News that Redwood Winery had released a premium red wine based on Cabernet Sauvignon spread faster than expected. It passed from mouth to mouth among people in the industry, and before long the rumors had reached restaurants and wine bars—even the East Coast.
Echelon.
That name alone was enough to pique the curiosity of those in the trade, and Christopher White, a critic for Wine Review West, was no exception.
“Let’s go. I made a reservation for tonight.”
Since today was no anniversary of any kind, Jane widened her eyes and asked,
“What is it? What wine are you after this time?”
Having had his true intentions seen through at once, Christopher quietly averted his gaze.
“It’d be nice to go on a date for the first time in a while and set the mood.”
“So it’s not me that comes first, it’s the wine.”
“One thing is certain: the person I love is you. The wine is simply a catalyst that deepens our love. It’s also my hobby and my work, but isn’t that wonderful?”
“Good grief, that smooth tongue... Fine, shall we go? But where?”
“You know that place we liked before.”
“Ah! Seracia!”
“That’s the one.”
“Sounds good!”
That evening, when the two entered the restaurant and gave the manager their name, they were immediately shown to their table.
“We’ll have two of the B course with the filet mignon. Could you recommend a wine?”
He deliberately avoided mentioning the wine by name and asked to see what would happen. Sophia, the sommelier, replied without hesitation.
“We have a newly arrived red wine that our guests have been very satisfied with. The weighty structure of the Cabernet Sauvignon should pair wonderfully with the steak.”
“The name is...?”
“It’s Echelon.”
Having confirmed that it was the very item he had heard about in the rumors, Christopher smiled.
“We’ll take it.”
“Then I’ll prepare it for you.”
Before the course began, Sophia brought the Echelon and showed it to Christopher. Jane looked at the label on the bottle with wide eyes and said,
“Echelon? Does it mean an upward step? Even the name sounds luxurious.”
“It does.”
The weighty sound of the cork being drawn out disturbed the quiet air. The moment it was poured into the decanter, the red liquid flowed down the glass walls, giving off a subtle glow.
After that came the appetizer, then the hors d’oeuvres, and finally the main course—the steak. After dipping the tenderloin steak in wine sauce and taking a bite, the couple lifted the wine in their glasses and slowly tilted them.
The sweetness of deep blackcurrant and ripe plum, along with the faint scorch of oak, struck his senses powerfully all at once.
“......”
When he held the first sip in his mouth, the tip of his tongue trembled. A tightly woven structure, tannins that were never harsh, and a lingering, subtle acidity. Considering Redwood’s brief history, it was an unbelievable level of maturation. The long finish that unfolded softly in his mouth was no different from that of a fine Napa wine.
He set down his glass and said nothing for a long while. A subtle astonishment spread around his eyes, then his lips hardened. Shock surged up in him, and with it a suppressed anger.
“...Are they out of their minds?”
The low murmur held not admiration, but fury. To possess such outstanding technique, such potential...
“Wow, this is really good. I’m glad we came today.”
Jane was extremely satisfied, but seeing her lover’s stiff expression, she tilted her head.
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“It’s just absurd.”
“What’s absurd?”
“Do you know? The winery that made this wine... they produced this with only half the grapes they had. Do you know what they did with the other half?”
“What did they do?”
“They made vinegar.”
“Vinegar? Why?”
“Under the pretext of ensuring the winery’s stable operation.”
“Really? Why would they do that? If it were me, even if things were tough, I think I’d have held out with loans somehow. With wine like this, everything would be resolved in no time.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. To make something like this and still... vinegar.”
He lifted his glass again and forced out a laugh, but that laugh could not hide its bitterness. He swallowed another sip. And another. The more he drank, the clearer it became. This was not the impulsive act of a simple new winery. Redwood had clearly found its direction. Echelon was the proof.
When he cut another piece of meat and swallowed it with the wine, the charred aroma remained in his mouth, and Echelon’s oak fragrance wrapped around it. A harmony as if the two had become one. For an instant, his hand trembled. It was a perfect pairing.
Even after emptying his glass, he stared blankly at the remaining decanter. Anger, surprise, and a respect he did not want to acknowledge were all mixed together.
