Chapter 112: Decanter World Wine Awards (3)
TL: Hanguk
The Conrad St. James Hotel, London.
Under a gray sky, rain fell beyond the windows. Inside the grand ballroom, dozens of round tables had been arranged at even intervals, and on the white tablecloths sat clean sets of wine glasses, ice buckets, and scoring sheets, all lined up side by side.
At each table waited a Chair, a helper, and an assistant to serve the wine.
Christopher White sat quietly in the waiting room, watching the live feed on a monitor, an entry confirmation slip marked with his participation number in his hand.
Echelon 2005.
Sylphide 2005.
Both bottles had gone into the cooler bearing nothing but a barcode. No label, no name, no indication of origin... only the aroma and lingering finish, once poured into the glass, would prove these wines' identity. He was rather tense, though none of it showed on his face.
Thomas asked in a low voice beside him.
"You're excited, aren't you?"
"We came here to promote, not to win awards."
It was the same thing he'd said before, but Thomas, undaunted, spoke with a glint in his eyes.
"Still, a good result wouldn't hurt, would it?"
"Ha, that's true. But we can't forget that the most important things about entering this competition are promoting Redwood and building our company's connections."
A good showing for the wines they'd entered would be welcome, but forging good relationships with the various distributors and wineries taking part, and through them securing and distributing fine wines down the road, that was the work that would serve the company's future.
Christopher's gaze drifted to the monitor. On the screen, the judges were taking their seats at the judging table one by one. England, France, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia... by nationality alone, the Old World homelands of wine and the New World were all gathered in one place.
The glasses were arranged in three rows, and the lights were dimmed slightly.
The competition had begun.
Nine o'clock sharp.
The first session, New World Cabernet Blend – Vintage 2005. Among them was Echelon 2005.
Peter Dawson, the Chair, raised his glass and brought it to the tip of his nose. After quietly taking in the aroma, he gave a short nod.
"Nicely balanced. The line between black cherry and spice is distinct."
The French judge beside him swirled his glass and said,
"The minerality is impressive. The oak isn't overpowering. There's a refined sense of structure to it."
The female judge from New Zealand smiled faintly.
"And yet the texture is firm. Less tropical fruit, more of a European feel, I'd say."
The scores were written down on each of their sheets.
Between 91 and 94.
Numbers like that put it firmly in the top tier. But the judges soon shifted their attention to the next wine and carried on with the tasting.
Lunchtime, the restaurant on the hotel's ground floor. The wineries, distributors, and other people involved in the competition had gathered in small clusters to eat.
"The American wines are unusually strong this year."
"I've even heard rumors the DWWA favors California."
"Ha, I suppose the Judgment of Paris isn't over yet."
Christopher, eating quietly, fought to suppress the smile creeping across his face despite himself. As a wine critic, he knew perfectly well just how good Echelon and Sylphide were. So he kept reminding himself that there was no need to take pleasure in anyone else's assessment, working to settle the excitement that wanted to rise in him.
"Excuse me... aren't you Christopher White?"
A woman approached him as he ate. In her mid-thirties, wearing a black off-shoulder dress, she spoke with a striking British accent that made it clear she was English.
"Yes, that's me, but..."
"A pleasure. I'm Eliza Wadsworth. I run Wadsworth & Co. Wine Merchants, based in London."
Christopher shook her hand and gestured to the seat across from him. Without hesitation, she sat down opposite him and smiled.
"I heard you'd brought Sylphide and Echelon, the wines that are rather hot in the States these days, so I'm afraid I'm intruding. You don't mind?"
"Not at all. I've long heard of Wadsworth & Co.'s reputation, so the honor is mine."
Wadsworth & Co., a traditional London wine distributor with seventy years of history, was a name that Christopher, both a wine critic and a distributor himself, could not possibly have failed to know.
That someone who looked so young was the head of a company with such a long history made it plain that her parents must have handed it down to her while they were still relatively young themselves.
"As I understand it, you work as both a wine critic and a distributor. Is that right?"
"Yes. I love wine so much that my whole life revolves around it."
"Ha, well, for me it's been a life with wine going all the way back to my grandparents, so it's nothing new. The truth is, I've been interested in American wines for a long time. A fair amount of American wine sells in England even now, and the most impressive of them all would have to be the wines from Napa."
"Mondavi would be the best-seller, I'd imagine?"
Eliza let out a light laugh.
"That's right. And when the results of the thirtieth-anniversary Judgment of Paris re-tasting came out, interest in American wine shot up sharply here in England. Honestly, plenty of Britons were quietly delighted by how that event turned out."
"I understand. There's bound to be a lot of old history and feeling still lingering."
"... At any rate, last year's event left a deep impression on us, our interest in American wine has grown, and we're looking for a wider, fresher range of it. And among them, the Echelon you've brought is exactly the sort of thing that makes me want to try it for myself."
"Was Sylphide not to your taste?"
She waved a hand.
"I've already had that one, in New York. It struck me as a wine that condenses everything good about Pinot Noir to the extreme."
"Ahh."
"I expect the results of this competition will be perfectly good as well. It's only that I haven't tried Echelon, which makes me all the more curious about it."
"Unfortunately, the winery isn't large, so three thousand cases was the whole of it."
"That's just the thing."
"Even knowing that, are you interested in the distribution rights for Echelon and Sylphide?"
