Mayhem in Margaux Read Online Free PDF Page A

suitcases. It was the third year the Cookers were renting this simple villa, designed for idleness and relaxation. They were sharing it with their Parisian friends, Leslie and Ludovic Lamotte, who had fallen in love with the bay and the peninsula. They couldn’t imagine being anywhere else in the summer.
    Leslie worked for an advertising company that specialized in cosmetics and ready-to-wear apparel. Her work both excited and exhausted her, and she looked forward to devoting her vacations to her children. Victor and Aristide had delicate features and such fair skin, even a raffia beach bag full of sunscreen was hardly sufficient.
    Ludovic, who had long blond hair and blue-gray eyes, was an unusual mix of idealism and pragmatism. Benjamin had met him at a sale of rare vintages at the Hôtel Drouot auction house in Paris. They had struck up a friendship while commenting on the exorbitant prices of certain private cellars and had continued their conversation at a little neighborhood brasserie. Ludovic was delighted to find himself in the company of the brilliant winemaker, whose guide he knew well.
    After trying his hand at selling old furniture, pop art paintings, and nineteen-seventies memorabilia, Ludovic had finally decided that he was more of an antiquarian than a dealer of bric-a-brac. He changed direction and started searching out rare items from the wine-making world: stamped pewter pitchers, china cabinets from châteaus, wood and metal wine racks, crystal carafes, and hand-blown wine glasses.
    Eventually, Ludovic became interested in rare old vintages. Picking up bottles during his travels, he managed to acquire an astonishing reserve of rare finds with faded labels mottled with mold that attested to several decades of storage. This unusual business earned him frequent consultations with billionaires from the United States and Lebanon, a country that had an ancient viticultural region but where popular acceptance of wine drinking was relatively new. Ludovic served as a sort of wine archeologist for these rich clients.
    Benjamin, who considered himself more of a taster than a drinker, understood perfectly how Ludovic had happened upon his chosen field. Life was full of back roads and wrong turns. But for the person with vision and passion, those meanderings inevitably led to the right place.
    Benjamin always arrived at the coast with suitcases full of wines from his cellar, which he fully enjoyed sharing with his guests. The foursome generally indulged in white wine during their shared vacation. They would have their first glass after returning from the beach in the late afternoon. They had agreed that no one would drink at lunchtime, and this proved to be a wise decision, as the daytime temperature was almost always hovered in the high eighties. When it came to the early evening ritual, Benjamin would offer a Côtes de Gascogne, a Meursault, a Bergerac, or perhaps a Bugey. He also took pleasure in pouring a Puligny-Montrachet, an Entre-Deux-Mers, or a Côtes de Provence. Sometimes he teased his wife and friends by combining prestigious estate vintages with harmoniously structured table wines.
    Ludovic, on the other hand, had a sentimental affection for the Carbonnieux he had discovered a few years earlier at a Cap Ferret wine bar. He couldn’t imagine a vacation at La Planquette without a case of this amber-colored Pessac-Léognan with mineral properties and a delicate mint bouquet enhanced by fine notes of toasted brioche. He was equally fond of a competitively priced Touraine wine that offered the sauvignon’s refreshing qualities and aromatic elegance.
    They gathered shrimp, snails, and oysters and ate them with garlic butter and a glass of wine as the waning light of the afternoon sun shimmered through the upper branches of the pine trees. Sometimes they nibbled pistachios, toasted almonds, slices of Aveyron sausage, or slivers of a good Laguiole cheese while watching the children play and preparing a fire for