“Wow...”
Reporter Kim Sujin exclaimed in admiration as she slowly walked up toward the winery. The vineyards stretched endlessly in gentle curves, aligned without the slightest deviation, and the warm sunlight pouring down over them made the green vines sway fresh and vibrant in the wind, creating a sight so moving it was beyond words.
“Director, look over there. The grapevines look like works of art. How did they manage them so precisely?”
Reporter Kim whispered in a trembling voice. Instead of answering, Director Park kept moving his camera without pause, capturing the beautiful scenery. And I was watching them.
Two days ago, I had told the winery through Warren that they would be visiting, but it did feel a little strange that they had come straight up without speaking to him.
“They’re taking a while...”
It took them more than five minutes to walk from the entrance to the winery before they finally reached the main building, and I stepped out to greet them.
“Reporter Kim Sujin?”
“Ah! You’re Mr. Choi Useok, right? Oh my, it’s so nice to meet you! You’re so young!”
She made a fuss as she shook my hand, and the man holding the camera was diligently filming the scene.
“Thank you.”
“The vineyard is absolutely wonderful. The vineyards I’ve seen so far were usually crowded together under vinyl greenhouses or tangled around rough supports, but here, every single vine is standing so beautifully, almost like... it’s wearing a luxury suit.”
“... I think you’re looking at it kindly. Other vineyards are probably similar. Please come in for now.”
The reporting crew stepped through the oak door, stared openmouthed at the interior again, then seemed to come back to their senses and spoke.
“Let me formally introduce myself once more. I’m Kim Sujin from KSC. This is Director Park Chaegeun, who will be filming for us. But wow, really... the winery is so beautiful.
When I only read about it in articles back in Korea, it didn’t feel real... The winery is amazing, but first of all, you’re so impressive.”
“Hahaha... thank you.”
Her storm of compliments was enough to leave me dazed. I wondered if this was what a professional’s interview skills looked like.
“Shall we start with a tour of the winery?”
“I’d love that. But the exterior of the winery looked very... like an old-fashioned wooden building, yet the inside feels a bit different.”
“That’s right. Since there are areas equipped with cutting-edge systems... This is the fermentation room. All the tanks have their temperature controlled by a computer system.”
At my explanation, Director Park captured the cold texture of the stainless-steel tanks with his camera. But when he tried to turn the lens toward the unfamiliar-looking control panel attached to the side of a tank, I naturally stepped in front of it and smiled.
“I’m sorry, Director. This control section is a trade secret unique to our winery, so it’s difficult to film. It’s equipment I separately commissioned to be customized in order to increase brewing efficiency.”
The control panel he had tried to film was densely packed with precise micro-temperature graphs and flow-control switches, so sophisticated that it was hard to believe it belonged to brewing tank technology commonly used in this era.
In truth, even if I showed it, it would be difficult for even a brewing expert to understand everything it meant, but it simply felt uncomfortable, so I was reluctant to let them see it.
I did not give the reporting crew’s gazes any chance to linger on that alien-looking machinery and hurriedly moved on to the next location.
“The real sights start from here. This way...”
After passing through a corridor lined with enormous tanks and opening a heavy double-sealed door, a cool underground cellar soon appeared.
“Wow...... Director, look at this. I can’t see the end.”
Reporter Kim’s exclamation echoed. The underground cellar, where hundreds of French oak barrels were stacked in layers, was probably a sight impossible to see in Korea.
The rich scent of wood seeping from the oak barrels and the distinctive sour-sweet smell of aging wine overwhelmed the reporting crew’s sense of smell.
“You could say this is the heart of Redwood. It’s the space where the wine matures before going out into the world. Would you like to taste some?”
At my suggestion, Reporter Kim Sujin immediately clasped her hands together and nodded.
“Of course. It would be an honor.”
“Do you know much about wine?”
“Hmm... To be honest, not really. Should I know a lot?”
She laughed awkwardly, but I thought that had nothing to do with Reporter Kim’s professionalism. It was only natural that not many people knew wine in depth, since it wasn’t Korean liquor.
