“I’m doing well, thanks, Marco. I…”
I didn’t let her finish; instead, I pulled her out of Marco’s tight embrace and spun her toward Blake. He undoubtedly could see I was agitated with Marco because he stood there with his arms folded, a huge grin on his face. Prick; they were both bastards.
“Babe, this is Blake; he oversees everything here at the Sinclair Winery now.” I introduced Blake to Jada, and I shook his hand in a firm grip. I was extremely grateful that my close friend Douglas Speed sent me Blake. Douglas has a number of wineries overseas, one being in the Napa Valley of San Francisco, which is where Blake was based. Douglas was the first person I called when I planned to rebuild and rejuvenate the Sinclair Winery. When he told me Blake Ross was looking at relocating back to Australia, I took it as the perfect opportunity to offer him the position here in the Barossa as head winemaker for the Sinclair Winery.
“Welcome, Ms. Sinclair; it is a pleasure to meet you. Marco has been telling me how beautiful you are, and I can see he was not stretching the truth. Max, you have quite a catch here.”
“Well, thank you, Blake, and please, call me Jada. I’ve been trying to tell Max here that I am by far the best thing that has happened to him.” She jabbed me in my chest, making sure she deliberately rubbed her hands over my pectoral muscles.
Grinning up at me mischievously, Jada was unquestionably trying to goad me. If she wasn’t careful with her little teasing, I’d pull her back into that barn and nail her right there and then on a bale of hay or against the door.
“Max, I am fine taking the tour with Blake or Marco; you go and do whatever you were doing in the barn, and I‘ll meet you back there once I‘ve finished.”
The little minx, she was trying to get rid of me knowing she’d be in big trouble if I got her alone. She could see the gleam in my eyes.
“Marco, aren’t you driving down to Adelaide this afternoon?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, and I need to swing past and pick up Mia; she needs to get back to Uni for a few more lectures before her semester is over. But I’ve still got plenty of ti—”
I cut him off, “Go, now. I sure as hell don’t need you speeding all the way there because we held you up here in the winery. Go.”
“You are such a bossy prick!” Marco retorted. “I’m trying to stall because Mia just sent me a text that Milan is coming, too, and I am definitely not in the mood for that chick. Sorry, Jada, I know she’s your sister, but she does my head in!”
Jada laughed at him and offered, “Oh, Marco, she’s not that bad; she just likes to rattle your cage.”
“It must run in the family,” I muttered, earning a glare from Jada.
***
JADA
“Firstly, a grape picker transfers the gathered fruit to the pile of grapes that will eventually become wine. Grape-picking season is a time of great activity in South Australia’s Barossa Valley. We are one of Australia’s foremost grape-growing, wine-making regions.”
It was wonderful to hear Blake speak about the Barossa like this. The small group of people on the tour were totally enthralled by it all. When Max said I was going to be given a tour, I didn’t realise it was a ‘formal’ tour with actual tourists.
I couldn’t believe I used to live here and I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about the wine-making industry; I should be ashamed of myself. Blake had worked in many Australian wineries before venturing overseas to work in the Napa Valley. He told the group he was very happy to be back home in Australia and working in the Barossa.
“Now, do you all know about The Barossa Vintage Festival?” Blake asked the group. “It is one of a number of festivals held in the Valley, and it’s celebrated from Easter Monday to Friday, in odd-numbered years. And grape-picking season in the Barossa Valley is from March to early May.”
This man was a walking, talking ‘wine bible’. He explained the entire process from the grape picking to the fermenting stage and answered every single question tourists asked him with total confidence.
“Finally, the wine is ready and is prepared for bottling. Often, filtration is used to make the wine bright and clear and to remove any risk of microbial spoilage. And now we come to the fun part: the wine tasting.” Everyone cooed and crowded him. I managed to wave at him and sneak away back toward the barn. Back to Max.
***
“Max!” I yelled when I entered the barn. “I’m back. Are you still here?”
“I’m over here, babe; I just got back. I had to get some paperwork from your dad’s office.”
“Oh, Max, it was incredible. I loved it, and that Blake Ross is a genius. I can’t remember harvest season ever being this busy.”