luxlev:
Lux listened carefully as the conversation moved into the testing. Caldera red, not her favorite but one of the higher-shelf varieties. While she preferred red wine, most vintages from the south of Demeter gave her a headache. Her personal taste, though, was neither here nor there. Performing a quick search on the performance of that region’s reds, she found about what she expected. Generally excellent standards except for a few outlier seasons.
“This is mostly a fine choice but not the top of the top,” she relayed. Now that Na was in the presence of someone else, she pitched her voice a little lower, just to be sure that the man from the vineyard didn’t overhear anything. This wine was good, good enough for Alba’s establishment, certainly. But likely not quality enough for this job.
Over the link, she heard the man denote it as 2997 vintage. Scrolling through the information, Lux scanned the notes on that particular year. “Needs a few more years before it’s gonna really be at its best.”
Now on to the actual tasting. “Okay, this is a quick sell not a whole tasting, so don’t worry about spending too much time on the glass. Hold it up to the light, and squint a little bit. Then give it a little swirl, sniff just at the rim of the glass, and taste it.” She had seen clients and escorts themselves do this countless times. Luckily Na wouldn’t need to fake much more than the pantomime. “If you want to get fancy, say something about its ‘polish’ and ‘light body.’ Otherwise, just tell him that this one is not quite mature enough and that we’ll need something far more impressive.”
She did as Lux said, again -- glass up to the light, a discerning squint, a swirl, a sniff, a taste-- it was good wine: if she hadn’t needed to look like a true connoisseur to put on a show, she would have been more than happy with something like this, though it was a little dryer than her usual taste. She had to remind herself that she was tasting the wine and not actually drinking it, pulling the glass from her lips and handing it back to the man.
“It’s alright,” she said, a tone of dismissal to her voice, one well-practiced in meetings with less than invested students trying to bargain with her for a better grade. “But I’m afraid our client is going to want something a bit more mature. If this is the best you have...”
“No, no, of course, just one moment--” the man said, setting the glass down and taking another bottle from shelf, handing it to her to examine.
Another red, another well-decorated label. A Caldera, though the year was proudly displayed on the label of this one, a 2981.
“Hmm...” she said slowly, killing time for Lux while the man gave her all the necessaries about this particular wine.
