The voice coming through the receiver belonged to the working-level representative of Château Latour, speaking English with a French accent. Latour was a Bordeaux First Growth château acquired by the François Pinault Group in 2008. And the Pinault Group was also France’s largest luxury group, owning both the luxury brand Kering and Christie’s auction house.
“Are you saying that is Chairman Pinault’s intention?”
“That is correct. As soon as news came in that Madame Corinne had gone to Redwood in person, the chairman instructed us to review the matter directly. Château Latour is also willing to consider a collaboration in a similar format.”
“What specific format do you have in mind?”
“I believe that is something we should discuss in person. Chairman Pinault would like to meet you in Paris.”
Stan was silent for a moment. Asking to meet in Paris meant Latour intended to set the home ground. He knew that if he wanted to make use of the Pinault Group’s network and Christie’s auctions, he had no choice but to go to Paris, but that fact did not sit well with him.
“When?”
“How would two weeks from now be?”
“Very well.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kroenke. I will organize the details and convey them.”
After hanging up, Stan looked out the window and lifted his wineglass. A sip of Screaming Eagle slowly spread across his tongue. Pinault’s reason for calling him all the way to Paris was clear. He intended to overwhelm him with numbers on his home ground and seize the initiative in the negotiations from the very beginning.
“This is interesting.”
He meant it. Watching from beside him as a newly established winery climbed right up under his chin... no, by now, one could say it had effectively overtaken him, sent a thrill down his spine.
When was the last time he had lived with the feeling of being chased like this? For that matter, when was the last time he had been overtaken by someone else?
He felt young again. A flame rose in his chest, his fingertips tingled, and he felt as if he would not be able to stand it unless he did something. He could not say for certain whether it was anger or competitive spirit, but one thing was clear: he felt alive again.
The next morning, I called Oliver Barron, the wine auction specialist at Sotheby’s.
Oliver Barron was a key figure in Sotheby’s wine auction division. He had personally handled the first auction where Aether appeared, and ever since, he had been involved whenever Redwood wines passed through Sotheby’s.
“Oliver, I’m calling because I have a proposal for you.”
“If it’s a proposal from you, sir, I can make time anytime.”
“Haha, aren’t you giving me too much credit?”
“Not at all. I believe I know better than anyone the kind of presence Redwood has in the American wine auction market. Although it is a new winery, your reputation among wine lovers is already on par with Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate. Perhaps it is all the more so because you are young, and I suspect the fact that you are an owner-winemaker, rather than a capitalist like Stan Kroenke or William Harlan, is part of why wine enthusiasts love you.”
“Oh, it feels good to hear you think that.”
“Hahaha! This isn’t flattery, merely a phenomenon. I would like you to understand that I have expressed it very, very objectively.”
Hearing him speak so well, I could see why he was trusted to lead auctions at a world-class auction house like this.
“Thank you.”
“By the way, what is it you wanted to ask of me?”
“The truth is... our Redwood and Château Margaux of Bordeaux, France, are joining hands to release a single product.”
For an instant, silence fell over the receiver. Then came Oliver’s hesitant voice.
“Redwood has... joined hands with Château Margaux?”
“That’s right.”
“Haha... hahaha! No, this may be the biggest news in the wine world this year. A meeting between Redwood and Château Margaux... What exactly is it?”
“We’ve named it the Heritage & Future Duo. To be precise, we intend to bundle Château Margaux’s 1996 vintage and Aether into one set and put it up for auction.”
“Ohhh...”
For a while, only exclamations of admiration came through the receiver. Then his excited voice followed.
“So... you’re saying you want to auction Château Margaux 1996 and Aether as one set?”
“That’s correct.”
“Amazing. Truly amazing... Ah... How should we handle this? Let’s do it this way for now. As for the venue, Hong Kong would be the right place to hold it first. Asian collectors will be the first to respond to this combination.”
“Good. Please proceed that way.”
Oliver’s excitement carried through the receiver. Specific discussions followed. The auction format, lot composition, expected reserve price, and so on... In the end, Oliver suggested fifty thousand dollars per set, and I pushed a little harder.
“Won’t it go higher than that?”
“I think so too. To be honest, with a combination like this, it wouldn’t be strange if it exceeded a hundred thousand dollars. Margaux 1996 is a Parker 99-pointer, and Aether is 100 points. The very fact that these two glasses are placed on one table...”
Oliver paused for a moment, then spoke in a low voice.
“How would you like the schedule arranged?”
“Can we set it for two months from now?”
“That’s more than enough. I’ll begin preparations immediately.”
After hanging up, I contacted Corinne.
“I see. I’ll have it prepared. However, I must personally approve the label design.”
“Of course.”
And so the Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction schedule was confirmed for two months later. Now all that remained was to wait.
The results from UC Davis arrived on the tenth day after we sent the samples. After receiving word from Castello, I went there again, and Marcus entered the office holding a thick envelope. His expression was peculiar, a mixture of anticipation and tension. I took the envelope and spread the contents out on the table.
A report totaling twenty-eight pages. The microbial community composition of Blocks A, B, and C at each depth was densely organized in tables and graphs. I slowly turned the pages.
Block A. It was an area with gravelly mixed soil and good drainage. From the surface layer down to one meter, it was not significantly different from an ordinary Napa vineyard. It had a standard composition dominated by nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the Rhizobium group, with fungi of the genus Trichoderma distributed among them.
