Chapter 58: Alumni Wine Showcase (1)
TL: Hanguk
March was nearly over and April was approaching. There was a place I'd been keeping a steady eye on all this time, even though I'd left it alone and let the months pass. It was a section of Silver Oak Farm, the one I'd paid a fortune to acquire.
Months had gone by since the wildfire swept through, but that section of Silver Oak Farm still held its ashen memories. Charred tree stumps remained scattered across the land, some crumbled by the wind and scattered back into the dirt.
Yet thanks to the rye and barley I had sown over the winter, bright green shoots had risen up and erased the traces of fire from the desolate ground.
"When I bought this land covered in ashes, I was full of worry, but looking at it now, it's a whole different story. It's really something."
"Right?"
As Dad gazed out over the wide stretch of land, his expression was tinged with anticipation. The sight of the vineyard reduced to cinders was still vivid in his mind, yet the landscape was now putting on a show of green, as if to say things could be different. He must have felt a kind of pride.
I knelt on the dirt and pulled up a rye stalk. When the fresh, healthy roots brushed against my palm, a smile came naturally.
"Look at this. This is proof the soil is alive."
Dad looked at me and let out a soft chuckle.
"You're right. It's healthy. The land seems like it's coming back to life."
"This is just the beginning. I don't think even the To Kalon land was perfect from the start. It became what it is because someone tended it and time did the rest. We can do the same."
"My son's right. We can do it too."
Dad soon climbed onto the tractor fitted with the disc harrow he'd brought along.
"Don't go too deep! It can't go more than 20 centimeters, so please be careful!"
"Got it! I know!"
The tractor let out a heavy roar and began moving along the furrows. The implement turned and churned the rye and barley into the earth, the leaves and stalks mixing with the soil and gradually disappearing. From a distance, it looked like a green field rippling like waves as it turned to brown earth.
Tilling the land with a tractor may look simple, but it requires careful precision. Cover crops decompose underground and supply organic matter, but if they're buried too deep, the lack of oxygen causes them to putrefy instead of decompose, producing gases that can actually harm the roots.
"Watch closely how my Dad tills, the path he follows and the depth he maintains, and make sure you stick to it exactly!"
When I explained the method to the workers who had come along, they nodded.
I followed the path the tractor had taken, then drove a shovel into the ground and scooped up a handful of soil onto my palm. The dirt, once streaked with black ash, had turned a soft brown, flecked throughout with broken rye roots and barley stalks. When I rubbed it lightly between my fingers, I could feel the moisture.
"Good. The basics are in place."
After Dad completed one pass on the tractor, a worker took over for him. Dad smiled at the springy feel of the freshly tilled earth, then scooped up a handful of soil and let it sift through his fingers. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
"This is definitely... not what you'd expect from Silver Oak land that used to be nothing but ash. It looks like soil that's ready for planting."
I opened my bag, pulled out the portable soil testing kit I'd prepared, and Dad watched it closely.
"Is that the testing equipment?"
"Yeah. It's best to take samples right while we're working today. We need to know what the soil looks like before we start altering it artificially."
I shoveled up some soil and dumped it onto a sheet of plastic. The workers paused and glanced over with curious eyes. It was obvious from their faces that they were wondering what this young Asian man was about to do.
Dad asked, arms crossed.
"Can you tell right away?"
"Yes. I can check the pH on the spot, at least. A detailed analysis would need to go to a lab, but this much is enough for the field."
I scooped a handful of soil into a plastic cup and poured in distilled water. I stirred it slowly with a spoon until the soil and water mixed evenly. Once the muddy water had spread into an even, cloudy suspension, I carefully dipped a litmus strip in. After a few seconds, the tip of the paper began to shift color.
"Oh..."
One of the workers watching nearby let out a murmur of admiration. The litmus paper was changing somewhere between green and yellow, a subtle shift. I compared it against the color chart and read off the number.
"It's coming out around pH 5.8."
When I said that, Dad's eyes went wide.
"5.8? Isn't that on the acidic side?"
"It is. If this were grapevines, they'd be very sensitive to that. But luckily, we grew green manure instead of grapes for now, and if we apply compost along with lime, we can bring it up close to neutral. You don't need to teach the workers all of this yourself; just have them adjust the acidity with lime and silica."
