Piece 4 of Life as a Mosaic: Cognac is eternal
Brigitte Deneck
Saturday 13 June 2020 at 3pm, this is the time of our “apéritif”, a drink together
on Zoom.
One square for me who launched the idea from London.
One square for my sister Caroline in Lille.
One square for my cousin Fabienne in Charleville.
One square for my aunt Berthe with Pierre and Paul.
It’s been 50 years since I saw Pierre and Paul, who has just prepared and
shared with Berthe the Saturday meal. An amazing cook, Pierre told me in his email. 96 year old Marie-Marthe is Pierre and Paul’s mother.
We talk.
“What are you drinking?”
Pierre holds in the palm of his right hand a tulip glass which he turns slowly.
He raises his hand to breathe the amber eau-de-vie resting at the bottom
of the glass. He takes the glass to his closed lips to taste it,
and remains still for a while.
He says:
“A 50 year old cognac”.
He looks like someone who knows, slightly amused.
The way he carries his head reminds me of his father Leon, Berthe’s husband
and my mother’s brother - the only Dugué of his generation to choose a career
in agriculture, a tradition that goes back a long way.
Leon spent his whole life cultivating his vineyards and looking after the distillery.
Pierre keeps creating and manufacturing cognacs he sells in the whole world.
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