Block B. It was an area with high clay content and good water retention. The proportion of anaerobic bacteria was higher than in Block A. In an environment where water did not drain well, bacteria that disliked oxygen tended to settle in.
And then Block C.
My fingers stopped as I turned the page. The moment I saw the table, Marcus murmured beside me.
“I was quite surprised when I saw Block C as well.”
The microbial community composition of Block C was on an entirely different level from Blocks A and B. Down to the surface thirty centimeters, it was similar. But it began to change below sixty centimeters, and once it passed one meter, a completely different world unfolded.
At a depth of 1.5 meters, where the ancient river sedimentary layer began, the number of detected fungal species was three times that of Block A. And the composition of those species was different. Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (VA Mycorrhizae), which were almost never seen in Blocks A or B, were detected in overwhelming proportion in the lower layer of Block C. They accounted for 43 percent of all fungal species.
I looked for the notes at the back of the report. There was a comment left by the UC Davis research team.
-The density of VA mycorrhizal fungi detected below 1.5 meters in Block C is 8.7 times the average for ordinary Napa Valley vineyards. A mycorrhizal density of this level is difficult to form under normal cultivation conditions and is presumed to have naturally accumulated in a depositional environment over tens of thousands of years or more.
At that moment, Marcus asked,
“Why are VA mycorrhizal fungi particularly important?”
I thought for a moment, then said,
“To explain it simply, grapevine roots have limits when absorbing minerals from the soil on their own. If the mineral particles are larger than what the roots can absorb, or if they’re chemically bound, they just pass by. But VA mycorrhizal fungi attach to the surface of the roots and extend threadlike structures, far thinner than the roots, in every direction. Those threads penetrate places the roots cannot reach, break down minerals, and convert them into forms the roots can absorb. In exchange, they receive sugars produced through photosynthesis from the grapevine.”
Marcus nodded and said,
“That’s the subcontractor analogy you mentioned before.”
“That’s right. But there’s one more important thing. Byproducts are created in the process by which VA mycorrhizal fungi break down minerals. Some of those byproducts are absorbed into the grapevine tissue and converted into specific amino acid derivatives. And those are...”
“Precursors.”
Marcus, looking as if he had realized something, finished the sentence first. I nodded.
“The fact that the density of VA mycorrhizal fungi in the lower layer of Block C is 8.7 times that of Block A doesn’t simply mean its mineral absorption capacity is 8.7 times higher. It means the amount and diversity of precursors produced in that process are incomparably richer than in Block A.”
“Then the reason Block C felt different when you smelled the vineyard soil was because of these mycorrhizal fungi.”
“Exactly. There’s a protein called glomalin produced by mycorrhizal fungi. The distinctive, complex scent that comes from soil is actually caused by a mixture of that glomalin and the enzymes secreted by the mycorrhizal fungi. The reason the smell of the lower soil in Block C differed from the surface layer and from Blocks A and B was because of that difference in density.”
Marcus nodded, then slowly set the report down and said,
“When you first talked about reverse-engineering precursors, I honestly half-doubted it. The idea that you squeezed grape juice by hand, smelled the soil, and sensed something... It was too abstract a story for someone like me to accept.”
He pointed at the report with his finger and continued.
“But these numbers aren’t abstract. Until now, I vaguely thought Redwood grew this rapidly because ‘the boss must have made good wine...’ But now I know for certain. I know how many scientific details you must have taken into account when making wine.”
“That’s right. Nothing in this world is achieved for no reason. Now what we need to do is connect these numbers to fermentation design. If we identify what kinds of precursors the VA mycorrhizal fungi produce and how much of them there are, we can reverse-design the enzyme conditions and fermentation temperature curve to open them up to the fullest.”
Marcus tilted his head and asked,
“How do we identify the types and quantities of those precursors? I don’t think soil analysis can tell us that.”
“You’re right. The next step is to collect grape tissue samples immediately after harvest and analyze them. We’ll use GC-MS analysis to sort out what precursors are bound inside the grape skins and flesh, and how much of each there is. Once those results come out, we can begin designing the fermentation.”
“Haa, there are about three months left until harvest now.”
“In the meantime, we need to draft the fermentation temperature curve. Once the GC-MS results come out, we’ll revise it based on those.”
Marcus immediately took out his notebook and began writing diligently. As I quietly watched him, the expression on his face was no longer the tense look he had when I first came to Castello, when he had feared losing his job. Now, it was the face of someone concentrating on something.
“Mr. Marcus.”
“Yes.”
As he took notes.
“Looking at this data, what do you think? Honestly.”
He paused his pen for a moment and said,
“I’ve watched this vineyard for fifteen years. I knew from experience that the grapes from Block C were special, but I couldn’t explain why. Mr. Higgins only ever said they were simply good grapes as well. But looking at this report, I see the reason was here all along. Now we’ll make a wine that captures the soil of Block C exactly as it is, won’t we?”
“That’s what will happen.”
“What sort of taste will it have? What kind of aromas will it give off? My heart is already pounding.”
Seeing the sparkle in his eyes, I could not help but feel just as expectant.
Two days later, Paris.
Stan Kroenke landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport early in the morning. As he stepped off his private jet, he buttoned his jacket. He was alone, without attendants or aides.
“Was the Rams’ game scheduled for this week? I didn’t check.”
Recalling his team’s game schedule, he grumbled and slowly began to walk.