‘This little winery... and made by an Asian who isn’t even American...’
Whether it was anger at the fact that such fine grapes and technique had been used to make vinegar, or whether it was because the owner of the winery was Asian, he did not know even himself, but for some strange reason, rage welled up inside him.
“In any case, the wine itself is excellent, right?”
Unaware of what was going on inside him, Jane smiled brightly as she drank the wine, and he, too, awkwardly smiled along.
Late that night, after returning home, Christopher White recalled the confused emotions he had felt at the restaurant and turned on his laptop screen.
To think such quality could come from barely more than a year of aging... And to think the person who made that wine was a young man of Asian descent. He did not want to believe it, but the lingering sensation in his mouth from what he had been drinking until just moments ago was breaking down his denial.
His fingers slowly began to tap the keyboard.
【Redwood Winery, “Echelon” 2004】
- I have previously mentioned Redwood Winery when reviewing their cherry wine, Seracia. That same Redwood Winery has now released, for the first time, a blended red wine based on Cabernet Sauvignon grown by the winery itself.
Echelon.
Despite an aging period of less than one year, the wine already displays remarkable balance. On the nose, deep blackcurrant, ripe plum, and the faint smokiness of oak overlap in quiet layers. The first sip reveals a firm structure, yet the tannins are not excessive and have been refined smoothly. A subtle acidity establishes the wine’s backbone and leaves a long finish.
Its harmony with food is especially impressive. When paired with steak carrying the scent of charcoal fire or herb-roasted lamb, the wine creates a perfect pairing, as though it had been born for the dish.
Although “Echelon” is still only in its first vintage, it shows a level of completion more than comparable to mid-sized wineries in Napa Valley. It will be worth paying attention to how much further this winery grows in the future.
Score: 90 / 100
After typing the final period, Christopher unconsciously let out a long breath. Ninety points. It was by no means a light score. Readers would be surprised, but more than anyone, he himself was surprised. Because of his principle that he had to evaluate objectively, he could not force the score lower.
In truth, if he were being honest, it could have gone above ninety-two points. But his own pride would not allow it.
He stared at the screen for a long while, then added one more sentence.
- If there is one lingering question, it is the fact that a winery with such outstanding technique turned as much as half of its premium Cabernet Sauvignon into vinegar. That choice at the time remains difficult to understand, but today’s “Echelon” declares a new possibility for Napa Valley, as if laughing at that past.
That sentence, at least, revealed his true feelings. Anger, confusion, and even the respect he had forced down inside himself. Christopher placed the cursor over the send button and hesitated for a moment before finally clicking and submitting the article.
---
Echelon had been released, but since there was a distributor in the middle, there wasn’t much for me to do. All I really did was pay attention to moisture control in preparation for the harvest that would soon arrive, while also preparing for any possible wildfires.
In California, wildfires occur frequently just about everywhere in September, so there is no such thing as a time when you can relax. I cleared everything around the farm with the tractor and checked the weather and wildfire conditions every few hours.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Now that we had released Redwood’s flagship, Echelon, the farm’s finances had begun to loosen up, and there was no way I could just sit still.
“Let’s go, Dad!”
“Sure.”
I packed my laptop, Oakton’s portable acidity testing kit, and a portable spectrophotometer. Then, from the morning onward, Dad and I left the farm together and arrived at the event venue we had set our sights on.
The venue looked like a small town temporarily set up for the occasion. At the entrance hung a banner that read [Napa Harvest Gala & Barrel Auction], and at the information desk, staff in stylish suits checked invitations and fastened ribbon wristbands around guests’ wrists.
Dad looked around and gave a low whistle.
“Wow... this is really grand, isn’t it? This is more like a festival than an auction.”
“That’s right. They say Napa wineries put out unreleased vintage barrels at this barrel auction event.”
“Ah, so it’s not aimed at individual consumers, but at people in the winery industry?”
“Exactly.”
Once we passed through the entrance, I could feel the unique liveliness and tension of a festival at the same time. Winery representatives, importers, restaurant sommeliers, and reporters from the press were all gathered together, exchanging greetings mixed with laughter. Well-tailored suits and dresses, along with jackets bearing name tags printed with winery logos, stood out.