"I was going to do that anyway. Even if I tried to explain it, they wouldn't understand. They keep trying to tell me how things should be done, so it's a hundred times better to just give them instructions."
"I figured as much."
I collected soil from another section and ran the same test. This time the color came out slightly different.
"This spot is around pH 6.2. Still on the acidic side, so averaging across the whole area, it's roughly around 6.0."
Dad looked down at the ground with a worried expression.
"So... this land still has a long way to go."
"No, actually, this is a good state. If it had dropped below 5.5, recovery would've taken years. Where it is now, one season of management and it'll come right up. For soil restoration, we're lucky to have this."
"So the soil's on track as is, then... What else?"
"Once April's past, I'll start reinforcing the drainage. So when it rains, the water doesn't pool but soaks in quickly and drains downward. That's the baseline for the To Kalon AVA. After that, I'll lay gravel in the sections where the gravel layer is weak."
"The whole thing?"
I shook my head at Dad, who looked startled.
"No. Just along the rows where we'll plant the vines, about 50cm wide. We dig down 50~80cm, then lay a mix of river gravel, 1~3cm in size, blended with coarse sand at a 7:3 ratio, about 30~40cm thick."
"Hang on, let me write this down."
After confirming he'd diligently written down everything I said, I continued the explanation.
"On top of that, we cover it with 10~20cm of the original loam mixed with mature compost to create a buffer layer. If we tried to lay gravel across the entire property, it'd be a massive construction project and the costs would be outrageous, so doing just the planting rows with partial installation is the best approach."
"So this place will become like To Kalon?"
"There's one more thing we need to add. We have to work in mature compost, a biochar compound fertilizer, and mycorrhiza, so the soil gets packed full of organic matter and microorganisms. Once we do that, this land will be completely transformed."
"We're pouring so much money into this; I really hope we get good results."
"It'll get better. We're following scientific principles. As long as there isn't another wildfire or something..."
"That's exactly what I'm worried about! The farming part goes the way you want, but wildfires don't work like that!"
"Ha ha. This spot's already been hit once. And really, all we can do is always stay prepared for wildfires."
"That's true. But wildfires are terrifying."
"I feel the same way."
I knew that in the future, massive wildfires would sweep through the Napa and Sonoma regions. All I could do was minimize fire damage as much as possible while saving money, so that when the time came, I could buy up the land people would be selling off in the aftermath.
Just then, a rough voice called out from the distance.
"Going well over there?"
I turned to see Elowen Pike waving from beyond the fence, watching us. When Dad and I walked over, his face looked much better than before.
"You're looking well."
Dad mentioned it right away, and Elowen gave a shrug.
"You have to let go of the hard times quickly."
Having gotten his hands on the hefty sum of 1.1 million dollars, the financial pressure that had been weighing on his shoulders was gone, and that seemed to be what had changed his face so much.
"Anyway, you're working hard. Planting cover crops over the winter was an excellent choice. I was going to suggest it, but you're already ahead of the game."
"My son's pretty sharp, you know."
Dad wrapped an arm around my shoulder and smiled proudly.
"Ha ha, what a nice sight. Well then, keep at it. Another fire might come, but that's the fate of us farmers. Overcoming it is part of the job too."
It almost sounded like he was teasing, as if to say, "If another wildfire comes, the land you bought will serve as a nice buffer." Dad must have picked up on it too, but he brushed it off like it was nothing.
"That's right. In that sense, having survived one already, I don't feel all that afraid."
He literally just said it was terrifying...
The fact that Dad had brought up surviving last year's fire seemed to make Elowen's expression stiffen slightly.
"Well... good luck with it. I'm curious to see what becomes of this land myself."
With that, he turned his back on the sturdy fence he'd put up and walked off down the slope.
***
April arrived, and by the time the occasional rains had stopped completely and the ground was drying out, I paid another visit to Jacob's farm in Sacramento.
I slapped Jacob on the back as he stood on the ridge, staring blankly out at the paddies.
"How's it going?"
Startled, Jacob burst into a hearty laugh.
"Ha ha ha! You came? Things are going great!"
Ever since they had decided to build a distillery, Jacob had been brimming with hope.
