I brought him into the winery and introduced him to everyone.
“Now... um... allow me to introduce my associate winemaker. He’s joining us quite suddenly today, but isn’t life always one bewildering thing after another, and isn’t that what makes it fun? Hahaha...”
In truth, I was the most bewildered one here. I knew better than anyone what level his reputation and skill were at.
“Why would someone so incredible...? A small place like ours...”
Dad was surprised too, but that was probably more because Warren’s winery had been sold for the enormous sum of two hundred million dollars, and he was dazzled by that halo.
“The feeling that there are still things I want to learn is making my heart race. My body is old, but when I think that my mind is still young, I feel very satisfied. My winery is already a thing of the past, so please forget about that part. I simply want to work, that’s all.”
Most of the laborers here were short-term contract workers, so Dad was really the only person he needed to properly greet. In reality, no one but me could even enter the aging room. So from my perspective, it felt a little easier.
After making the introductions, I saw him off and said,
“We’ll start the real work next week. Coming in every day is the basic expectation... and for your reference, I’m the one who decides the basic direction of Redwood wine.”
He looked intrigued, yet a deep smile spread across his lips.
“Everyone else starts by scheming how to take what’s inside my head, but you really are a little different.”
“It’s my wine, and my winery. If I weren’t going to do it that way, I would have become an investor instead of a farmer.”
Warren didn’t quite understand the way I spoke as if farmer and investor were simply options one could choose between. After all, deciding that one wanted to become an investor who produced good results did not mean it would happen. But that wasn’t important, so he let it pass.
“Very well. Don’t worry. In any case, when I sold the winery, it was stipulated that I must not sell wines with even a similar blending structure to the wines I sold at Stag’s Leap. I can’t simply make and sell wine the way I used to.”
“That’s good.”
“Let me ask you one thing. If you don’t want my knowledge, why did you accept my application?”
“Mm... because I thought it would be fun.”
At my answer, he nodded.
“Same as me, then. That’s enough.”
With that, he got into the vehicle parked in front of the farm and disappeared. Though he had made so much money, the car he’d driven here was a Ford pickup truck, which was a little unexpected.
“Is he frugal? Well, I suppose showing up in a Rolls-Royce after writing a résumé saying he wanted a job would be excessive.”
I turned and went back into the winery. Before I knew it, I had forgotten about his employment and shut myself in the aging room to begin my research.
---
If one left Redwood and traveled by car, it did not take very long to reach the Mondavi Winery. When Warren arrived, Mondavi, who had been walking through the garden, beckoned him toward a place where splendid flowers were in full bloom.
“Now I wonder who will take care of this if not me.”
The scent of flowers in full bloom around the white table was thick in the air. Knowing how much Mondavi loved this place, Warren smiled bitterly.
“Not every child follows their parents’ wishes. I was the same. My parents wanted me to become a professor.”
“That’s right. You majored in political science at the University of Chicago, didn’t you?”
“I did. Back then, I was deeply absorbed in Machiavelli. Then, while studying abroad in Italy, I suddenly fell in love with wine and wandered off the path... and somehow I ended up here. If Mr. Mondavi’s garden is preserved, that will have meaning, but even if change comes, would that not also have meaning?”
“A sad thing.”
“Even so, I know how sincere your children are about wine, so this garden will probably be well maintained too.”
Everyone knew that Mondavi’s death was not far away. But because they were both people who had already willingly accepted death, their tone was calm and their expressions peaceful.
The staff immediately recognized that he was an important guest, and though no one had ordered it, a cup of black tea was placed before each of them.
“It isn’t something I should say to someone who sold off his winery, but human greed has no end. Still, I hope this garden, at least, is kept well.”
“It will be. And I’m not feeling that down.”
Seeing Warren smiling broadly, Mondavi tilted his head. With even a faint flush on his face, he looked as if he had grown ten years younger. Not that he had truly become younger, but there was such vitality in his face that it gave that impression.
“Did something good happen? You look well.”
