the last load was processed.

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