Bruno 02 - The Dark Vineyard

single ownership. That’s how we make our profit, by selling our own wine at restaurant prices. If he just makes wine, the
négociants
will screw him on pricing like they do all the small producers. Now will you help me across to the salon so I can greet our guests?”
    As Bruno helped Mirabelle up the steps, the mayor and the baron arrived together in the Baron’s car with Vauclos, the local bank manager. Then came Hubert in his Mercedes with Jacques Lesvignes, who ran the largest of the town’s small building firms. Xavier’s Renault followed, and the young
maire-adjoint
came out with his father, the local Renault dealer, and his father-in-law, who ran a timber business. As Julien bustled in from the winery, an old Jaguar appeared, and Dougal, a Scotsman, joined them. Having come to Saint-Denis to retire, Dougal found himself bored and started a company called Delightful Dordogne that specialized in renting the local
gîtes
and houses to tourists. With the handymen and cleaners he hired, Dougal had become an important local employer. Bruno smiled to himself in admiration at the mayor’s planning; the leading businessmen of Saint-Denis were now assembled. Julien shook hands all around and steered everyone to the corner of the salon that Mirabelle had chosen, under the painting of Madame Récamier.
    “I think we have to presume that the American venture is dead,” the mayor began. “The son is under arrest. Even withoutthat, many of us have doubts about the desirability of the big Bondino company as a partner for our little town. But there’s been one important benefit for us in this, which is that I’m now confident of getting
appellation contrôlée
status for our wines. The heart of this venture is the Domaine, so the first question has to be what are your intentions, Julien?”
    “I have two problems. The first is the option to buy the Domaine. I could buy it back for fifty thousand euros, but I don’t have the money. The second is that I timed my expansion wrong. There’s a wine glut, so prices are low, and I’m already making more wine than I can sell through the hotel and restaurant. What’s worse is that I don’t have the working capital for a proper marketing campaign.”
    “We have put together a proposal for you that has the backing of everyone here,” said the mayor. He went on to describe the initial investment each man at the meeting had agreed to put into a new company, Vignerons de Saint-Denis-sur-Vézère, before offering to sell shares to all the citizens of Saint-Denis. The new company would buy back Julien’s option to sell the Domaine, so he’d keep the hotel and vineyard. Hubert would market the wine Julien couldn’t sell.
    “We’ve also decided that the company should see if it can acquire Cresseil’s farm cheaply,” said the baron, explaining the problem with the inheritance. The mayor had tracked down Cresseil’s relatives, distant cousins in Tulle, who would be at the next day’s funeral. They might have been hoping for a windfall from the farm, the mayor explained, but instead would discover that they faced a long lawsuit.
    “So we’re going to propose that we buy their claim to the property for fifty thousand in cash. I’m prepared to go a bit higher, but that should tempt them,” the baron went on. “We may have to offer the same to Alphonse, but even then we’ll be buying it for less than half what it’s worth. The prospect of biglegal costs while property taxes mount up should give both sides an inducement to settle. And if we have both claims, there’ll be no lawsuits.”
    Bruno watched, fascinated, as the meeting progressed—remarkably smoothly, he thought, given the different interests involved. The mayor was at his most articulate and persuasive, and his explanations were backed by the hardheaded business sense of the baron. Wily old politicians, the pair of them. Years of practice, he supposed.
    The mayor described the plan to restore the barns on the various properties into
gîtes
, which meant lots of work for Lesvignes’s building firm, which in turn meant jobs for apprentice plumbers and electricians. Xavier described the state grants available to pay for their training and salaries while they worked and learned their trade. Dougal said he’d been planning to expand, anyway, and would rent the new properties to tourists.
    “This sounds like a property company,” said Julien. “What about the wine?”
    Hubert explained that the Domaine