First, the bottle design on the left was neat and modern. The long-necked glass bottle, tinged with yellow, and its simple label naturally stirred curiosity. Warren picked up the bottle and held it up to the sunlight coming in through the window, then furrowed his brow slightly.
“This is... the color is remarkably clean. What’s the alcohol content?”
“Forty percent.”
Warren smiled deeply.
“That must be something.”
With an expectant look, Jacob opened the bottle and poured the liquor into the glasses he had prepared. Warren’s eyes gleamed as he looked at the clear liquid, which carried the faintest hint of yellow. As soon as he received the glass, he instinctively brought it beneath the tip of his nose.
And in that moment, Warren’s movements stopped.
“... Huh? At forty percent, the ethanol punch should be the first thing to come rushing up... But for starters, the aroma is quite elegant. Is it because it has the feel of an Eastern liquor?”
“It’s Korean-style soju.”
At my words, he nodded and took a sip. Feeling the intense reaction on the tip of his tongue, he frowned and savored it for a moment before tapping the glass lightly with his finger and speaking.
“Unique. Very unique. This is the first time I’ve encountered structure in something like vodka. It’s clean, but not thin; transparent, but not empty. Did you control the distillation through two or more stages?”
Jacob said happily,
“Yes. The first distillation uses a pot still to leave a slight aroma behind, and the second uses a column still to remove only the impurities. We also controlled the cut points precisely...”
“So that’s why. You leave a faint trace of aroma, erase the impurities, and leave only its presence... It’s not as if I’ve never had Eastern liquor before, but this is an extremely unique experience. To be honest, when I heard Korean-style vodka, I expected a simple alcohol.”
“Ah... Have you ever tried Korean soju before?”
“I have. A friend once took me to a Korean barbecue place and introduced me to soju. For me... it was a somewhat bewildering experience. Ah, the meat was excellent.”
If he had tried Korean soju, I could fully understand why he called it a bewildering experience. After all, soju was practically nothing more than an alcoholic liquid, barely worthy of being called liquor. Especially considering that Warren was a legendary winemaker, what he must have felt after drinking soju... went without saying.
“The Korean soju you tried at the restaurant was just mass-produced alcohol sold cheaply so people could get drunk. This is liquor made using traditional soju techniques. There’s no comparison.”
“I see. Then this one is...?”
He showed interest in the other bottle. The fruit soju bottle had a very lively image, slightly different from the clean and modern feel of the first one, so I couldn’t guess what Warren would think of it.
Jacob poured the fruit soju into a glass and said,
“This one is fruit soju. Of course, it doesn’t have a deep flavor like wine, but it’s not some cheap mess of artificial fragrance either, so please give it a try.”
Warren gave a bitter smile, perhaps because he had been thinking exactly that, only for Jacob to bring up “a cheap mess of artificial fragrance” first. Then he brought the glass to his nose, and the delicate fruit aroma rising from the transparent liquid pleasantly lifted his mood.
And then, one sip... Warren’s expression stiffened, and the corner of his eye twitched. It was obvious he was flustered by a taste he hadn’t expected at all.
“This is... more like a beverage than liquor. No, it’s too refined to simply call it a beverage... The sweetness isn’t sticky at all.”
“Haha, is that so?”
Looking at Jacob, who was patting his chest in relief, Warren immediately took another sip. This time, more slowly...
In Korea, fruit soju was something you mixed and drank in college, and even here in the United States, it was only a slightly evolved version of a drink people drank as an RTD to get drunk easily. Watching him drink it so seriously was, in a way, a little funny.
In any case, contrary to my thoughts, Warren spoke with a serious expression.
“The acidity pushes up the sweetness, and at the finish it disappears cleanly. It has the sort of balance you feel in a table wine. It seems quite well made.”
Receiving praise from none other than Warren, Jacob beamed and said,
“We used natural flavoring extracted and distilled from fruit. It dissolves better in alcohol and water than syrup does.”
“Did Brian here teach you this too?”
Jacob scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.
“Yes... It’s all a process Brian came up with.”
At that, Warren looked at me as if I were a monster, then asked,
“Did you start studying agriculture and brewing the moment you were born? Otherwise, there’s no way you could have this kind of knowledge.”
“I was just interested in it from a young age.”
“It’s not as if I haven’t seen young friends people call geniuses, but this is the first time I’ve seen one who’s a genius in this field. I was something of a prodigy myself in my younger days, but not as much as you.”
“Mr. Warren, when you were young, you were interested in management, not this field. I was interested in this early on, so it’s different.”
“Huh. That sounds like it makes sense, and yet it also doesn’t...”
Warren shook his head from side to side, then said to Jacob,
“In any case, this is what’s selling well right now, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“There’s a reason it’s doing well. This could shake up the entire American RTD market. Everyone would rather have safe fruit soju than some RTD no one knows who made.”
At those welcome words, Jacob and I looked at each other and smiled. They say sales don’t lie, but being acknowledged by a legendary winemaker gave us a different kind of thrill.
“In any case, this was a very good experience. It made me realize I still have much to learn.”
“It was truly an honor to have you visit.”
With a broad smile, Jacob loaded one case each of “The One” and “Peach Light” from the brewery into Warren’s car before he left.
For anyone who liked alcohol, this would probably be the best gift of all, but strangely enough, Warren merely wore a faint smile and quietly got into the car.
As we left the brewery behind and drove away, Warren said,
“Master and Master’s friends are showing me well that when you’re young, you have to challenge anything and everything. In ten years, the names of Master and Master’s friends will probably ring out loudly across California.”
