A Proud Wine Cellar on a Low Budget

Just to the left of the entrance to the dining room, there was the heavy oak door that opened onto the long steep flight of stone steps down to the wine cellar of the Auberge of the Flowering Hearth. I spent many hours among its cool and silent racks with Mademoiselle Vivette (usually at midmorning or midafternoon, when she did her cellar management) checking and discussing the dusty bottles which she has been lovingly collecting and assembling for more than thirty-five years. This was her province—she was in charge here—just as Mademoiselle Ray was in charge in the kitchen. In terms of an inn, it was quite a small cellar. In fact, it was more like the cellar that might be assembled in a home by an intelligently knowledgeable connoisseur. There were some great and noble wines for the occasional visit of an important and demanding guest. There were many fine wines in the middle ranges of quality—perfectly good enough to accompany even the most outstanding dinner menu. And there were simple, inexpensive,“gulping wines” to add pleasure to a country-style lunch or Sunday night supper—or just to quench a summer thirst in an easy chair by the fountain in the garden.