We left Clare to finish off the filtering process and Matt led me through to the wine store.

‘Ted has always made three different wines.’ He picked up a bottle from the uppermost shelf and another from a lower shelf further along.

‘This is the Butterworth Classic Cuvée, our best seller. One bottle from 2015 and the other from 2016. It’s got almondy-brioche flavours which customers love. Imagine if this year’s ends up tasting flinty with a hint of gooseberry? We’d get complaints.’

‘And I’m guessing that’s hard to achieve?’ I doubted my taste buds would ever be able to decipher the flavour of French pastry.

‘Without an experienced winemaker, it’s impossible.’

‘Gosh,’ I said with a sigh, ‘and I thought the biggest problem was going to be keeping the grapes alive until harvest.’

Matt chuckled. ‘You’re right, actually; that’s impossible too.’

‘Thanks for the encouragement,’ I said wryly. ‘I don’t know whether I need a lie-down or another drink.’

‘If in doubt, always go for another drink,’ he said, winking a dark brown eye at me.

I held my palm up. ‘I’m actually heading back out in the sun, so maybe not. And I certainly don’t want to drink that.’

I pointed to the bottle from 2016 which wasn’t labelled and had a thick sludge of sediment inside.

Matt laughed. ‘Don’t worry. This one isn’t finished yet, what you can see is the dead yeast, called “lees”. The 2016 vintage is ready for the next stage now, called dégorgement and dosage. It’ll be crystal clear after that.’

I winced. ‘That sounds like a medical procedure.’

‘It’s French for blasting out the old yeast and topping up the bottle with a dosage – a mix of wine and sugar. Great fun. Then you can drink it.’

‘In that case, count me in to help with that.’

‘Getting the dosage right is a delicate process too, and something else that Ted was brilliant at.’ Matt frowned. ‘If we get it wrong, it could ruin us.’

‘I’ll have a look for Ted’s notebooks as soon as I get the chance,’ I said.

‘That would be a start, thanks.’ Matt smiled grimly, shoving his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. ‘Clare asked Betsy to look for us, but she got short shrift. Godfrey thinks it’s because she doesn’t like admitting how bad her sight has become. Whatever the reason, we’ve put off asking her again. But now we’re running out of time.’

I promised to do my best and as we carried on the tour of the winery, Matt told me how he and Ted had met eighteen years ago. Matt had been living rough, he confided, and Ted had still been in the force.