“No. It’s fine. It doesn’t matter if this is your first time trying it.”
“I have had quite a few wines that cost 30,000 won at convenience stores. And after the interview was scheduled, I bought a wine that cost around 100,000 won at a department store and tried it.”
“Oh~ That’s more than enough.”
I picked up the spief hanging on the wall and opened one of the barrels at the very back. Then I drew out the wine with the long glass tube and poured it into a Riedel Sommelier glass.
“This is the 2007 vintage of Sylphid, not yet bottled. Would you like to try it?”
“If it’s Sylphid, is it Pinot Noir?”
“Oh? You know?”
“I studied a little before coming. So the grapes grown out there became this wine, right?”
“Haha, the Pinot Noir didn’t come from our vineyard. It was made with grapes from over there—a place quite far from here.”
“Ah...”
“Please try it first.”
Reporter Kim received the glass with trembling hands. As the wine flowed, a captivating scarlet hue shimmered inside it, clear enough to see the bottom of the glass, as if transparent gemstones had been melted down like pure pomegranate juice.
“Oh my, the color is so brilliant. The aroma is so... so lovely.”
As she gently swirled the glass, a splendid floral fragrance instantly spread through the narrow cellar.
“How should I describe this? Director, smell it too. It’s not just a grape scent.”
Someone who knew wine well would probably have mentioned rose petals, freshly picked raspberries, the scent of damp earth in the forest, and so on.
Reporter Kim’s eyes widened once more after she took a sip.
“Wow...! No... this is so different from the 100,000 won wine I tried in Korea. Can wine be this light and elegant? It really glides over my tongue like silk.
Should I say it’s refreshing, yet has depth? I thought wine was just a bitter, astringent alcohol... Oh my, I guess this is what truly good wine is like. Director, you should try some too.”
Director Park Chaegeun, who accepted a sip without refusing, widened his eyes.
“Oh, this is no joke. It’s hard to put into words, but wow... it’s really good.”
“Director, you like drinking, don’t you?”
“Hahaha, but this really is good. Just a little more...”
He tilted his head and kept sipping, as if trying to figure out exactly which part of it he liked, and ended up drinking the half-glass of wine.
“What are you doing, drinking it all?”
Unable to just watch, I picked up the spief again.
“I’ll give you more.”
“Thank youuu!”
She held the Sylphid I poured for her again very carefully and followed behind me, sipping it little by little as if she meant to savor it.
“The wine you’re drinking now is Sylphid, made from Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley. The Russian River Valley has a lot of fog and a cool climate, so it’s an ideal place for making delicate Pinot Noir like this.
Just as the name Sylphid suggests, I tried to capture an elegance like a fairy in the forest, and it should pair very well with clean, refined Korean dishes.”
“I see~”
After leaving the cellar, I continued the interview on the outdoor terrace overlooking the winery. Reporter Kim asked her questions with a flushed expression.
“I understand your Korean name is Choi Useok... and I heard you’re called Brian Choi here. Still, since we have the spirit of Koreans, may we call you Mr. Choi Useok?”
“Please call me whatever is comfortable.”
“There’s a huge stir in Korea right now. The best winemaker in America is Korean, and you’re still a college student.”
“I’m graduating this year, so I suppose the title of college student is coming to an end now.”
“There’s something I’m curious about... Astra Veil? The wine said to be Redwood’s finest. I heard that wine is becoming a huge topic right now. I’m curious how you made it.”
I briefly wondered why the level of the question was like this, but then I recalled the level of reporting in Korea before my regression and immediately understood. And come to think of it, she wasn’t a wine journalist, nor was this a specialized program, so viewers watching TV probably wouldn’t be all that curious about the philosophy the winery pursued either.
“I made it diligently and well, using the best grapes.”
That was about the only answer I could give.
“I heard the most famous person in Napa Valley was Mr. Robert Mondavi, who recently passed away. Were you perhaps acquainted with him as well?”
