What Time Devours (2009) by Hartley a J

Author:Hartley, a J [Hartley, a J]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-03-26T18:09:05+00:00

CHAPTER 48

Thomas was just starting to get used to the scale of the cellars. He had assumed that such places would occupy roughly the size of the building above them, but he was way off. The cellars were actually a network of tunnels and passages, stacked on top of each other and reaching far out into the chalk and limestone like serpentine burrows. The major champagne houses had literally miles of such cellars.

Good place to hide something you wanted people to forget about, he thought. Could that be what the man in the stone-colored suit had been hinting at? Surely not. But there had been something about the man, something almost familiar that Thomas couldn't quite place . . .

"Sir?" It was the girl with the ice-blue eyes.

"Yes?"

"If you go back to the lobby, one of the officials is waiting for you."

Thomas wasn't sure what she meant by "officials," and though he assumed it was an inaccurate translation, he thought there was a touch of pink to her cheeks, and both the smile she gave him and the way she turned away seemed hurried and deliberate. He felt immediately cautious.

The man at the top of the stairs who was so conspicuously doing nothing seemed similarly wary.

"You had a question, monsieur?"

He was a young man, businesslike and slick in his immaculate, stylishly slim-fitting suit, but Thomas couldn't help feeling that his casual manner was feigned.

"A couple, actually," said Thomas, opting to lead with the one that sounded more like general research. "The Taittinger house makes a Saint Evremond brand, named after Charles de Saint Denis, the marquis of Saint Evremond who was exiled from the court of . . ."

"Le Roi Soleil," inserted the other. "Louis the Fourteenth."

"Right. I was wondering what the connection was and if the house possesses any of Saint Evremond's books and papers."

"The Saint Evremond champagne is made by the Irroy company, which we own. It is made according to Saint Evremond's own principles, with thirty percent Chardonnay grapes, sixty percent Pinot Noir, with Meunier and others for balance. It is aged for three years . . ."

"Pinot Noir?" said Thomas. "But that's red."

"Did you not read the display in the cellar?" said the other with a touch of hauteur. "Many kinds of champagne are made with a blend of grapes, including red, but the skins are separated from the juice. It is the skins that make red wine red."

"I see," said Thomas, looking suitably humbled. "But other than following the recipe of Saint Evremond . . . ?"

"There is no connection," he shrugged. "It is a tradition that we are proud to hold."

"Is it true that the English invented modern champagne?"

"Of course not," he said, as if nothing could be more ignorant. "No one invented champagne by themselves, not even the monk Dom Perignon, no matter what they tell you at Moet et Chandon. Saint Evremond, like Dom Perignon, was important in blending grape varieties, but his contribution to the drink came from popularizing it in sophisticated society.

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