martyrs

Title: A New Cellar Master The scent of damp wood and fermenting grapes hung in the air as I descended the stairs to the cellar. I had worked here for eight years, at Domaine Beauregard, a family winery lost in the heart of Burgundy. Every day was punctuated by the same actions: checking the temperature of the barrels, monitoring the fermentation, preparing the bottlings… A routine that I loved, lulled by the smell of wine in the making. But this morning, something was different. “Do you know?” Pierre, a long-time colleague, whispered to me as he entered the cellar with a worried look. “Do you know what?” “The boss… He left.” I frowned. Mr. Laurent, our cellar master and owner of the estate, had always been there. A passionate, demanding but fair man. To leave overnight? Impossible. “Gone where?” — Nobody knows exactly. He would have sold to a foreign buyer. The shock was immediate. Sold? The Beauregard estate, which had been in the Laurent family for three generations? Then came the final blow. — The new owner is arriving in an hour. I spent the rest of the morning in a daze, until the sound of a car in the courtyard announced the arrival of the mysterious buyer. We all gathered near the entrance to the cellar. A man in a black suit got out of a sedan, accompanied by two others in elegant attire. He was not a winemaker. His face was hard, his gestures precise. — Hello everyone, he declared in a confident tone. I am your new owner. An Italian. Murmurs broke out among us. A foreign investor? Was he going to keep the soul of the estate or transform it into a simple lucrative business? you immediately gather us in the cellar for an impromptu meeting. “I know this change is brutal,” he said, looking at us one by one. “But I didn’t come here to destroy everything. I want to make Beauregard an exceptional estate. For that, I need you.”