Bruno 02 - The Dark Vineyard

would remain the property of the existing owners, Julien and Mirabelle. But it would be leased to the new company, which would make wine under his and Julien’s direction. On a rough calculation, the new company would have at least twenty hectares of vines that should produce one hundred thousand liters a year or more.
    “Right now, I sell only about a thousand cases a year through the hotel and restaurant. That’s twelve thousand bottles,” said Julien. “How do we find a market for the rest?”
    “I get over five hundred tenants a year,” said Dougal. “We give them each a free wine tour and tasting at the Domaine and a discount price and I’ll be surprised if we don’t sell another five hundred cases.”
    “I’ll sell the wine at my
cave
, and I’ll offer it to all the localrestaurants who are already my clients,” said Hubert. “I’ll also suggest it to customers who buy my Bergerac blends. Since I’ll be the
négociant
, in a company in which I’m a major shareholder, we save the usual middleman’s profit. I’ve talked to Duhamel at the supermarket, and he’ll take five hundred cases. That means we already have a market for all the wine the Domaine makes now, and quite a bit more. We won’t be selling the wine from the new vines we plant for another three or four years at least, and by then we should have built up a reputation. That’s our challenge. You and I are going to have to make wines that win prizes.”
    “We also have to build a proper visitors’ center at the Domaine, for which we’d like a bank loan,” said the mayor.
    “I’m certainly prepared to make the loan for that and to provide working capital for the company,” said Vauclos, the plump-faced and genial Gascon who ran the town’s Crédit Agricole. “Indeed, I’m putting fifty thousand of my own money into shares in the company.”
    Bruno smiled inwardly. The
mairie
was the bank’s main client. All the
mairie
’s salaries and the town’s taxes went through its books, and the handful of men in Julien’s salon accounted for most of the town’s business. It would be a foolish bank manager who did not support a venture with such backing. And then Bruno began thinking of his own modest savings and how many shares he might be able to afford.
    “When you suggested offering shares to the citizens of Saint-Denis, how would that work?” he asked.
    “We price each share at a hundred euros, but any local taxpayer can buy a share at a discount, say ninety euros,” said Xavier. “And of course every shareholder will have the right to buy the wine at a special discount. We have nearly a thousand households here in Saint-Denis. If they each buy a case a year, that’s twelve thousand bottles. Then we can sell more at a stallin the market to catch the tourist trade and tell them about the visitors’ center.”
    “So what we’re planning to do is to take Bondino’s idea and do it ourselves without Bondino and on a slightly smaller scale,” Bruno mused out loud.
    “Well, I’m convinced,” said Mirabelle, who had been following the proceedings closely. With an obvious effort of will, she sat upright and fixed her eyes on Julien. “This is the best way for Julien, for the Domaine and for Saint-Denis. We accept.”
    “What if the citizens don’t go for it and you don’t sell all the shares?” Bruno asked quietly.
    “Then the
mairie
buys the remainder on behalf of the commune as a whole,” said the mayor. “This will be a good investment. We can use any profits for that indoor sports center you’re always nagging me about, Bruno.”
    “All right,” said Bruno. “If Julien and Mirabelle and all of you are agreed, I’m prepared to join in. The shares are a hundred euros each, right? So with my discount, I can get a hundred shares for nine thousand euros. But I warn you all, I’m going to be a very active shareholder. These are my life savings I’m investing.”
    “Bruno,” said the mayor, “why do you think you’re here? All this was your idea. You were the one who said that if this made sense for the Bondinos, it would make sense for French investors as well. And here we are. So you’re already getting an allocation of two hundred shares as the initiator of the project, and we all want you on the board of directors. But of course we’re delighted to have your nine thousand euros as well.”

38
    Bruno parked his van beside a score of cars in the paddock off the narrow lane that led to Alphonse’s