The condition of the wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon harvested at Ironwood Cellars, which we had acquired last year, was quite good. Of course, it fell short of the wine made from grapes harvested at Redwood, but since it had been made from grapes we had cultivated with every effort possible in our first year, it had still risen to a level close to the Redwood Cabernet Sauvignon.
“You’re going to blend with this?”
Standing before the barrels filled only with grapes brought from Ironwood, Warren’s eyes widened. Since we were aiming for a top-tier cult wine, he had naturally assumed we would use Redwood’s grapes.
“I think Redwood should continue as Echelon. There’s about fifty thousand liters, so we can’t turn all of it into cult wine. I was thinking we could take about a third of the better barrels.”
“Hmm… Then it’ll be a little under two thousand cases?”
“That’s right.”
The grapes harvested from the thirty-acre Ironwood Cellars came to roughly eighty-five tons. They said the original yield had been more than twice that, but I had drastically reduced the crop and focused on raising quality, so eighty-five tons was all we had. Once made into wine, it came to just under fifty thousand liters, all produced under optimal conditions in the latest stainless-steel tanks I had set up.
I was confident it would be worthy of becoming a cult wine.
“Hmm… To think the flavor could wake up this much in less than a year… Honestly, I hadn’t expected the lot separation, fermentation, and extraction to be this different. How did you even come up with that?”
“I kept studying and picturing it in my head.”
Rather than picturing it in my head, it had been a series of continuous experiments, and it was true that I had kept studying, so roughly half of it was true.
“Incredible. People call me a genius when it comes to wine, but even when I was young, I wasn’t at this level.”
“You’re flattering me.”
“How long are you thinking for the marriage time?”
Marriage time, commonly called the period of marriage, referred to the time it took for each wine to come together as one.
Just because you put wines as full of character as Cabernet Sauvignon, Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot into one bottle and mix them together did not mean a perfectly fused flavor would emerge. The period for wines of such different personalities to properly fuse was generally considered to be around four to six weeks, and only after that period passed would the blend be judged properly formed.
Every time Echelon had been bottled and released from barrel until now, it had all gone through that period.
“I think we should give it six weeks.”
“Good. It’s a shame it won’t be a Napa Valley wine.”
“That’s all right. We’re making it looking solely at the wine itself, so we can let the appraisal of its origin come later. And I’m curious, too. When the appraisal of the origin is harsh, but the quality of the wine itself is high, how will the market judge it…”
“I’m curious about that as well.”
In order to write the name of a specific AVA, such as Napa Valley, on a wine bottle, at least 85% of the grapes used in that wine must have been grown in that region.
Among the components going into this cult wine, Petit Verdot would be under 8% and not take up much of the blend, but the problem was that the Prime Mountain vineyard, where the Cabernet Franc was grown, was located right on the border between Napa Valley and Sonoma.
In the end, we would have to prove precisely whether the Cabernet Franc harvested from Prime Mountain was from the Napa side or the Sonoma side before we could calculate the Napa ratio.
Because of that, realistically, we could not use the Napa Valley designation for this cult wine, but I did not care much. I was more focused on how to make it into a good wine.
Just then, a call came in from a number I had never seen before. I answered without thinking, and a lively voice came through.
“Hello. Is this Brian Choi of Redwood?”
“It is. How did you know to call me?”
“You didn’t save my number? A few years ago, when you acquired Silveroak, I gave you my number…”
“Ah…! Yes…”
He seemed to be the lawyer from Silveroak’s side who had reviewed the contract when the paperwork had gone back and forth between us. I had only seen him once, so I did not remember his face clearly, but I could recall the impression he gave.
“I’m calling because I wondered if you might be interested in vineyard listings this time as well.”
Of course I was interested. Wasn’t that exactly why I had been saving money and not spending it up to this point?
“Are there any good listings?”
When I asked, sounding as if I were testing the waters, the other party responded eagerly.
“Of course! I’d like to visit and explain them to you in person, if that’s possible.”
“Hmm… It’s a busy time these days…”
I was interested, but I pushed back once more.
“I know. It’s September, so you must be busy with harvest season approaching. I won’t take much of your time. I’ll just briefly introduce the listings. Would tomorrow work for you?”
“Yes, sometime in the afternoon should be all right.”
“Understood. Then you should have some breathing room around four, so I’ll visit then.”
Farm work usually began in the morning, so by late afternoon there was often a fair amount of leeway.
I could tell he was already quite knowledgeable about this field.
“Yes, yes.”
After I hung up, Warren asked,
“What was that about?”
“He’s the lawyer who reviewed the contract on the other side when we acquired part of the Silveroak vineyard before. He said there are some good listings and asked if we were interested.”
One might wonder why a lawyer was doing this kind of work, but transactions involving vineyards or wineries were not simple real estate deals. They had the character of corporate mergers and acquisitions, so lawyers were deeply involved, and in many cases even held brokerage qualifications as well.
So it was not all that unusual for a lawyer to contact me.
“Oh-ho. So you’re considering expansion?”
“I can’t be satisfied with only a small farm forever.”
“With that money, you could be thinking of trying something else, but that’s commendable. If it were my sons, they’d only think about saving up and doing something else with it. Tsk, tsk, tsk…”
Since he had suddenly started badmouthing his children, I could not join in, so I needlessly turned my gaze away.
“I’m not interested in other fields.”
“That’s the right way. When you have such a fine ability, if you turn your eyes elsewhere thinking you’ll make money easily, you end up losing on both sides and ruining your life. I’ve seen many friends like that. There was even one who lost his winery to gambling.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“There’s no guarantee my children won’t end up that way. Make sure you educate your children well.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
He soon shook his head and reproached himself.