“I got a job.”
Mondavi’s hand stopped abruptly as he was bringing the tea to his lips.
“You did what?”
“I got a job.”
Mondavi slowly set down his cup.
“I heard something about removing the non-compete clause during the sale, but was that really true? They’re letting you make wine somewhere else?”
“As I said, I didn’t acquire a winery. I ‘got a job.’ And in exchange for removing the non-compete clause, I additionally agreed not to make any of the wine blending combinations I made at Stag’s Leap at another winery. In the literal sense, I simply got a job.”
“......”
“It was the first time I’d written a résumé since I joined your family’s company, so I struggled quite a bit. But as I wrote it, that was fun in its own way... I was able to lay out the life I had lived up until now. It was rather satisfying.”
Mondavi did not hear anything that followed. He had no interest in what sort of emotions Warren had felt while writing his résumé.
“So where did you join?”
“The place you recommended to me.”
“Don’t tell me... you mean Redwood?”
“Yes.”
Mondavi’s mouth fell open. Then, after organizing his thoughts for quite some time, he spoke to Warren, who was sipping his tea with a satisfied expression.
“That wasn’t why I recommended Redwood to you.”
“What does it matter if it wasn’t? I met that young man there in person and talked with him... He was good. His thinking was fresh. So I decided to learn under him.”
“You’re going to learn under that young man?”
It was hard to believe, but Warren spoke with an expression full of excitement.
“Think about it. I’ve lived arrogantly until now, believing there was nothing left for me to learn, and then I discovered someone who seems even more outstanding than I am. I felt again what I felt when I worked under you, Mr. Mondavi. The feeling of wanting to learn...”
“Amazing.”
“Rather, it’s fortunate that my winery is gone. If it hadn’t been sold, I wouldn’t have been able to move so freely as I pleased. My sons have no interest in wine either, so I’m even freer to do as I like.”
“You look happy.”
“Isn’t it rare to find such joy in one’s final years?”
“Haha... That’s true. Absolutely true.”
Mondavi smiled faintly and looked at him with genuine envy.
“It seems selling the winery turned out to be a good thing for you.”
“I gained fame and wealth, so now I suppose I can study until the day I die.”
“I envy you. That young man at Redwood must be happy too, no? He’ll be drawing the attention of wine lovers in an instant...”
“I’m not sure. He told me not to come in and ruin his wine for no reason.”
At the statement that seemed to dare dismiss Warren Winiarski, Mondavi wore a look of disbelief.
“Is that so?”
“That is why I’m even more expectant. A winemaker who doesn’t lean on me...”
At first, Mondavi had looked at Warren, who was full of anticipation, with envy in his eyes, but as time passed, his expression hardened.
After they talked for quite some time and Warren left, Mondavi entered the winery with a grave, sunken look in his eyes. Just then, a young woman who had been coming out to meet him saw her grandfather and approached. It was Emily, Mondavi’s granddaughter, who had previously planned the Winkler dinner course together with Brian.
Young and full of vitality, Emily supported her grandfather’s arm as he slowly walked with his cane and said,
“Grandfather Warren already left?”
“Yes.”
Sensing that his expression was somehow not good, Emily asked,
“Did something bad happen?”
“Rather than something bad...”
He looked at his granddaughter’s face for a moment, then soon relaxed his stiff expression.
“I was simply worried. It was nothing.”
“What were you worried about?”
“No. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t something I needed to worry about. I can’t solve everything for everyone...”
He shook his head, forcing himself to forget the unpleasant thought, and continued walking.
---
The rumor that Warren had begun working at Redwood Winery spread in an instant, stirring up all of Napa. The place most shocked among them was the school I attended.
“Is it true that Mr. Warren is working at your winery?”
As soon as Department Chair Thomas heard the rumor, he called me in and asked. Even he, the department chair, was like a teacher and student before Warren, so he had been certain that the rumor he’d heard could not be true.
But at my following answer, he could not hide his astonishment.
