An Exquisite Challenge Read Online Free PDF Page B

herself down in the middle of a row, drew her jeans-clad knees up to her chest and propped her elbows on them. The Devil’s Peak, Gabe’s star wine, was a Cabernet blend. Cabernet was the most popular grape in Napa, compromising a whopping 40 percent of the harvest. Complexity, Gabe had said, the way the varietals were blended together, was the key to this wine. But what the hell did complexity mean?
    That was what was freezing her brain. She didn’t understand the product. Didn’t understand what she should be brainstorming about. What was The Devil’s Peak’s key differentiator?
    Gabe found her there a half an hour later, still staring glumly at the beautiful purple grapes. Her fried brain took him in. Clinging T-shirt plastered across a muscular chest, dirt-stained jeans and a sweaty, man-working-hard look provided more inspiration than the last half hour had in total.
    He gave her a once-over. “You look like hell.”
    “Thank you.” She pushed a self-conscious hand through her hair. Too bad she didn’t rock the disheveled look like he did.
    “Elena said you were up before her.”
    At five, to be precise. One rose with the birds when severely agitated. “I have to nail this theme.”
    He held out a hand. “Looking for inspiration?”
    She could have said he was doing just fine in that department, but that would have violated their nothing-personal rule. So she curled her fingers around his palm instead and let him drag her to her feet. Unfortunately, his perspiration-covered, hard-packed abs were now staring her in the face. Looking down or up wasn’t an option, so she stepped back instead.
    “I think I’m getting sunstroke along the way.”
    He frowned down at her. “Have you had enough water?”
    She held up her bottle. Took a deep breath. “I don’t understand what makes this wine special. I need to know what its key differentiator is to come up with a theme, and to me a Cabernet is a Cabernet.”
    He looked down his perfect, aquiline nose at her, as if to ask why she hadn’t said something sooner. “You were with Pedro in the winery,” she said defensively. “I didn’t want to bug you.”
    His frown eased. “On a scale of one to ten, how much do you know about wine?”
    She winced. “Three.” That might actually be pushing it.
    He sighed. “You need to understand the process from beginning to end if you’re going to understand what makes the wine special.” He glanced at his watch. “I can give you a tour before my call and shower later. I just need to grab some water from the house.”
    They started the tour in the rows of De Campo’s prize Cabernet vines. Maybe it was the passionate way Gabe spoke about the growing process or maybe it was because one of the hottest men on the planet was delivering the information, but wine was getting more fascinating by the minute. This Gabe, the relaxed, visionary version of the man she’d never seen before, was darn near irresistible and it was doing strange things to her ability to focus.
    “You still pick the grapes?” she asked incredulously. “I thought there were machines for that.”
    He nodded. “There are. For mass production that’s fine, but the machines can’t distinguish between the desirable and undesirable grapes, so for the premium wines such as the ones that come from these rows, we harvest them by hand.”
    “Got it.” She nodded toward the vine he held. “So how can you tell when they’re ready to pick? They look ready to me.”
    A smile curved his lips. “Try one.”
    She popped one in her mouth. “ Oh. It’s a bit tart.”
    “It needs another couple months for the tannins to mature.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “I still don’t understand those.”
    He lifted a shoulder. “It’s not the easiest concept to grasp. Think of it like the structure our skeleton gives us. Tannins give that to a wine. They’re derived from the skins, stems and seeds of the grapes.”
    Finally, a concept that made sense to her.
    She