“The older I get, the more I nag. This is a problem. Let’s go look at the Merlot.”
“Let’s do that.”
And so I got in the car with Warren and headed to Sonoma. Since we could not use Napa Valley anyway, it was nice to have a much wider range of choices.
---
The next day, a white Lexus slowly approached the farm entrance and came to a stop. The door opened, and a man in a neat black suit stepped out. His short-trimmed hair and cold, sunken blue eyes left a strong impression.
“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Ben Lowell.”
“I’m Woody Choi.”
After shaking my father’s hand, he immediately extended his hand to me.
“I’m Brian Choi.”
“It’s an honor. I was quite surprised to hear that Mr. Warren Winiarski, whom I personally respect, had come to work here… It’s an honor to be able to introduce my listings to Redwood.”
“Haha, unfortunately, he’s inside the aging room.”
“Can’t be helped.”
Sitting on the office sofa, Ben Lowell took the documents he had prepared from a black briefcase and said,
“For reference, I pride myself on being a specialist among specialists here in Napa, someone who knows law, tax, farm sales, cadastral maps, and environmental regulations.”
Such an aggressive, confident boast… It was moments like this that made the difference between Korea and America feel unmistakable.
“I see.”
“I wanted to tell you in advance that I’m different from those clueless people who just sell something because it happens to be a vineyard. In that respect, looking at Redwood, I can tell just how extraordinary Mr. Woody and Mr. Brian are.”
My father, who had been listening quietly, asked,
“What makes you say that?”
“I know the previous owner here.”
“Ah…”
“This area, just a little south of To-Kalon—the very heart of Napa Valley—is made up of several small farms like Redwood clustered together. Each farm may seem to have its own characteristics, but from the consumer’s perspective, the impression was one thing: it belongs to Napa Valley, but the wine is not special.”
“You could see it that way.”
“Redwood, in particular, could not even properly produce those unspecial wines. But once the owner changed, everything changed. And now, it is becoming one of the main players of Napa Valley.”
“You’ve done a lot of research.”
At my question, Ben chuckled.
“It isn’t research. This place is my turf, and wine and vineyards are part of my life. Naturally, it’s something I should know.”
“Oh…”
“So when I came to visit Redwood today, I was fairly nervous in my own way. I even checked the listings again this morning. I wondered if the prices might have dropped, but there still hasn’t been any change.”
He said it with a wink, and as expected of a lawyer, he knew how to talk.
“At present, every farm as a whole is in a difficult situation. There are hardly any farms that aren’t struggling. But if you think of it in reverse, places that make good use of this difficult period could grow tremendously once the market recovers. The listings I’m showing you today are exactly suited for that.”
He spun his pitch as if he were about to reveal a tremendous treasure, and it was amusing, but also made me quietly expectant. They said lawyers were all salesmen too, and this man seemed like he would do well even if he sold cars.
“First is Spring Mountain Vineyard.”
He tapped the photograph on the first page of the documents with his finger. The mountain ridge rising through the clouds and the Cabernet Sauvignon planted densely along that ridge were striking. With a confident expression, he continued his explanation.
“This forty-six-acre farm sits at an elevation of 450 to 550 meters, and its drainage is among the best in Napa. The gravelly loam-based gravel soil is very high quality. It develops very clean acidity between 25 and 26 Brix, so for an owner looking for high-altitude Cabernet Sauvignon, you could call it ideal.”
“What are the drawbacks?”
At my question, he grinned.
“There are some. First, the accessibility is dreadful. Moving workers is difficult, logistics are difficult, and the irrigation system is on the older side. After acquisition, it will require a fairly large investment. And… the management costs are outrageous. But the price is only 5.5 million dollars. It has come out at an incredibly cheap price.”
“Shall we look at the next farm?”
As if he had expected that, Ben nodded and turned several pages.
“The second is Oxbow Vineyard. It’s a relatively small plot at twenty-five acres, so depending on how you look at it, it could be considered a light investment.”
Twenty-five acres might be called small, but it was still ten acres larger than Redwood. Looking at the gentle hill near the river in the photograph, it was as beautiful as a painting and made me want to own it.
He continued explaining as if he were selling an exceedingly beautiful work of art.
“The soil is alluvial loam, alluvial soil washed down by the Napa River over tens of thousands of years. It’s ideal for growing Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.”
“So you’re saying it’s good land if we want to expand into white wine.”
“That’s right. The location is good, too. It has good access to town, so hiring workers is easy, and it would be the best area for expanding a tasting room.”
White wine was something I wanted to try my hand at someday, so it would be a lie to say I was not tempted.
“What are the drawbacks?”
“It’s land with almost no drawbacks, but if I had to force myself to pick one, it would be water. Low-lying alluvial land tends to depend on groundwater for agricultural water, and there are rumors going around that they’re going to regulate the amount of groundwater that can be drawn. The governor has even formed a task force directly under the state government and mentioned the need for regulation. I don’t know when this will be enacted, but if it does happen, things could become a little difficult.”
I was quite surprised inwardly. I had not expected him to speak so honestly, to the point of calling a law that had not even been enacted yet a drawback. And in fact, the drawback he had mentioned would make things quite troublesome for farms when the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was enacted in 2014.
“Shall we look at the next farm?”
He shrugged and showed me the last document. But the photograph of the farm on the document had a very familiar shape.
“Huh?”
“You know it, don’t you? It’s Silveroak Hills Vineyards, right next door. It’s thirty-two acres of land, and because it’s attached right beside you, it’s the ideal land for expansion.”
Seeing his eyes gleam, I was certain Ben had come here from the very beginning to sell this land.