Page 88 of Gone With the Wine

“I want to talk to you about what we’re going to do with the viognier.”

“Sure.”

“I want to make orange wine.”

She frowns. “What?”

“You have to have heard of it. It’s getting more popular.”

“I don’t know anyone who’s making orange wines. What is it? Do we mix white wine with orange juice? Or…?”

“No, no.”

“Because our brand isn’t fruity wines like peach Moscato or those strawberry flavored wines. Ugh.”

“It’s not that. Some wineries in Argentina were making them. One thing about Argentina is that they’re not governed by Denominations of Origin.”

She nods. “Like Champagne.”

“Yeah. So we had more freedom to try new things. And I found some qvevris in our cave.”

She gives me a blank look. Okay, Rosa knows a lot about wine, obviously, but this is a bit obscure.

“They’re terra cotta vessels that wine is fermented in. I think they’ve been there a long time. Probably they were there when we were kids but they’re in the ground so we didn’t realize. I want to clean them up and put some Viognier grapes in there to ferment.”

“That sounds…weird. Terra cotta?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know, Bee…”

I clamp my bottom lip between my teeth briefly. “I want them to ferment a year. Then age another year.”

She frowns. “I thought we were going to make wines that we can drink sooner.”

“I know. That’s why I’m talking to you about this. I won’t use all the viognier grapes. But it will be a longer process.”

She makes an annoyed sound. “Bee. We need to start making money as soon as we can.”

“I know! Believe me, I know. I’m just…I found those qvevris and it seems like a sign. And I’ve been doing a ton of research and I think we’d be getting in early on a growing trend.”

“We’re not a family who jumps on trends.”

“This isourwinery.Ourvineyard. We don’t have to stick to Lamberti traditions. We can make it what we want.”

I can’t tell her how much I want this. How much I need to do this, to make myownhistory in this family. “In fact, I think we should change our name.”

Her eyes fly open. “What? Change the name? From Caparelli?”

“Yes. It hasn’t really been Caparelli for years anyway; with Geno running it, all the wines have been Belmonte wines.”

“But…it’s always been Caparelli.”

“Think about it, okay? It’s an idea. We can talk to Allegra about it, too.”

“If she ever shows up,” Rosa mutters.

“I know.” I sigh. “So back to the orange wine. It’s another way for us to differentiate ourselves from Belmonte. To make our own name.”To show what I can do.

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