CABERNET ZIN (Cabernet Zin Wine Country) (2 page)

Rutger said, “Great idea – I know the way, let’s go.”

Samantha said, “Zack, I’ll guard the table and the cheese.”

They took their glasses and followed Rutger across the bustling floor. Rutger reached the employee cellar door entrance; the one marked with the official
Employees Only
sign and held it open for the others. The women’s shoes clicked down the cement spiral stairs.

Rutger swept his arms out after they all stood on the polished cement floor “Smell the fermentation. There are nine hundred barrels here.”

Zack corrected, “Well, probably less since Martin mentioned they moved barrels out to the storage shed for the weekend. We had our investor meeting over there at those tables and the projection screen.”

Claire said, “This is really cool! Zack what kind of work do you do when not in the wine business?” She sipped some wine but her eyes watched him over the rim of her glass.

Zack felt the tug of those sparkling eyes hovering like humming birds, “Project manager for automotive suppliers to get products manufactured for the big car companies in Detroit.”

Alfanjo asked, “How are vehicle sales? My business is all discretionary spends and with the recession, it’s tough. I sell fishing lures to sports stores that my company makes. Not many customers are out fishing now.”

Zack said, “Cars are almost all discretionary too! I see evidence that things are improving though. Dealers are short the new vehicle we just helped the manufacturer launch, the assembly plant yards are practically empty - not running over as they do leading into a recession. When people believe real estate is firming up then even the newspaper journalists will accept the improvements and the country’s mood will change.”

Alfanjo said, “I hope you are right. We can use that kind of good news!”

Rutger said, “… In addition, over here we have more barrels. These are set up for racking the wine, moving it from one barrel to the second. That helps clear the wine –”

Debra banged open the stairway door, her platinum-bleached hair bounced behind her like a battle-field banner, “There you are! Zack and Rutger – you need to be out on the patio to vote on the caterer for the spring special events.”

Zack looked at his watch, “Oops. I think we’ve shown off the barrels enough anyway.”

Leiko said, “We don’t want to hold you up. This was fun.”

Zack and Rutger followed the group up the stairs. As Zack let the top door swing closed, he said to their guests, “My first tour guide adventure. Be sure to check out the rest of the grounds and tell your friends to visit. I really hope you enjoyed the barrel room tour.”

Claire said, “It was great! A behind the scenes tour.”

Rutger touched the back of his hand against Claire’s arm, “We’re working on a regular scripted tour too, so return often and keep a watch for it.”

“Zack, what do you think of the pork rolls?” Samantha asked. She poked at the bowl of thickly sliced smoked pork spun with California vegetables. This was the last station of the more than a dozen tastes and decisions they voted on.

“The spicy gaminess pairs well with nearly all the red wines, certainly.”

Rutger sucked on his tongue, getting more air across it with the mix of meat and a slurp of his wine, he closed his eyes, “Yes. I think this will be a winner this spring. Cannot go wrong with this American favorite. Bacon.”

The chef standing before them nodded with a pleased grin.

“Hey, Zack, I didn’t want to interrupt but we are leaving and I wanted to say goodbye and thanks again for the tour.” Claire put her hand on his arm, “We had a great time.”

“Glad you enjoyed your visit. I’m happy to have met you,” Zack nodded deeper than the chef had.

Leiko leaned out of Claire’s shadow, “Now we’re off to more of the wine trail tour – Whoo hoo!”

Claire said, “Fortunate we stopped here first.”

Rutger added, “Come back and see us any time!” He shook hands with Claire and her two friends. After they walked away, Rutger said, “Well Zack, I have to see Martin. He had some questions on international wine club shipments to England and he thinks I could help. I’ll catch up with you. She was certainly pretty.”

“Yes.” Zack watched Claire and her friends cross the wine tasting room and depart through the glittery gift shop doors to the parking area.

Samantha stood shoulder to shoulder with Zack and tipped her head close, “I can’t say I blame her but she liked you Zack, like a schoolyard crush.”

“Yeah, I also saw something. Too bad I’m not single where I could pursue that knowledge.”

Samantha raised her glass to her lips, but just before she took a sip and walked away she said, “You never know what life will bring you.”

“
Women seem wicked, when you’re unwanted.”

-
Jim Morrison, The Doors

ZACK SAT IN HIS basement Detroit office staring at his computer screen; a microphone headset tethered him to his computer. The neat stair steps of a Gantt chart walked across his monitor and pushed too far into the future, “We’re going to miss the launch timing if we have to redo that testing.”

Sunlight leaked through the narrow glass block windows set up high in the two exterior walls and scattered broken fragments of light across the low dry-walled ceiling. His desk was a salvaged hollow-core door flipped across two saw horses at one end of his solitary confinement chamber. Underneath the desk wheezed the cavernous case of an aging computer. A pile of bills scattered at the end of the desk and one showed passed due.

Bob the customer engineer said, “We can’t have cars explode or crash if the part design is insufficient.”

Fred, the engineer at the company that hired Zack to manage their program said, “Didn’t you think the design was sufficient before you had us cut tools?”

“It passes the test requirements,” said another engineer.

“What kinds of measurement are you trying to have us do?” asked a manager.

“Environmental chamber testing to the federal specs AS-423.”

“That test is fifty years old and doesn’t apply in the new world of five dollar gasoline.”

“And a heavier population –”

“Oh it’s heavier because the aging demographics - Boomers are not like they were in the nineteen seventies when they were twenty, people just get bigger as they get older and there are still a lot of boomers.”