“It is true, but...”
“It’s true? Not that he acquired the winery, but that Mr. Warren got a job at your winery?”
“Yes...”
For some reason, the atmosphere made it feel as though I had made some enormous mistake. I had simply allowed it because working together with such a great person seemed fun, but the people around me seemed to have received a shock as if the sky had collapsed.
“Good heavens... What on earth is the reason?”
If I said here that his reason for applying was to learn precise soil composition and target-based grape production, I felt as though something truly terrible would happen, so I gave a suitable excuse.
“He said that until now, he’d lived under too much pressure, and that he actually wanted to make wine quietly in a small place like our farm.”
“Ah... so that was what he meant... Well, someone like him must have lived under even greater pressure because of the expectations of people around the world.”
Seeing Department Chair Thomas trying hard to think of it in a positive way, I barely held back my laughter.
“But won’t Mr. Warren joining Redwood actually become a great burden on the winery?”
“Ah, no, it’s not like that. We agreed that he won’t be leading the actual winemaking. He’ll just quietly experiment with wine...? It’s kind of like a laboratory, in a way.”
“If that’s the case, he could simply do research in a school lab...?”
“Well... I suppose he doesn’t want to be too tied down to the school either.”
He nodded, then asked again.
“Then from now on, Mr. Warren’s wine will be coming out of Redwood?”
“There are no plans for that for the time being.”
“Really? Well... if Mr. Warren were to release wine under his own name, your winery wouldn’t be able to handle his salary. And it’s not as if you could put out an ultra-expensive cult wine... In any case, I understand. What tremendous luck... It seems the goddess of fortune is attached to you. I’m very envious.”
“Yes... thank you.”
The explanations did not end with Department Chair Thomas. Every time I went into class, the professors asked questions, and I had to repeat the same routine. Up to that point, while it was tedious, I could tolerate it. I could think of it as a kind of interest.
But the guest who came around the time school ended was truly unusual.
“When I went to Redwood Winery, the owner wasn’t there, and they directed me to you.”
“And you are...?”
“Brad Cooper of Michelle Wine Estates.”
The middle-aged man, whose glossy hair was neatly slicked back, was very handsome.
“I know it. You’ve come from a famous place.”
He looked me up and down once, then spoke in a highly overbearing tone.
“I heard that Mr. Warren joined your winery. I don’t know whether you’ve heard, but he can never again use the blending combinations he used in the past.”
“I know.”
“I’m sure you do. Even so, I want to give you one warning. When you run a company, there will be times when greed arises. You’ll want to release wine borrowing Mr. Warren’s fame, but you’ll have to restrain yourself. If you make even a slight mistake, your winery will suffer great losses.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. That will absolutely never happen.”
But he raised one corner of his mouth and gave a slight snort.
“Hmph. I wonder if that resolve will last until the end. You’d better not forget that we’ll be watching.”
At that, I got a little heated.
“Go ahead. But I have the ability to make good wine even without Mr. Warren... Ah, I’m not sure if Michelle Wine has the ability to make such wine, so I don’t know whether you’ll be able to judge mine.”
Michelle Wine Estates was a company that had grown based on stable quality and large-scale production. Since its main lines were ten-to-thirty-dollar wines, it was correct to say that its direction was entirely different from Stag’s Leap.
Because Michelle Wine had entered the upper ranks of the American wine industry with that direction, Brad, its vice president, seemed to be stung by my words. He spoke with a stiffened face.
“You Asian brat. If you put on airs trusting in a farm of only a few dozen acres and Mr. Warren, who can’t even demonstrate his real ability, the day will come when you regret it bitterly.”
“I told you, I’m not relying on Mr. Warren... First, why don’t you try beating me at the next San Francisco Chronicle? Ah, Michelle Wine won’t do, so I suppose you’ll submit from Stag’s Leap. In any case, you should work hard too. Don’t worry about us.”
I smiled and walked past him as he glared at me through gritted teeth.