For some reason, I thought of Armando, whom I still hadn’t introduced to him.
‘Sorry... I’ll help you succeed with wine too, not just vinegar.’
He was a guy who would be happy with just his beautiful wife even if he didn’t succeed, but still, that wasn’t how I felt.
“You said he challenged himself with a brewery because the farm was small, didn’t you? He managed to succeed at a challenge most people couldn’t even attempt.”
In Korea, land totaling as much as roughly ninety-eight thousand pyeong could never be called small, but for an American rice farm, Warren’s words weren’t wrong.
“In a way, I think this result came about because the farm was small, and they were in a situation where they had no choice but to create a breakthrough. If they’d lived comfortably, they would’ve just kept living as they always had. Now they say the rice from eighty acres may not be enough, so they’re planning to procure rice from the neighboring farm.”
“Impressive.”
Warren nodded, then seemed to sink into deep thought as his gaze turned toward the window. From the looks of it, seeing such passionate young people had given him a lot to think about. His own children only thought of making money easily, so seeing young people who, despite their youth, passionately took on challenges and accomplished something must have stirred many thoughts in him.
After we had been driving for quite some time, Warren abruptly said,
“The fruit soju preserved the fruit aroma.”
“Pardon? Well... yes...”
“Then why has brandy been killing off all the fruit aroma?”
It was a sudden question. But because the person asking was Warren, I thought about it seriously before answering.
“Because traditional brandy is distilled at high temperatures. Around 75 to 90°C, I believe? As far as I know, most of the esters that make up fruit aromas are destroyed at those temperatures.”
“That’s right. Aromas are weak against heat. So if you want to protect the aroma, you have to distill below the temperature at which it collapses.”
It was obvious.
“Right?”
“The fruit soju I just drank was light in color, viscosity, and alcohol presence, but its aroma was quite refined. If we consider that, couldn’t we make a new kind of brandy?”
My mouth fell open. The reason he had been gazing out the window, lost in thought, wasn’t because of the environment he had lived in or any regrets—it was because he had been inspired by the fruit soju and was trying to create something new.
“No, well...”
“You said you have a stake in that Golden Grain Soju House, didn’t you? Or was it in Redwood Winery?”
“That’s right.”
“Good. Then if I develop a new liquor, I’m not giving it to Golden Grain Soju House for free.”
“Of course not. Since you developed it, Mr. Warren, I’ll make sure you can take a portion of the sales.”
Warren chuckled.
“Thanks. But I don’t need much. I already have so much money it’s rotting away.”
Since he had the 180 million dollars he got from selling the winery, he seemed like a man who had transcended money now.
“Still, I’ll give you as much as others would receive. That way, it feels worthwhile.”
“Do as you like. Ah, more importantly, I’d like you to put my name in the brandy’s name.”
Seeing his eyes sparkle with expectation, it seemed he was more interested in that than in the money.
“Hahaha! Go ahead.”
“Good. Let’s hurry back. All sorts of formulas are running around in my head. I think I need to organize them.”
“Yes, yes.”
Throughout the trip, he kept fidgeting with his hands as he thought about something. He called me a genius, but I knew. The real genius was him.
---
Two days later, Chloe was in the office talking with Liam, the farm manager, when a heavy thud of footsteps suddenly sounded from the entrance. Then, with the creak of the door, a man appeared, and Chloe’s eyes widened at the sight of him.
A massive build, a black suit stretched unrealistically taut, and a man wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief despite the cool September breeze.
“Ms. Chloe Harris?”
At the low, resonant voice, Chloe nodded in confusion.
“Um... yes, that’s me. May I ask... who are you?”
The man took in a deep breath and slowly took out a business card, as if his name ought to be recognized anywhere, then handed it over.
Howard “Harry” Montis
Attorney at Law / Water Rights & Agricultural Disputes Specialist
“Call me Harry.”
“Ah... the Rainmaker?”
At the nickname, Harry broke into a grin. Seeing that sort of smile on such a large face made her hands and feet curl for some reason, but even so, Chloe smiled brightly.
This was the very person Warren had mentioned. The fixer who would solve this problem had appeared. And she could understand why Warren had said he resembled a hamburger.
“Please, have a seat first.”
As he sank his heavy frame into the sofa, Chloe first took a cold juice from the refrigerator and gave it to him. Watching in fascination as he downed the 500-milliliter drink in one go as if it were a tiny digestive tonic, Chloe calmly gathered herself and said,
“The truth is, what happened to our farm was...”
After listening to the story for quite some time, the Rainmaker, Harry, sniffed once and asked,
“Snrk. So what is it you want?”
“Yes, appropriate compensation...”
“What kind of compensation?”
“Pardon?”
“Money? Or securing water resources? If not that, then land?”
Chloe had been about to say, of course it was money, but soon closed her mouth. Seeing that, Harry, who had been rolling the empty glass bottle in his palm, narrowed his small eyes even further and said,
“It’s very easy to land a proper blow on that bastard with horns growing out of his ass. But you’re missing something important right now.”
“What’s that?”
“You didn’t get in line.”
“Pardon?”
“The other farms joined the lawsuit, but this one didn’t, correct?”
“Yes...”
“Then if you move in step with the other farms, there’ll be no compensation left for you. The other farms will already have torn everything apart like a rag and finished it off.”
“Then what should we do?”
He grinned and thrust his upper body forward. Without realizing it, Chloe pressed her own body even deeper into the sofa.
“We finish it off before the others can rip it apart. Roar!”
At his frightening(?) display, Chloe nodded unconditionally.