The moment my name rang out on the stage of the San Francisco Convention Center, I threw both arms high into the air.
Applause erupted from the audience and surged toward me like a wave. Even I could hardly believe the announcement that Aeschlon and Sylphid, both wines, had simultaneously won Double Gold.
Below the stage, camera flashes from the reporters burst again and again, and even the head judge nodded with a smile.
“Two from one winery… That’s truly rare.”
“We’ll have to remember the name Redwood now.”
The words I heard as I climbed onto the platform lodged in my ears. I accepted the Double Gold medals and slowly came down from the stage, trying to steady my breath, but my heart was still pounding.
A short while later, the Best of Class judging followed.
Aeschlon was nominated in the Cabernet Sauvignon category, and Sylphid in the Pinot Noir category. Each time a glass on the table was tilted, a suffocating tension filled the air.
“Aeschlon shows remarkable balance despite still being a young wine.”
“Sylphid is delicate yet powerful… with an astonishing complexity.”
The judges’ voices made me expect, if only a little, but the results were cold. In the Cabernet Sauvignon category, Joseph Phelps Insignia took the final Best of Class, and in the Pinot Noir category, another famous winery from Russian River claimed the title.
For a moment, disappointment washed over me, but the applause rising from the audience soon brought me back to my feet.
“Still, the fact that Redwood made it into two categories at once is incredible.”
“For a new winery, that’s an enormous achievement. In a way, the real star of the day is someone else.”
Amid the gazes of the people around me, I raised my head and looked at the screen on the stage. The names Aeschlon and Sylphid were still shining brightly, and my heart swelled until it felt full to bursting.
Just then, someone approached me.
“Congratulations.”
When I turned my head, two middle-aged men I already recognized were standing there. I was already familiar with Mark Harrington, since he had attended the Serasia tasting, and I had seen Joseph Haggins at the alumni wine showcase.
“Ah, thank you. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Did you come alone? Where’s your father?”
The two men were looking not for me, but for my father. It was only natural. They might be able to imagine that I took part in making the wine, but it would be difficult for them to think I was leading the production.
“My father couldn’t attend today. I sent him on a short trip so he could rest for the first time in a while.”
I hadn’t been the only one buried in farming all this time. Dad and Mom had also worked without the slightest rest. I was young, so it wasn’t an issue for me, but it was hard on my parents. So after finishing the more or less important tasks, I sent them on a two-week trip so they could rest a little and find some breathing room.
I could still vividly see my mother’s face, delighted like a child at the time.
“They went on a trip…? At such an important time?”
But the two of them only looked even more unable to understand.
“Uh… There isn’t really anything all that important going on. We’ve released all the red wine we prepared, and, well…”
The additional Serasia release wouldn’t happen until late November or early December. Until then, there was no particular reason for my parents to remain on the farm.
And most decisively, all the wines we had released had sold out. There was nothing left in the warehouse. If they didn’t take a break now, when would they?
Perhaps noticing the lightness in my expression, Joseph Haggins asked with a slightly puzzled look.
“Don’t tell me all the released wines have already been cleared out?”
“Yes… But there wasn’t much volume to begin with. Aeschlon was only 2,000 cases, and Sylphid was 3,000 cases.”
“Mm…”
By the standards of Harrington Winery or Castello Winery, it was certainly a very small quantity. The two men looked at each other for a moment. Mark soon looked back at me and said,
“Did you bring in Pinot Noir again this year?”
“Yes. I think we’ll probably release about the same amount next year.”
Only then did a slight look of relief appear on Mark’s face. It was obvious he had been thinking that if roughly ten times the 3,000 cases of Sylphid were released, it would deal a blow to his winery.
To be honest, if it were up to me, I would have liked to produce 30,000 cases, but that was still too much for now. And if I tried to contract Pinot Noir again by the block at this point, they would obviously ask for a price incomparably higher than when we first signed, so I was still debating how much more to produce.
“I see.”
This time, Joseph Haggins asked.
“And Aeschlon?”
For Castello Winery, whose main focus was Cabernet Sauvignon, Aeschlon was a direct competitor.
“I think it’ll probably be around 4,000 cases?”
When I said right away that production would double, I saw the corner of his eye twitch slightly. It was still far less than the capacity they had, but the fact that the production of the main wine to be released soon would double seemed to weigh on his mind.
“4,000 cases… I see. In any case, congratulations. In the long term, it’s a good thing for our Napa Valley that such fine wines continue to be produced here.”
