The visitor to the Beaune Museum who proceeds along the display will next see several artifacts: an ancient glass bottle; journals and records of the cider mill; drawings of Auguste Beaune's distilling equipment; and a tool used to tap the barrels of brandy.
"I shall make the finest apple brandy in America", said August Beaune to Marie-Helene, who nodded approvingly. Not that she cared one way or the other; Marie-Helene invariably nodded approvingly at Auguste's ideas, since failing to do so would cause him to sulk. She had learned long ago that a simple nod was sufficient to get him out of her face and go back to his tinkering, so she could return to her misery.
Mary the governess took responsibility for teaching the girls, and the Beaunes hired a local girl named Daisy to take care of Robert.
Auguste set about with a passion to make the finest Calvados in America. He placed Rufus Witherspoon in charge of the cider mill, and Albert Dutoit in charge of apple and cider trading. Under Witherspoon's leadership mill production tripled; but this was due in part to Dutoit's brilliant apple trading and buying. Some of the local apple farmers were unaccustomed to dealing with a black man, and a few complained to Auguste about this; they soon learned that if they did not wish to deal with Dutoit they could sell their apples elsewhere. But even the most bigoted had to admit that Albert Dutoit was a brilliant apple trader, one with a keen nose for good apples and an amazingly sharp buyer and seller.
Near the cider mill, Beaune built a stone building to house the distilling equipment he had brought from Normandie. Though he was willing to delegate the milling and trading operations, nobody other than Auguste was permitted to touch the stills.
In the first season of operations, local growers produced a bumper crop of apples, and the cider mill operated from dawn to dusk. Some growers hauled their apples to the mill, paid a fee and hauled away the cider. Others sold their apples to Dutoit, who arranged for the sale of cider in cities to the East; a steady stream of Conestoga wagons laden with drums of cider departed the mill.
The best cider, though, was diverted to Auguste's distillery, which operated through the night. The double-distilled liquid was piped into oaken barrels, which were stored in a cellar below the distillery.
For five years, Mr. Witherspoon ran the cider mill while Mr. Dutoit bought apples and sold cider. During the long harvest season, the mill ran from dawn to dusk, farmers unloaded their apples, sweating men loaded drums of cider onto Conestoga wagons, and Auguste Beaune distilled apple brandy from cider, storing the product away for aging.
On a December evening, when the mill was shut down for the season, Auguste tapped a golden liquid from one of the barrels put aside in the first season. He poured three glasses: one for himself, one for Mr. Witherspoon and one for Mr. Dutoit. With great ceremony, the three men tasted the apple brandy.
A single sip was sufficient to confirm: Auguste Beaune had indeed brewed the finest apple brandy in America.
