Page 27 of Gone With the Wine

Her lips tighten. “It would just be a slower path. We could use the money to do other things this year. And then next year we could start making wine.”

“I don’t want to wait that long.” I look at the phone and see Allegra’s conflicted expression. “What do you think, Legs?”

“I don’t know.” She makes a face. “Okay, I do know. I’m coming home. Soon. And maybe I don’t make the wine, but I want to help sell the wine. I have so many ideas! And I want to contribute. So I don’t want to sell the grapes and wait until next year.”

Relief slides warmly through my veins. I smile at Allegra then look at Rosa.

“Okay,” she says with a hitch of one shoulder.

“Okay, the other thing.” I glance between my sisters. “I met Jansen Beck, who bought Take Flight. He might need some help.”

“That’s not our problem,” Rosa says, evidently still a little bitter on behalf of the Wright family for having to sell.

“Not, of course not. But good neighbors help each other. Although we do have a lot of work to do here.”

“This is enough work,” Rosa agrees.

“Well, there’s another angle I thought of yesterday. Jake said Jansen has a beautiful modern lab over there. We don’t have a lab at all. I mean, we have space for one, but all the equipment is either gone to Belmonte, or it’s out of date. We need to test the grapes, test the juice once we’ve harvested. I could make a deal with Jansen that we get to use his lab in exchange for me helping him.”

“Huh.” Rosa tilts her head and looks at Allegra.

She wrinkles her nose. “You do what you think is right, Bee.”

Yikes. I look back at Rosa.

“Well, that’s a good point about the testing,” she says slowly. “But we do have some money we could use.”

“We’re going to need funds for harvest. And barrels. And a million other things.”

“The tasting room!” Allegra pipes up.

Oh boy. There was a tasting room here many years ago. “We have no wine to taste, Legs,” I remind her.

“We will!”

I smile. “Yeah. We will. And that raises another question. But first—if I make that deal with Jansen, you’re both okay with it?”

“Sure,” Rosa says slowly.

“Of course,” Allegra replies.

“Do you think I’m letting down Nonna by helping another winery and not focusing on Caparelli?” I bite my lip.

“Nonna would have wanted to support a neighbor,” Rosa says firmly.

“I agree,” Allegra says. “Remember the time the Crowleys had their baby way too early, right in the middle of harvest, and Nonna went over there and helped keep things going while the Crowleys were at the hospital with the baby?”

Nonna did always do stuff like that. I smile. “Okay. I wish Uncle Geno felt the same.” My lips push downward. “It’s ridiculous that he doesn’t want us to run Caparelli. Neighbors help neighbors. Family helps family. Right?”

“Right.” They both appear dubious.

“Okay. We need to have a clear plan. Not just financial, but also branding, marketing, production.”

“I have a lot of that figured out,” Rosa says. “But we do have decisions to make.”

“Let’s do it.”

We spend time going over Rosa’s plans and analysis and estimates, talking about expenses, barrel needs, bottling costs, and capital expenditures. Then we move on to salaries, benefits, supplies, repairs/maintenance, utilities, packaging, bottling, and warehousing costs.

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