Though geography is offered as a sobering up after the intoxications of end-of-history ideology, it soon reveals itself as anotherbrandy bottle, with intoxications of its own.
As the afternoon wears on and the mountains are stained gold and pink, deepening into purple twilight, we sip one flavoured brandy after another - blueberry, beech leaf, rowanberry - and listen as everyone round the table competes to tell anecdotes of local life.