“... I can’t say I didn’t know him, but as for whether we were close...”
“They say the best wines in Napa Valley are called cult wines, and when I looked into it, the greatest cult wines were Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate. If you were to compare those two wines to Astra Veil?”
“Hmm... They each have different characteristics, so it would be discourteous for me to compare them. It’s difficult for me to answer.”
“Ah... Then, where would you say your position is in Napa Valley? Among people your age, would you be the top expert?”
I held back my laughter as much as I could and answered.
“I’m working hard to become that.”
“As expected...”
Seeing Reporter Kim Sujin’s satisfied face as she nodded, I could tell she was doing her best from her own perspective.
“Is there a reason you decided to immigrate from Korea to America?”
This question was worth answering a bit more seriously.
“That was my parents’ decision. I heard it was partly because my father’s business wasn’t going well, and partly because they were thinking of their son’s future.”
“So in the end, it was for your child’s education.”
“It was both. But by chance, we ended up near the vineyards of Napa Valley, and as I naturally became interested in grape cultivation and wine, I made it all the way here.”
“I see. Then one more thing...! Since we’re talking about someone who could be called the symbol of Napa Valley, we can’t avoid asking about Mr. Robert Mondavi. How did he evaluate Redwood wine and you, Mr. Choi Useok?”
Ah, repeatedly using the “Do you know?” skill with a dead person was truly unbearably embarrassing.
“Pardon? Uh...”
At that moment, old Warren, who had been passing by, saw us interviewing on the terrace and began watching with a broad grin while leaning against the wall.
In truth, since the old man didn’t know Korean, it didn’t matter if he watched, but perhaps because the question itself was so embarrassing, I felt awkward for no reason and greeted him.
“We’re in the middle of an interview.”
“I know. I was just watching.”
At that moment, Reporter Kim Sujin said,
“Huh? Could we film that person working later?”
“Pardon? Uh...”
“Since he’s a staff member, I thought it might be better for you to ask him, Mr. Choi Useok, rather than me asking directly.”
Ah, it seemed she had only studied Robert Mondavi and had not studied Warren Winiarski.
“Do you happen to know Mr. Warren Winiarski?”
“Oh! I know him! He’s the legendary winemaker who started working at Redwood, right? I saw it on a blog...”
Fortunately, she seemed to at least know his name and career. I supposed it was something that she had at least learned information from a blog. After asking that, Reporter Kim slowly turned her head toward Warren.
“Then that person is...?”
“Yes. He is technically a staff member, but he’s not someone I can ask to pretend to be working or anything like that.”
“Oh my, I’m so sorry. Then could we perhaps film together...?”
As expected, not just anyone could be a reporter. This aggressive salesmanship was truly impressive.
But before I could even answer, perhaps having read the atmosphere, old Warren began edging closer. Seeing that, Reporter Kim Sujin spoke in slightly clumsy pronunciation.
“Can you interview? Just one minute! One minute okay? Oh my God, oh my God...”
“Why not?”
At this overexcited request for an interview, Warren’s face lit up.
“A plain interview would be boring, so shall we have a proper conversation over a drink?”
“A drink? Wine?”
“I have something I made.”
At the words that Warren Winiarski had made it, her eyes turned into hearts. The reporting crew followed him while shouting, “Of cooourse!” and the drink Warren brought out in the office was not wine, but Ruby Quartz, a brandy with a ruby-brown hue.
“Oh my~! The liquor is so pretty! Beautiful~!”
Perhaps his mood had improved as he chuckled, because the old man poured a full straight glass and said,
“If you drink this in Napa Valley and go back, that alone will be enough to boast about in Korea.”
He was right. It was true that getting Ruby Quartz on the market was like plucking stars from the sky. The problem was...
“Really? Wooow!”
“You have to knock it back in one go to fully experience the cherry flavor.”
“Uh, uh...?”
Before I could stop her, she, not knowing anything, downed it all at once. And then...
“Kraaaagh!”
That was over 40 percent alcohol...