In fact, what Joseph said was true. In the long run, if wineries that continued receiving high praise appeared in Napa Valley, the brand value of Napa Valley itself would rise, allowing prices to be driven up.
The problem was simply that the gap in profit between the wines that actually elevated the brand’s reputation and the wineries that benefited merely because the brand rose along with them was absurdly huge.
“Thank you. I’ll have to keep working hard so we can continue receiving good evaluations.”
At my thanks, their faces stiffened even more.
“Y-Yes, see that you do.”
“……”
Joseph Haggins gave an awkward laugh and patted my shoulder, while Mark Harrington merely stared at me with a complicated look in his eyes.
---
Three days after the wine event in San Francisco, an unfamiliar car came to a stop in the front yard of Redwood Winery. The middle-aged man who stepped out of the black SUV, dressed in a neat suit, adjusted his clothes and then looked around the farm. At the distinctive barrenness of the vineyard after harvest, a smile rose to his lips.
“So this is where they made it…?”
The young man who got out after him captured the scenery once with his camera, then said,
“But I heard the owner here is Asian. Two Double Golds—is that even possible?”
“That’s what I want to know. How on earth that could happen. I’m definitely taking at least one bottle of Aeschlon with me, since they say it’s hard to get now.”
Having come from New York, he had acquired three bottles of Sylphid as soon as he saw the news article and had been quite pleased with himself. According to what he had heard, Sylphid had been distributed mostly in the eastern United States, while Aeschlon had gone out to the West Coast. As for Aeschlon, which had entered the market first, people were already saying that finding a bottle was like plucking a star from the sky.
At least with Sylphid, there were still many people who had not yet gotten the relevant information, so it was not impossible to obtain if one truly wanted it.
After passing through the farm entrance and slowly making his way up to the winery, he greeted the young man waiting for him.
“This is Redwood Winery, correct?”
A deep and attractive voice. He immediately took out a business card and handed it to the young Asian man. Just by meeting an Asian person, he was already certain he had come to the right place.
[Michael Lowell. Senior Editor, Wine Enthusiast]
Wine Enthusiast was a major American wine magazine often compared with Wine Spectator. Holding the business card I had received, I smiled.
“Thank you for coming.”
“Two Double Golds. The moment I heard the news, I got on a plane. I thought a single line in an article wouldn’t be enough.”
“I’m sorry, but the owner of the winery, my father, isn’t here. What should we do?”
“We’ve already spoken over the phone. Your father seemed to rely on you quite a lot, especially. He also said it would be better to conduct the interview with you instead, so we have no problem with that.”
“In that case… Would you like to take photos first?”
“Thank you.”
Michael’s gaze was already sweeping over the vineyard. At his gesture, the photographer began taking shots of the aging room and the exterior of the building.
When I opened the door to the aging room, cool air flowed out together with the scent of oak barrels. Michael drew in a deep breath and nodded.
“This aroma… There’s a depth here that’s hard to find at a new winery. Do you happen to use both French oak and American oak?”
I answered, a little surprised.
“Yes. For the Cabernet, we used a ratio of 70% French oak and 30% American. For the Pinot Noir, to bring out the softness of Russian River, we use only French oak, but since that’s custom crush, it isn’t here.”
“Then what toast level did you go with? Medium? Medium plus?”
His questions were sharp. He had the expertise to make fairly accurate guesses from the scent of the aging room alone, without even tasting the wine.
“For the Cabernet, medium plus. For the Pinot Noir, medium. That was to avoid killing the fruit aromas in the Pinot.”
Michael quickly wrote something in his notebook and studied me. I knew what that expectant look in his eyes meant. It was clearly telling me to hurry up and present the wines I had prepared.
The released wine had essentially all gone out, but just in case, we had still kept about five cases of each wine at the winery. So I personally brought up Aeschlon and Sylphid from the aging room.
First, I opened the Aeschlon with an opener and poured it into a decanter. Michael stared as if enchanted at the red glow flowing along the clear decanter.
“I’ll leave Aeschlon like this for a little while to wake up its aroma. So please try Sylphid first.”
This time, I opened the Sylphid and poured it into a clear, transparent glass, and the camera shutter clicked repeatedly. Michael swirled the glass and observed the color clinging to the walls.
“Russian River Valley single vineyard… Interesting. Pinot Noir is delicate by nature, so new wineries don’t usually attempt it. Why did you choose this? It doesn’t quite fit to say it was because of Sideways, since you had already pre-purchased the grapes before that.”