"You're really pumped up."
"Of course I am. My heart's been pounding nonstop, man."
Coming from a guy his size, saying his heart was pounding just didn't fit the image.
"Don't get too excited already. Once you actually take out the loan, you might start losing your hair from the stress."
"Ha ha ha, my dad was bald, dude. Even if I don't take out a loan, I'm going bald anyway, so it doesn't matter."
"......"
As Jacob's sudden confession plunged my expression into sorrow,
"I'm fine with it, you know? It's manly. When the time comes, I'm gonna grow an awesome mustache and beard like my dad. Won't I look totally tough?"
I think I understood why Jacob was already so excited. A guy who could cheerfully accept going bald wouldn't be fazed by something like anxiety over the future of a distillery.
"... I actually think so too. It'll suit you. What about the permits?"
"I already filed the DSP permit application with the TTB. And just like you said, I applied for a USDA VAPG grant, and the SBA loan review is in progress too."
The loan review alone could take several months, so it was better to get that process started early. Then, once the permit came through, executing the loan was the typical order of things.
"Nice work. Who helped you with the blueprints?"
"I didn't know anyone, so I asked the design department, right? They recommended a firm called Aether & Ground Architects, so I went with them. Since the school referred me and I'm a student, they offered to charge only 3% of the construction cost for the design fee."
"Oh, that's a break."
"This is why connections matter, I guess!"
It was a relief that things were going smoothly, at least so far.
"Glad it's working out. What about the seeding?"
Jacob's face immediately turned serious. He scrunched up his pale features and pointed at the paddy.
"You can see for yourself, but just like you said, when I induced the weed germination, only the weeds sprouted first. So I've been killing them off with herbicide."
What I had taught Jacob was the Stale Seedbed method, where you induce weed germination first and then do the actual seeding. By flooding the paddy with just 2~3cm of shallow water to raise the temperature, the weeds germinate quickly under the sunlight, and that's when you strike preemptively and kill them off.
This method eliminates the first wave of weeds before planting, which can reduce weed pressure by 30~40%. Instead of applying the same herbicide year after year, it lowers the initial weed density and reduces the herbicide load, which has the long-term effect of suppressing herbicide-resistant weeds.
"What about the seeds?"
"I did that the way you said too. Soaked the seeds in 60°C water for about 10 minutes, then cooled them. And I did the Captan disinfection as well."
This, too, was the concept of Seed Disinfection that I had taught him.
It was a preventive measure against Bakanae disease, a blast-disease-type fungus that causes abnormal seedling elongation and significant yield loss, as well as kernel smut and leaf spot disease, which degrade grain quality and reduce milling rates. Back in 2005, only some farms were doing hot water treatment or chemical seed disinfection, but I had told him that if he treated every batch of seed without exception, he could prevent over 80% of early-stage disease.
Jacob's greatest strength was that, despite his appearance, he followed every method I taught him to the letter, without a shred of doubt.
"Good work. Things look like they're on track, so I'll get going."
"What? You just got here and you're already leaving?"
"I just stopped by on my way home from school. Besides, I need to get going."
"Why?"
"I've got to start preparing the vinegar for shipment."
That was right. The vinegar I had started making right after harvesting last year's Cabernet Sauvignon was finally ready to see the light of day. Shall we call it Redwood Vinegar, Season 2?
"I've spent a ton of money, so it's about time to start bringing some in."
With a light step, I got in the car and set off for home, when the phone rang. I answered without thinking, and an unexpected voice came through.
"Brian? You know the Alumni Wine Showcase is in a week, right?"
At Dean Thomas's gentle voice, I tilted my head.
"What about it?"
"I was thinking, how about introducing your winery's products there?"
"Sir? We're not... quite finished yet..."
"Oh, I know that. Just think of it as an opportunity to get the word out about your winery. And this is something just between you and me... but everyone's been curious about your winery."
"Really?"
"That's right. So, how about giving them a preview?"
I bit my lip lightly, then answered in a quiet voice.
"All right. I'll do it."
"Then I'll be looking forward to it."
After the call ended, I pressed harder on the accelerator.
If I was going to be at the showcase, I didn't want to put out a wine that looked half-finished.
"Looks like I've got a lot more to do..."
*****
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