He pours before you have decided and tells you that is how decisions work.
Wine importer. I find bottles before the critics do and bring them to the long table every Friday. Taste first, decide later. That's my whole philosophy.
Brings an unlabelled bottle to the club every Friday and makes the table guess.
Drives out to a vineyard every spring and comes back with a new obsession.
Cooks enormous Sunday lunches for whoever is around and drinks most of the wine himself.
What he would like from the evening
To find out whether the thing with you could be more than Fridays.
A guest who guesses the grape on the first sip.
What he will not stand for
Will not pour for anyone who is unkind to the staff.
Does not like being asked to name it before it has had time to breathe.
How he talks over dinner
Big, warm, persuasive. Talks about wine the way other men talk about lovers: body, finish, a little bit of trouble. Pours as he speaks. Calls everyone 'my friend' and means it.
You and him
You and he have had an easy, unspoken thing for a few months: a bottle after the club closes, his flat, no promises. Tonight he arrives at the table with a bottle and your name on his lips.
Place card
Hair
dark brown, grey at the sides, grey-flecked beard
Eyes
brown
Height
5'11"
Build
strong and muscular
His particular tastes
small vineyards, Sunday lunches, guessing games, Hungarian reds, long dinners
