Laird Family Estate, located in southern Napa Valley. A custom crush company that rents out winemaking facilities, it is the largest operation of its kind near Napa.
Since morning, several large trailers had been filing into the place. When the backs of the vehicles opened, half-ton bins loaded full of ripe grape clusters appeared one after another. The fruit, bathed in sunlight, looked fresh and firm, and the sweet scent of juice filled the air.
“They’re all Pinot Noir. This is the first batch, fifteen tons, so please check.”
The driver held out the invoice, and I nodded as I checked inside the cargo bed. Each plump, fully ripened grape looked as if it would burst with juice at the slightest touch. I plucked one off and chewed it, skin and all, and the exact flavor and aroma I had wanted spread through my mouth.
Since the fermentation test we had done after visiting the vineyard confirmed that the grapes had not been exposed to any wildfire smoke at all, I gave Dad a thumbs-up.
“Perfect.”
“Good.”
The bins were loaded onto forklifts and carried into the custom crush facility. Inside, rows of stainless-steel fermentation tanks, already sanitized, gleamed in the light, and the air held a faint mix of disinfectant and metal. But each time another box of grapes came in, the scent of fruit overlaid it.
“Please move them carefully! Those go to the destemmer over here, and we’ll crush twenty percent of them whole, without destemming!”
The process from when grapes arrive at the winery until they enter the fermenter is called “destemming/preprocessing.” Destemming refers to removing the stems from the clusters and separating only the grape berries, while preprocessing refers to sorting, chilling, sanitation, and simple additions such as SO₂ or enzymes before and after destemming—preparations done before fermentation to preserve flavor and aroma.
At my words, the Laird Winery staff tilted their heads, but followed my instructions. It must have seemed strange that I intended to put in twenty percent of the grape clusters as they were, stems and all. Still, since it was what the customer wanted, they did not bother to object.
“The crusher rollers are set exactly the way I configured them, right?”
“That’s right~”
I immediately gave instructions to the workers and started the machines. The machine whirred to life, separating berries and stems from the clusters. The berries rolled down onto the gray conveyor, while the removed stems piled up in a bin to the side. The berries then moved straight into the crusher, where their skins split open slightly. At that moment, red grape juice poured down beneath the tank like a waterfall.
The scent rising from the crimson liquid gathering in the stainless-steel receiving vat was sweet, yet sharp.
Dad, watching from beside me, let out an admiring sound.
“It makes my heart race to think all of this is going to become wine.”
“Right?”
“But putting in the whole clusters wasn’t in any of the books I read.”
Dad, who had been buried in studying whenever he was not working these days, sometimes asked sharp questions like this.
“Ah, it hasn’t been studied for very long. It’s called whole-cluster fermentation, where you put the clusters into the tank with the stems still attached and ferment them. Doing it this way adds more aroma and structure.”
“Really?”
“Grape stems contain things like hexanone, terpenes, and organic acids. Some of that comes out during fermentation. It adds complex aromas like rose, jasmine, and herbs. Especially with a variety like Pinot Noir, which has aromas centered on red berries like cherry and raspberry, adding these elements increases complexity and refinement.”
“Oh—so that’s been newly researched?”
“Yes. And stems also contain lignin, cellulose, and tannins, so they provide additional structure. The important thing here is that you can only use them when the stems are fully ripe. In terms of color, when they’re clearly brown. Otherwise, you get a green, vegetal smell, and that won’t do.”
Aside from that, there were many other differences between the methods commonly used at existing wineries and the method I was using this time, from hand-harvesting at dawn to minimizing berry breakage during destemming.
Once I added pre-regression techniques such as cold maceration and oxygen management after this, I was confident I could create a wine on a completely different level from existing Pinot Noir.
After practically living at Laird Winery for nearly a week, I was finally able to go to school the following week.
“Why on earth haven’t you been coming to school?”
Perhaps dissatisfied that I had not come to school for a week and had barely been reachable by phone, Chloe’s lips were jutting out.
“I was out of my mind busy. Armando didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“That I spent the entire week soaked in grapes doing a Pinot Noir custom crush?”
She looked as if she had no idea at all.
“No? He didn’t say anything.”
“Ah, I guess since I didn’t say anything first, he didn’t either.”
On the days I did not go to school, Armando had worked with me every day and taken his daily pay, so he had no choice but to know the most about me. If he still had not said anything, then he seemed tighter-lipped than he appeared. Or else he knew how sensitive I was when it came to business.
“But Pinot Noir? Isn’t your family’s vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon?”
“We bought it from outside about half a year ago. We’ve only just started making it, so it’ll be a long time before it has commercial value.”
“How much is there?”
“Forty-five tons?”
At the unexpected number, Chloe’s mouth fell open.
“Seriously? That’s a lot. Are you sure it’ll be okay?”
“Of course. Obviously. But I’m not planning to neglect the cherry wine, so don’t worry about that.”
“I wasn’t worried, okay? I was just bored.”
“Bored? You shouldn’t have any free time with all the studying...”
Her major, plant science, was by no means an easy field. Biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, calculus, and statistics were all basic courses for the major, and unless you clung to your major courses throughout your school life, it was easy to fail.
“......You say that like studying is easy.”
