[Primrose Bolger]

A bottle of white wine is found

There were no bottles of white wine tucked into the holders behind the bar. Red there was, aplenty. Most of it Old Winyards; though there was a sweet red wine, quite tasty, from Dorwinion.

Ginger made her way into the kitchen and fixed up a small basket of crusty bread, a small platter with a wedge of sharp Shire cheese, and a few slices of ham she’d found in the cooler. A small crock of sweet cream butter and one of aromatic mustard rounded out the offering as she placed them all on a carrying tray along with a sharp knife for the cheese and a butter knife for the spreads..

After conferring with Cook, she tromped down stairs with a little lantern to the cool part of the cellar and found the dusty bottles Cook had mentioned. She plucked the cobwebs from the label of one of the bottles and rubbed it clean with her apron. There was a pretty picture of two intertwined trees, one silver, one gold. And some writing she couldn’t make out, though Cook had told her the name of the wine was Great Jewel and had come from Ithilien. ‘Well this ought to do,’ she thought to herself. The light from the lantern glinted through the clear glass of the bottle, sparkling prettily through the wine within.

Once upstairs she cleaned the bottle of its grime as best she could and placed it on the serving tray along with a pretty blue pottery goblet. She took the corkscrew along with her, hoping the Elf, Alcarillo Nession, would know how to use it, as she did not.

‘There you go, Master Nession,’ she said, putting the tray on his table. She arranged the food and drink before him and laid the knives on the folded napkin she’d brought. ‘Now will there be anything else I can get for you?’