Castel Ravello, Valley of Sansretour, Toussaint, Autumn of 1261

Grande-Dame Justine de Bois-Fresnes is making it a personal matter to oversee the harvest for the most famous wines of the world.

Although she isn't formally in charge, the Maître d’affaires couldn’t deny her expertise and capabilities.

As she had proven last year, her guidance and ubiquity all over the place pushed the many workers in the vineyard to outperform in their already excellent reputation and to create THE top quality harvest of a decade.

Wines like Est Est, Erveluce, or the royal Sangreal gained their glorious fame only by the devotion and hard work of generations of such outstanding personalities as Grande-Dame Justine.

However, even though everybody could observe her work in the vineyard, it remains a complete mystery, how she achieved this unprecedented success. Did she employ nouvelle and innovative methods, unnoticed by all the many critical eyes?

The success left the other vineyards speechless and more importantly the Ducal Court too.
Success creates jealousy. Resentment. Hate!
It didn’t take long for foul rumours to creep in the shadows. Fraud, witchery, indecency of the worst kind, and more. But since the reputation of the wines is of national interest, all these rumours dried out very quick.

--

Also on my DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/worikda/art/Harvest-in-Toussaint-1248719655