She composed her expression and spoke in a serious tone.
"First I'd like to hear a bit about it, since I have almost no information on the winery. I have to know something before I can even think about importing."
For Christopher, who held the distribution rights, telling her every last fact was hardly the wise course. He didn't hold anything like a ten-year exclusive, so trusting the woman across from him and spilling every little detail was, from the company's standpoint, no good thing.
But if he clammed up entirely, no deal would come of it. So he had to find the perfect point of balance.
"Redwood Winery is a young operation without much history, but its technical skill is outstanding. Of course, being part of Napa Valley, it has a superb terroir, but it isn't a place that makes wine on that alone."
"I know Sylphide was produced through contract winemaking. That's the only way a Napa Valley winery could make a wine from Russian River Valley grapes."
"Correct. The thing is, the farm they own isn't large in itself. Sixty acres in total, if that? It's such a small operation that, for the time being, I don't see it growing much beyond three thousand cases."
Eliza frowned at the bad news.
"Oh dear... I see."
It meant that even if the wine did well this time, there would be next to nothing available for her to import, and so she couldn't help feeling disappointed.
"If you'd rather look for a different wine, I think I could introduce you to one."
Perhaps because she was a coolheaded businesswoman, she waved the offer off at once.
"No. A wine of a different character isn't hard to come by. If there's ever a wine you'd like to import from Europe, I can put you in touch. And should you find yourself needing anything later on, do feel free to reach me at the company email anytime. A proposal from you, Mr. White, I'd consider first of all."
It was a thoroughly formal remark that committed her to nothing at all.
"The feeling is mutual. It was a pleasure to meet you."
Once Eliza Wadsworth had left the table like that, Thomas, who had kept his mouth shut at Christopher's side the whole time, only watching the mood, spoke up.
"She says her piece and just sweeps off. Feels like she's flat-out looking down on us. 'Reach me by email', honestly..."
"They've got tons of connections in the wine world and serious clout. She probably wouldn't have given us a second thought if she hadn't tried Sylphide herself. That's the only reason she got curious about Echelon and came over in person."
"So you said three thousand cases was the limit on purpose, then?"
"Because it also happens to be true."
He picked up his fork again and murmured with an unreadable look in his eyes.
"For now, anyway..."
A few days later, I stood in the middle of the Silver Oak Farm I'd taken over, looking at the grapevines that had already grown to my chest, some even taller. It was a sight that brought a smile to my face all on its own.
"Wowww, how did you pull this off? It really is different, isn't it?"
Chloe looked around the farm and let out a cry of admiration. I'd switched the variety on the cherry orchard too, and for the pear orchard I'd torn up an old tomato field entirely and planted trees, so figuring it would be useful to her, I'd brought her out to show her around.
"It's all my blood and sweat in there. Plus a fair bit of money, of course."
"It's hard to believe there was a wildfire here. And the vines are in such great shape, you can practically feel the vitality, since they're young. But you only planted them a little while ago, how did they grow this tall?"
"Normally, when you plant Cabernet Sauvignon saplings and tend them well for a year or more, they climb up the trellis to about 1.5 meters. The trunk thickens to about the width of a thumb. This is right about where it should be."
When I tapped the lower part of the trunk with my finger, it gave off a heavy, resonant knock.
"The nutrition's good, so it does feel a bit faster here than elsewhere."
"That one over there even has grapes on it. They're coming out already?"
"Those aren't proper grapes. They're less about commercial value than about checking the condition of the farm. Next year some of the vines can reach fruit set, but that's just a test harvest, and from the year after that we should be able to produce a little under a ton per acre."
"Did you do the soil exactly the way you told us about?"
"It's a little different from that. The biochar compound fertilizer... you remember when we made all that charcoal back then, right?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"That, plus, you know how within Napa Valley the To Kalon area around Oakville is famous? So I laid down gravel here as well, to make the soil drain well, like in that region."
Chloe's eyes went wide with surprise.
"The whole place?"
"Not the whole thing. See how the vines here are all lined up in straight rows? I built up the soil along these lines, and while it's not perfect, I've made it pretty convincing. The biochar went down along the vine rows too."
"Wow... that's amazing. So you've got it all perfectly set up."
"With farming, the land matters enormously. Part of why To Kalon is famous is its gravelly loam with outstanding drainage, so I mimicked that, and I laid down as many microorganisms as I could too. Even I think I'll have to wait a few years to see how this turns out."
At my explanation, Chloe crouched down, scooped up a handful of soil, and let it run through her fingers, feeling its texture.
"On the surface it doesn't seem all that different, but it's fascinating."
"You'd usually think land like this would be incredibly fertile, but surprisingly it isn't."
"Huh? Really?"
"If it's too fertile, the grapes don't come out the way you want them to. The funny thing about grapes is that, water included, they need to be a little deprived to turn out high quality."
Chloe tilted her head, then broke into a soft grin.
"It's just like people. Compared to someone who has everything, someone who lacked something and ends up striving to achieve it seems to become a good person in the end."
"Right. That's what's so fascinating about it."
Just then, my phone rattled with an impatient buzz. When I answered, the voice was a very familiar one.
"Brian! The results are in!"
At the somehow giddy tone in Christopher's voice, I found myself glancing over at Chloe.
*****
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