“Whoa Bob and Fred, can we get back to the time-line? What is the problem again, other than the AS test?”

Bob slapped his hand on his desk, “The parts shouldn’t flex like this when I bend them in my hands. They shouldn’t wiggle like this.” He held the parts too close to the conference room camera, but the blurry out-of-focus image still showed excessive movement.

“The load requirement is fifteen pounds with two millimeters of deflection.”

“What’s the load of this wiggling?” He shook the part, his hands flexing much more than the part.

Bob said, “
I don’t know
, but if I show this to the chief engineer or the platform VP we’ll get killed. I can flex it in my hands; both of those people can flex it. It just doesn’t say
Quality
.”

The indoor-outdoor carpet ground sharp against Zack’s bare feet as he fidgeted, “Let me suggest: is there a way to develop a new specification?”

Fred said, “How do we write that spec up?
No wiggling when Bob tries to bend it
? How heavy of a hand? A guy’s or a girl’s set of hands? Under the light of a full moon?”

Zack said, “Hold on a minute, Fred. Let’s see what Bob suggests. I know the whole project was quoted at passing AS-423 test requirements, but we could be ok with a minor tweak. I’ve seen you adjust other products I thought we would be dead in the water on and you came through. We can figure this out.”

“Fine.”

Zack asked, “Bob, can you measure the amount of flex you’re seeing? Fred and his team can back calculate the load you’re applying.”

Bob said, “Yeah, I can do that … here. I have this bracket on my desk with a scale and I can move it … four millimeters.” Bob grunted. “If I really push then I can bend it six. But that’s hard; I dented my finger – ouch! Anyway, Fred, figure out what load I’m applying to get four millimeters on this current sample and design for that load so we don’t have any flex.”

“Can I get a millimeter or less flex as the new target?”

“Yes.”

Zack said, “Thanks, Bob.”

Bob said, “Sorry guys, I have to go to another meeting,” and he clicked off the conference call.

Fred said, “Zack, what is it with those guys? We designed to their spec. Now we have to add more metal and design time to match these migrating requirements. That will cost money and time.”

“Fred, we have a little time if we can run a Saturday at the tool shop. I’ll call the Sales team later to have them update their quoting assumption list.”

“Yeah. We need
that
updated.”

Zack’s email icon flashed. A note from Bob’s supervisor arrived. He opened the email and read the note thanking him for diffusing the issue.

“Fred, you have everything you need to continue with the design?”

“Sure, but my boss is suggesting we fudge the test data.”

“Fred, we can’t do that.” Zack scratched his head, “We need to redesign the part so it passes the test, the new test.”

“That will take too long.”

Zack looked along his time-line. It looked bad. “But we’re going to have to do that. Can you convince the tooling house to prioritize this part? They’ll know that we can send a lot more business to them, and if they don’t think of it themselves, you can suggest that idea to make sure.”

“Fine, that’s the right thing to do. I’ll have my team work on it.”

“Thanks, Fred.” Another flashing icon lit up the bottom bar, “I have to go. An emergency conference call with the plant.” Then his cell phone started buzzing. It was Lydia.

“Those are never good. Bye Zack.” Fred clicked off.

Zack answered the phone, “Hi Lydia.”

“– Do you remember who to give money to for the kids’ science project?”

“No. I didn’t see the email come out.”

“What do you mean?! Didn’t you see the email? Is all you do is drop-off and pick-up the kids? You don’t talk to anyone? What are you doing?”

“No. I don’t get them. I mean the emails. I looked,” his finger rolled the little wheel on his mouse and the screen of emails scrolled up off the monitor. “Nothing here from Gale.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“I can’t help who they send it to. I’m trying to get some work done here too,” Zack watched the blinking icon at the bottom of his computer screen demanding attention, “What was on the email?”

“I’ll forward it to you. I don’t have time for this –” Lydia’s pager buzzed, the angry insect sound cut across the phone signal, “I need to go – it’s … the web group … Oh, there’s a special supplier review dinner at the local hotel tonight, don’t wait up, bye –”

“Bye.” His screen flashed another mad icon. Zack linked in.

“Zack! This is Amy. The plant will be down since they are short of parts.”

“Why the shortage of parts?”

“The car plant changed both their product mix and their overtime hours. We have three days of the base model but none of the premium version!”

“Ok. Where is Holly?”

“She’s tracking down the shipping containers.”

“Then get everyone on the video call. If that plant goes down they charge us ten thousand dollars a minute.”

“Talk with you soon.”

Zack slumped back in his chair, which creaked under the stress. He pulled off his headset and tossed it on the desk rubbing his forehead. Then he sat forward and punched at his phone. They answered the phone in mid ring.

“Ah, yeah?”

“George, you hear about the shortage?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe they did that.”

“It’s because their vehicles are selling. Good problem to have. They are maximizing revenue by only making premium vehicles available.”

“And that’s why we’re short. No warning they shifted course again.”

“In five minutes Holly and the team will be together.”

“Good. I hope your guys in China are ready.”

“It’s 3am there, Zhi Wu will be awake.” Zack checked his wrist watch to confirm the computer time icon. He had to go pick up his kids soon – too soon. 

“He’s a great guy.  We just have to get the rest of them cranked up.”

Zack asked, “By the way, did the Mexico group get that quote done yet?”

“No.”

“We have to have that soon if we want to fill the pipeline beyond next year. Azure Motors isn’t refreshing their fleet much for the next few years – economy projections.”