Three hours earlier, at the Conrad St. James Hotel in London.
As was always the case with English weather, a drizzle had been falling outside the window since morning. Dark clouds hung outside, creating a gloomy atmosphere, but inside the hotel, the mood was entirely different. The officials, filled with anticipation, excitement, and tension, watched the clock and waited for the moment to arrive.
How much time had passed?
The lights dimmed, and the host’s British accent rang through the hall.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we will now announce the results of the 2007 Decanter World Wine Awards. As a reminder, each wine was assessed in groups according to price range, region, and variety, and Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals are awarded based on the average score. In addition, wines judged to be Gold automatically move on as candidates for the next stage.”
The DWWA’s evaluation system was quite similar to that of the San Francisco Chronicle. The San Francisco Chronicle conducted an additional round of judging from Double Gold onward to determine the very finest wines, while in the DWWA, receiving a Gold rating allowed a wine to undergo an additional judging called Best in Show and potentially receive a Platinum rating.
“First, we will begin with the Bronze awards.”
Since the rankings were determined comparatively according to each region and price range, the announcement of the results naturally took a long time. In that sense, with Echelon and Sylphide having raised their wholesale prices above seventy dollars, causing the level of competing wines to rise considerably, the situation was even more difficult than it had been at the San Francisco Chronicle.
That was the one point Christopher was slightly concerned about. But after quite some time had passed and Redwood Winery was finally mentioned, a bright smile appeared on his face.
“Gold Medal—Redwood Winery, Echelon 2005, Cabernet Blend, California.”
Some people had already expected it to a certain extent, but the majority looked utterly surprised. Even in America, it was not an old brand, and Redwood Echelon was a brand known only to those in the know. In Europe, it was an even more unfamiliar name, so they could not help being shocked that it had won Gold in a price range exceeding one hundred pounds.
But that was not the end of it.
“Gold Medal—Redwood Winery, Sylphide 2005, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley.”
Two Gold medals at once. Christopher had already taken into account that they had won two Double Golds at the San Francisco Chronicle, so he expressed his joy calmly, but the people around him were different. Everyone congratulated him for entering Echelon and Sylphide, while sending him meaningful looks.
If they were wineries, it was to keep a close eye on the Redwood brand. If they were distributors, it was the greedy gaze of those who wanted to bring it into Europe.
“We did it! I knew this would happen!”
Thomas clenched his fist and looked at him.
“What a relief. They recognized its value...”
It was clearly something to be happy about, but Christopher’s expression somehow looked bitter.
If Sylphide received Gold, that was naturally good for him, but Echelon was not a wine he distributed, so it left a sour taste in his mouth for no reason. If, on top of that, only Echelon ended up receiving Platinum in Best in Show, where the best among the Gold-rated wines was determined, it felt as though it would sting even more.
After the long award ceremony ended, he was walking through the hotel corridor when he ran into Eliza Wordsworth. No, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say that she recognized Christopher and approached him.
“Both bottles receiving Gold. Impressive.”
“Thank you.”
“Come to think of it, I don’t believe I properly told you before. If you were to send about half of the wine you’ve secured to the UK, we could offer you better returns than distributing it in the United States. I realized I hadn’t mentioned that.”
“Is that so? Wordsworth & Co. certainly deserves its reputation. You even anticipate and resolve the concerns of a small company like ours.”
“Of course. In addition, we could arrange tours of major European wineries and meetings for the winery owner. Naturally, we would bear the costs.”
“Oh—this would also be a great benefit for the winery owner. We’ll be sure to pass that along.”
Though he answered with a smile, she looked at Christopher with a subtle gaze and said,
“I truly hope you do. I respect each party’s position and pursue mutually beneficial outcomes through cooperation.”
“I feel the same way. With that kind of philosophy, it’s no wonder Wordsworth has such a long history. Remarkable.”
“That’s right. Our company’s doors are always open, so if you contact us, we will do our utmost to accommodate you.”
“Thank you.”
She brushed past Christopher and walked away. After she had gone quite a distance, Thomas asked Christopher, whose expression had stiffened slightly,
“What’s wrong?”
“She’s asking me to help her build a direct relationship with the winery owner.”
“Ah...!”
“Distributing wine depends on all sorts of conditions, but in the end, the most important thing is your relationship with the winery owner. Depending on that relationship, things that should work out can fall through, and things that shouldn’t work out can become possible.”
“But if she really wanted to, couldn’t that woman just visit Redwood herself and build that relationship?”
Christopher began walking and nodded.
“She could. But pretext matters. There’s already a distribution company openly holding the exclusive rights, and she comes all the way from England to America to steal them? It’s not impossible, but the risk if she fails is huge. Especially for a distribution company on the scale of Wordsworth & Co....”
“You mean the humiliation if she fails would be too damn embarrassing?”
“To put it simply, yes. She’d be mocked from every direction. If a company of that stature went in person and failed, all it would do is boost the reputation of the winery and the company with the exclusive distribution rights, while she alone would be humiliated. And even if she succeeded, she wouldn’t hear anything good in the wine industry. Fundamentally, wine is a nobleman’s drink.”
“Ah... So they’d treat the company as if it had no class?”
“That’s right. That’s why she wants a natural meeting. One that won’t look strange to anyone. Then, through a relationship formed naturally like that, she would make the winery willingly give her exclusive distribution.”
“Wow, that’s scary.”
Thomas shook his head with a fed-up expression. But Christopher merely shrugged and spoke as if it were only natural.
“That is the power of tradition and history. It makes the other party bow their head of their own accord.”
