Edvar Vevoda fills his two guests’s glasses with a wine from a barrel labeled NOIR NV, a spectacular contemporary blend and “the greatest example of his artistry to date.” Vevoda, pauses, hearing the faint bird calls above him and reacting with disgust. “I’ve got filthy goddamn birds in my cellars.” These bird calls are the calls between S and Sola as they approach closer to Vevoda.

To make the search for Vevoda even more difficult, S and Sola realize that the lower floors are organized in a much more disordered fashion than the two uppermost floors. The third floor, for example, is a “warren of dark paths winding in many directions” and the barrels are of “differing sizes and compositions.” It is likely that the lower floors were built before the two upper floors without an organized blueprint or by an architect with unsystematic plans.

Origin of the name “Noir”

Pinot noir, a famous type of red wine translates literally to “pine black.” The name refers to the clusters of dark purple cone-shaped grapes that are used to produce the wine. However, in Ship of Theseus, the wine Vevoda’s guests sample is simply name “Noir.” Noir translates to “black” from French and the reason for this name is most likely due to the black color of Vevoda’s wine.