“I thought of it as a challenge from the beginning, but I wasn’t particularly afraid. And I thought Pinot Noir had a special character that our farm’s Cabernet Sauvignon couldn’t show, so I found it very appealing. That’s why I wanted to try it alongside the Cabernet. I believed that even if it didn’t go well, we wouldn’t suffer a loss.”
Michael lifted the glass, smelled the aroma, and closed his eyes for a moment.
“…Raspberry, violet, and a subtle spice note. It’s hard to believe this was aged for such a short time.”
“Thank you.”
After taking a sip of Sylphid, Michael closed his eyes for a moment and fully savored the lingering finish. Then he slowly opened his eyes and looked at the glass in his hand with an expression of admiration.
“So this was it. This is why it received Double Gold. A Russian River Valley Pinot Noir in just one year… Astonishing.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you know? I heard that unlike Aeschlon, Sylphid is distributed heavily in the eastern United States. Is there a particular reason for that?”
“Ah, that’s the distributor’s strategy. We weren’t especially involved.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
“In Aeschlon’s case, it was handled by a distributor active around this area, so it didn’t leave California, but Sylphid has a different distributor, so I think they’re using a different strategy.”
“It’s interesting that one winery can have different distributors.”
“Haha, that’s just how it ended up.”
“I heard Aeschlon has already become difficult to obtain…?”
“Other than the few we have at the winery, it’s probably hard to find on the market. There were only 2,000 cases released in the first place…”
His eyes sparkled.
“Do you happen to have Aeschlon on hand?”
He was asking with subtle expectation, knowing full well that I probably did. Since Wine Enthusiast had a review and scoring system, I could hardly avoid handing him a bottle.
“Yes, about one bottle…”
Michael immediately looked moved, then soon pointed at the Aeschlon being decanted.
“Perhaps that one is…?”
“Haha, I’ll make sure to pack that one up for you right away.”
“Hahahaha! Thank you. I’ll have to savor it.”
Bursting into a laugh of delight, Michael looked at me with shining eyes, then lowered his voice and asked insinuatingly.
“By winning not one but two Double Golds at the same time, you’ve suddenly emerged as Napa Valley’s dark horse. I imagine from now on, Redwood Winery will be drawing everyone’s attention, and the prices of the 2005 Aeschlon and Sylphid won’t be the same as they are now, will they?”
“Hmm... Nothing has been decided regarding the price yet...”
Though I avoided giving a definite answer, he merely smiled meaningfully, as if he already knew the correct one, and continued with his next question.
“Redwood Winery is certainly smaller in scale compared to the major wineries in the Napa and Sonoma regions. I’m curious how you plan to overcome that going forward. Will you simply continue as a small winery and maintain Redwood’s own distinctive character...?”
“It’s something we’re still thinking over, but as for Sylphid, which is produced through contracted winemaking, we intend to focus on consistently securing high-quality Pinot Noir.”
“Oh, then you do have plans to release more Sylphid?”
“It will be difficult next year, but I believe it will be possible the year after. Along with that, we’re also considering expanding the farm.”
He looked at me with admiration.
“To think you’ll keep expanding the farm with the money you earn... It makes me curious about Redwood’s future. Once our magazine runs the article on Aeschlon and Sylphid, the thousands of cases of Sylphid currently being distributed in the East will vanish completely. But that isn’t necessarily only a good thing. Wine lovers will remember Redwood’s 2004 Sylphid from now on. If the vintages that come afterward fail to meet expectations...”
He was already convinced that next year’s Aeschlon and Sylphid would become cult-level wines priced at over a hundred dollars. It would bring enormous profit to the winery, but if the quality of the wines released then failed to live up to that, the wine magazines and critics would tear them apart.
“I know. They’ll be even more disappointed.”
At my attitude, speaking as if it were obvious and without the slightest hint of concern, Michael nodded, then downed the Sylphid in one go. Then he stared intently at the Aeschlon, whose flavor was just beginning to come into its own.
Only after we had talked about wine and waited for a suitable amount of time to pass did Michael take a sip of the decanted Aeschlon.
“My...”
Greatly surprised by its weighty structure and balance, he looked at me, hesitated for a moment, and then said,
“Would it be possible for me to buy one more bottle of Aeschlon? It’s not for me. There’s someone I truly want to give it to as a gift.”
Seeing the complicated look in his eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to say no.