Their specific standards might differ, but fundamentally, their goal was the same: to find the barrel they wanted.
“What are you trying to find here?”
I looked at the long tables set up on one side of the venue. On them were small glass decanters and tasting glasses, and young wines drawn directly from barrels were lined up with only a small paper label listing the vintage year and winery name.
“When we blended before, we signed a contract for wine that had turned out reasonably well from the place Mr. Pierce Morgan at the Agricultural Extension Office introduced us to, right?”
“Right?”
“But when you really think about it, that wasn’t exactly a perfect combination.”
“You’re saying that wasn’t perfect? You know how Echelon is being received right now, don’t you?”
Dad asked as if he couldn’t believe it. In truth, what Dad said wasn’t wrong. John, the distributor, was personally supplying Echelon to restaurants and wine bars and passing the feedback he heard directly to Dad, and most of them said the same thing: it had excellent value for money.
Echelon’s wholesale price was thirty dollars, and John Anderson distributed it at thirty-seven dollars, but in restaurants, it was being sold for somewhere between eighty and one hundred dollars.
That price range falls into the premium category, but it is also considered an accessible price point, known as Accessible Premium. To be praised for value for money in that price range meant that it offered high-end quality at a relatively reasonable price.
“I know. But if we can make it even better than that, we should try, shouldn’t we? We might even be able to sell it for more later.”
“If it’s possible, then yes.”
“That’s what I’m trying to look for here, too. I’ll raise the quality of our Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the main position in the blend and makes up more than eighty percent, but wouldn’t we get even greater synergy if we found the very best of the rest here and combined them?”
“Wouldn’t that be expensive?”
“If it’s too expensive, we’ll give up.”
At my cool answer, Dad nodded as well. In truth, it’s probably the same anywhere, but cheap and good things are hard to come by. Even so, the reason I was interested was that wine tastes different now and a year from now, which makes it difficult even for experts to recognize clearly.
What others had difficulty recognizing, I could predict to some extent with scientific analysis equipment. With the expectation that I might be able to find a good barrel cheaply, we entered the enormous warehouse-like building.
“This is incredible.”
Once inside, the huge hall was like a wine expo. Each winery had set up a small booth, with barrel samples poured into decanters and ready for tasting.
As we walked between the barrels, people’s conversations drifted into my ears.
“I heard last year’s Pantesca lot went up to five thousand dollars a barrel?”
“This time, the Rutherford barrels are hot, so I’m going to check them out.”
Dad was shocked by the mention of a thousand dollars per case.
“Looks like even cult-class wines are participating.”
“They say wines worth ten thousand dollars per case show up from time to time.”
“Ten thousand dollars per case? Wow...”
“But barrels from lesser-known places are often ignored.”
“Well... they look like unfinished wines on the surface, so if they don’t have name recognition, people would easily pass them by.”
“But what if you take a cheap wine from a lesser-known place and make it succeed? The potential profit is enormous, so that’s why people from the industry all gather here.”
“Ahh...”
“Shall we start tasting with the resolve to drink every wine here?”
And so Dad and I began diligently making the rounds. Dad tasted each one and evaluated them, but I was a little different. While Dad tasted the wines, I measured their acidity, color, polyphenols, tannin concentration, and so on with the portable instruments I had brought.
Then we reached the Kenaz Vineyards booth. People would finish tasting once, then leave without asking any particular questions.
“It’s a fantastic Merlot. Why don’t you give it a try?”
A woman who looked to be over fifty was energetically promoting it in front of a large barrel, holding out a decanter. Dad held out his glass and tasted it, then slightly furrowed his brow, as if it was quite astringent.
His face suggested that something was off, and because of that, I could understand why no one was lingering there. But I inserted the portable spectrophotometer into the wine Dad had tasted and measured the figures.
“Huh?”
After checking the values on the spectrophotometer, I quietly led Dad away from the booth. Some time later, Dad showed me the booths he had personally rated highly in his notebook.
“This place seemed good... but it’s probably expensive, right?”
“Probably?”
Then, at the appointed time, the auction began.