“True. Teams with history, even if they’re struggling now, still have sports stars willing to go there and revive their former glory.”
“Hm?”
“Haha, since we’re in England, I tried talking about football.”
“Well, in any case, that’s what it means. So there’s no need to take that woman’s words to heart. In fact, you should erase them from your memory.”
“Yes! I’ll keep that in mind.”
After leaving the hotel, Christopher got into a taxi and picked up his phone. He had to inform the winery that would be waiting for this happy news.
“Brian! The results are out!”
“How did it go?”
At the overly calm question, Christopher felt slightly disappointed, but knowing what Brian’s personality was like, he paid it no mind and spoke happily.
“Both Echelon and Sylphide received Gold ratings. They’ve both made it onto the Best in Show candidate list, so within a week they’ll undergo additional judging, and we’ll find out whether they receive Platinum or not.”
“That’s great. You worked hard.”
“You don’t sound very happy.”
Brian’s light laughter came through the receiver.
“What are you talking about? Of course I’m happy. You could have only entered Sylphide, but you submitted Echelon as well. Thank you.”
“It’s my job. Anyway, there’s still one stage left, so even if the results aren’t good, don’t be disappointed. Let’s go have a drink.”
“Yes, yes.”
After hanging up, Christopher looked at the gloomy weather outside the window and furrowed his brow.
“This is why I can’t warm up to England.”
---
“They got Gold, both of them.”
As I said that while hanging up, Chloe jumped in place.
“That’s amazing! Congratulations!”
“Thanks.”
“Aren’t you way too calm about this? If it were me, I’d be so happy I’d tell the whole neighborhood.”
“The rumors will spread through Christopher, not me, anyway. And I did expect it to some degree.”
At my words, Chloe’s mouth fell open.
“Ha. If someone else heard that, they’d probably think you were incredibly annoying.”
“I wouldn’t have said something like this to someone else.”
For a moment, Chloe needlessly twisted her body and said,
“Well, I guess that could be true.”
I felt like I knew what she was thinking, so I let out a small laugh and started walking.
“If you’ve seen everything, let’s go.”
After showing her this place, we were going to head straight to the pear orchard so I could check the soil and the growth condition of the pear trees. Chloe trotted up behind me and asked,
“You went to that senior Sienna’s birthday party, right?”
I turned my head as casually as possible.
“Hm? Ah... I did.”
“Armando said there was a pool party too?”
Inwardly, I hurled curses at Armando.
“...Ah! Armando joined the party and had fun. As for me, well, I’m not into that sort of thing, so I didn’t even go in. I talked with Sienna’s dad. He had something to discuss with me.”
When I brought up Sienna’s father, Chloe’s eyebrows, which had been angled rather sharply, returned to their proper balance.
“Really? What about?”
“Nothing much. It was about participating together in an event run by the California state government, but I said no. It sounded bothersome, and I wasn’t sure it would be any good.”
“Hmm...”
“Oh, and Armando was chasing after Sienna saying how much he liked her so much that it was painful to watch. Honestly, it was better back in high school when he could barely even talk to her.”
“Hahaha! True.”
Chloe burst into laughter, and before long, she had completely forgotten about the birthday party and moved on to another topic. After chatting like that for about two hours, we arrived at Chloe’s pear farm in Lodi.
The pear orchard, which boasted an area larger than all the vineyards owned by our Redwood combined, was enough to make my heart swell just by looking at it.
“Do the workers listen to you?”
“Some do, some don’t. But the senior manager works like a pro, so everyone follows what he says.”
“Then the key is whether that senior manager listens to you well. Was it that man named Liam we saw back then? The one who looked good-natured...”
When I went to the farm last year, I had greeted him for the first time, and I had seen him once or twice afterward as well, but we had not spoken at length.
“That’s right. I was really worried at first, you know. But he listens better than I expected?”
When the saplings were planted last year, I had come and helped too, but basically, people who were experts at planting saplings came and did the work. Afterward, I helped manage the farm, but since I could not come every time to check on it, I made a manual and gave it to Chloe.
That manual was not based on knowledge from before my regression or anything like that. It was merely a list of basic farming principles and rules on things not to do when cultivating Niitaka pears, so if they followed it, they could farm without any major problems.
“That’s a relief, then.”
Biochar compound fertilizer had been spread on this pear farm as well, so I was not too worried about the soil’s nutritional condition.
“Hm? Mr. Liam is coming over there.”
The person walking over from a distance was a middle-aged man with an impressive mustache and a pleasant appearance. As he approached, he held out his hand to me in greeting.
“The young mistress’s boyfriend has come again, I see.”
For a moment, I was slightly flustered, but I awkwardly laughed it off.
“Haha, well...”
“I hear you run quite a large winery in Napa, so it seems the young mistress relies on you a great deal. From what I’ve heard, the crop was chosen on your recommendation as well...”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then may I ask you one thing?”
“Of course.”
“I’ve noticed that the graft unions on some of the trees are swelling. Do you happen to know what kind of phenomenon this is?”
“Hm? Where did that happen?”
“Please follow me.”
After following him for about ten minutes, I saw that the graft union had swollen slightly, as if it were wearing a scarf.
“Do you know the reason? I think it may be a lack of water...”
I bent my knees slightly and examined the area, then realized the cause. Just as I was about to answer, I saw a group of people walking over from afar.
Even from a distance, their faces were stiff, and it did not seem as though they were coming with good intentions. Following my gaze, Liam and Chloe also spotted them, and their faces hardened.
“Those people...”
“What is it?”
“It’s because of the water.”
With a troubled expression, Liam looked back and forth between me and Chloe.