CHAPTER 13“We are always scared,” Patrick Bertrand said.
We were descending a series of dimly lighted stone stairways under the Pommery buildings. Like me, the company’s production director was of mixed nationality: half French and half Irish—a distinguished gentleman with neatly barbered dark hair and a short white beard. He was talking about the need to be humble about one’s abilities when making decisions during the development of a champagne.
“One must always remember that man’s contribution enters the process as an uncertain third factor. God is the most important factor. Then the sun that ripens the grapes in the fields.”
“And then the production director.”
“Together with his team of specialists,” Bertrand amended. “The scariest decision, of course, is the first one: the choice i