“I’m... pretty okay at it, I guess.”
Perhaps because she held the prejudice(?) that Asians were basically good at studying, Chloe accepted it readily and made a disgusted expression.
“How can a person live doing nothing but studying? You’d die.”
As someone who was honestly living without doing much studying at all, I could only sympathize with her passionate words on an emotional level.
“Yeah, I’m sure you would.”
“Ha, anyway, are you going to Sunset Fest?”
Sunset Fest was a festival held regularly at UC Davis every early October, where famous singers, DJs, and enrolled students put on various performances. I had heard that, aside from performances, there were all kinds of games and food stalls, as well as club introductions and freshman welcome events.
“Do I have to...?”
Early October was not exactly a leisurely time for me. It was the period when I had to keep checking the harvest timing for the Cabernet Sauvignon I had cultivated with care for nearly a year.
Of course, it was not as if I had to check every hour on the hour, but it was still a time that constantly weighed on my mind.
“You’re not going?”
Just as I flinched under her glare, Jacob came running over with a huge shout.
“Brian! Brian!”
Jacob, who came charging over like Achilles after winning a battle, panted in front of me for a moment before speaking.
“Did you see? They’re having a festival called Sunset Fest!”
“......I see.”
“Do you know who’s coming? Don’t be shocked, but get this...”
Jacob excitedly named several singers and bands, but I did not know a single one of them.
“Really? Seriously? Wow...”
That was the full extent of the reaction I could give.
“This is what college life is all about, isn’t it? Let’s really have fun. Armando will probably like it the most.”
I could not bring myself to tell them to go have fun by themselves.
“...Yeah, let’s do that.”
Chloe was smirking at me from the side with one corner of her mouth raised, but I pretended not to see it.
Just then, a man approached the soccer stadium stands where Chloe, Jacob, and I were sitting.
“You’re Brian, right? Remember me?”
When I looked to see who it was, it was Matthew Haggins, the junior who had introduced himself at orientation in the beginning. The son of the owner of Castello Vineyard... in effect, the son of the wealthiest family in Napa Valley.
“Ah...”
“Why are you acting so awkward?”
After shaking my hand, he briefly looked over the friends beside me. Aside from the fact that his gaze lingered a little longer on Chloe in particular, he calmly looked back at me and spoke.
“I heard from Sienna that you’re supposed to be very skilled.”
“Well, I’m not sure about that.”
“Are you entering the Sonoma County Harvest Fair this time?”
“I am, but not on the wine side. I’m only entering some table grapes.”
At that, Matthew Haggins shrugged as if surprised.
“Really? Why? I wanted to see those skills of yours.”
Just hearing his words, it sounded like he was being sarcastic, but his expression was serious, making it seem as if he was genuinely curious. And in truth, what people here really paid attention to was not grapes, but wine. After all, good grapes were ultimately just ingredients for making good wine.
“We don’t have any finished wine by the end of October. My family took over the vineyard around exactly this time last year. Before that, because of pests and disease, we couldn’t get any proper grapes.”
“Ah... so there were circumstances like that? Then you won’t be able to enter the California Wine Festival either?”
If the Sonoma County Harvest Fair was a local festival, the California Wine Festival was a festival for the entire state of California, and the scale was different. Of course, Sonoma County was enormous enough that calling it a local festival felt inadequate, but it still could not compare to all of California.
“Probably not?”
“That’s a shame. Then I’ll only get to see your wine evaluation ability at the Sonoma festival.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“Ah, you didn’t know? They provide students in our department with a chance to do blind wine evaluations. The students’ scores don’t count, but it’s an opportunity to see how regular judges and individual students differ. The professor gives extra points to the student who submits scores most similar to the judges’.”
“Ah...”
“I’ll see your true ability then. I’m looking forward to it. I’m really curious.”
Was this what they called a madman with clear eyes? For some reason, a flicker of madness seemed to waver in Matthew’s gaze.
“Haha... It’s nothing special.”
“We’ll know that when we see it. If you have any difficulties with school life, feel free to ask me anytime. Ah! Right. We grow the same variety, don’t we? Cabernet Sauvignon.”
“Th... that’s right?”
“Our vineyard usually doesn’t enter things like table grapes, but I suppose we should this time. Just to see what happens.”
Matthew pressed his index finger firmly against my chest, looked at me, smiled brightly, then turned and walked away. As I stood there blankly watching his back, Jacob spoke.
“Hey, that guy is scary.”
“There are things you’re scared of too?”
“Of course. That guy’s kind of weird.”
As Achilles-like Jacob trembled in fear, my cell phone began vibrating obnoxiously. The person calling out of the blue was Pierce Morgan from the Agricultural Extension Office.
“Do you have time?”
“You mean time to stop by the Agricultural Extension Office, right?”
“That’s right.”
“If there’s something going on, I’ll make time even if I have to clear my schedule.”
A light laugh came from the other end of the line, and I asked again.
“But what’s this about...?”
“You remember what you asked me before? To let you know if any vineyards went up for auction at a good price.”
“Yes. Don’t tell me...?”
“That’s right. Because of the large-scale wildfire, several decent vineyards in the Napa area have gone up for auction. Interested?”
I sprang up from my seat.
“Of course! Absolutely!”