Chapter 70: Echelon (3)
TL: Hanguk
The news that Redwood Winery had released a Cabernet Sauvignon-based premium red wine spread faster than expected. Word traveled from one industry mouth to another, and before long the rumor had reached restaurants, wine bars, and even the East Coast.
Echelon.
That name alone was enough to pique the curiosity of people in the business, and Christopher White, the critic at Wine Review West, was no exception.
"Let's go. I made a reservation tonight."
Since it wasn't any particular anniversary, Jane widened her eyes and asked.
"What's this about? What wine are you hunting for this time?"
His intentions read in an instant, Christopher quietly shifted his gaze.
"It's been a while. It'd be nice to have a date and set the mood a little."
"So it's not me first, it's the wine first."
"One thing's for sure, the person I love is you. Wine is just the catalyst that deepens our love. Sure, wine is my hobby and my job, but isn't that a good thing?"
"Ugh, the smooth talk... Fine, shall we go? Where to?"
"That place we liked before."
"Ah! Cerasia!"
"Exactly."
"Great!"
That evening, when the two stepped into the restaurant and briefly gave their name to the manager, they were shown to their table right away.
"We'll take two of the B course with the Filet Mignon, please. Could you recommend a wine?"
He deliberately avoided naming the wine, curious to see what would come. Without hesitation, the sommelier Sophia answered.
"We have a new red wine that just came in, and our guests have been very pleased with it. The solid structure of the Cabernet Sauvignon will pair beautifully with the steak."
"The name...?"
"It's Echelon."
Confirming that this was indeed the wine he'd been hearing about, Christopher smiled.
"Please."
"I'll have it prepared."
Before the course arrived, Sophia brought the Echelon over and presented it to Christopher. Jane looked at the bottle's label with wide eyes.
"Echelon? Does that mean 'a step upward' or something? Even the name feels classy."
"It does."
The heavy pop of the cork being drawn stirred the quiet air. The moment it was poured into the decanter, the red liquid flowed down the glass wall, shedding a soft glow.
After that came the appetizer, then the starter, and finally the main course: the steak. Once they had dipped the tender filet into the wine sauce and eaten, the couple lifted the glasses of wine and slowly tilted them.
The deep scent of blackcurrant, the sweet fragrance of ripe plums, and the faint char of oak struck his senses in a single instant.
"......"
When he held the first sip in his mouth, his tongue trembled. A tightly woven structure, tannins that were by no means rough, and a lingering, understated acidity. Considering Redwood's short history, the maturation was unbelievable. The long finish that unfurled softly in the mouth was no different from that of a fine Napa wine.
He set his glass down and said nothing for a long while. A subtle astonishment crossed his eyes, and then his lips tightened. Shock and suppressed anger rushed in together.
"... Are they out of their minds?"
What lay beneath his low murmur wasn't admiration but anger. To possess such exceptional skill, such potential, and yet...
"Wow, this is really something. Glad we came tonight."
Jane was thoroughly pleased, but she tilted her head at her boyfriend's stiffened expression.
"What? Something wrong?"
"It's just absurd."
"What's absurd?"
"You know what? The winery that made this wine... they made this with only half of the grapes they had. Do you know what they did with the other half?"
"What did they do?"
"They made vinegar."
"Vinegar? Why?"
"In the name of keeping the winery running stably."
"Really? Why would they do that? If it were me, no matter how hard it got, I'd have taken out loans to ride it out somehow. With a wine like this, you'd pay them off in no time."
"That's exactly what I'm saying. They can produce something like this, and... vinegar."
He picked up the glass again and forced out a laugh, but the laughter couldn't hide its bitterness. He took another sip. And another. The more he drank, the more certain he became. This wasn't some sudden fluke from a fledgling winery. Redwood had clearly chosen its direction. Echelon was the proof.
When he sliced another piece of meat and swallowed it with the wine, the smoky char lingered in his mouth, and the oak aroma of the Echelon enveloped it. A harmony that felt like a single, seamless whole. For a moment, his hand trembled. It was a perfect pairing.
Even after draining his glass, he stared absently at what was left in the decanter. Anger, astonishment, and a respect he didn't want to admit were all tangled together.
'This tiny winery... and an Asian, not even an American, made a wine like this...'
Whether he was angry that such fine grapes and craft had been turned into vinegar, or that the winery's owner was Asian, even he couldn't tell, but strangely, anger welled up inside him.
"Anyway, the wine itself is excellent, right?"
Jane, oblivious to his inner turmoil, smiled brightly as she drank her wine, and he forced an awkward smile in return.
Late that night, back home, Christopher White recalled the confused emotions he had felt at the restaurant and turned on his laptop.
To think quality like this could come from barely over a year of aging... and on top of that, the man who made it was a young Asian. He didn't want to believe it, but the finish still lingering in his mouth was unraveling his denial.
His fingers slowly began to tap the keyboard.
【Redwood Winery, "Echelon" 2004】
- I have previously mentioned Redwood Winery while reviewing their cherry wine, Cerasia. That same Redwood Winery has now, for the first time, released a blended red wine based on their own estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon.
Echelon
Despite a maturation period of less than a year, the wine already displays a startling balance. On the nose, deep blackcurrant, ripe plum, and a subtle oak smokiness layer quietly over one another. The first sip reveals a firm structure, yet the tannins are not excessive; they are polished and smooth. An understated acidity erects the wine's backbone and leaves a long finish.
The harmony with food is especially impressive. When paired with charcoal-grilled steak or herb-roasted lamb, the wine forms a pairing so perfect it is as though it were born for the dish.
Even as a first vintage, 'Echelon' shows a level of completeness fully comparable to the established mid-tier wineries of Napa Valley. How much further this winery will grow in the future is worth watching closely.
Score: 90 / 100
As he typed the period, Christopher unconsciously exhaled a long breath. Ninety points. It was by no means a light score. Readers would be surprised, but above all he was surprised at himself. Because of his principle of evaluating objectively, he couldn't force the score down.
In truth, 92 or higher would have been possible. But his own pride wouldn't allow it.
He stared at the screen for a long while, then added one more line.
- If there is one question left behind, it is the fact that a winery possessing such exceptional craft turned half of their premium Cabernet Sauvignon into vinegar. That choice still remains difficult to understand, yet today's 'Echelon', as if mocking that past, declares a new possibility for Napa Valley.
That line alone laid his inner feelings bare. Anger, confusion, and a respect he had barely managed to press down. With the cursor hovering over the send button, Christopher hesitated for a moment, then clicked and sent the article off.
Echelon had been released, but with the distributor sitting in the middle, there wasn't really much for me to do. All I had to do was manage irrigation for the upcoming harvest and prepare for possible wildfires.
September is basically a month when wildfires break out all over California, so there's really no such thing as a time to relax. I cleared the area around the farm with the tractor and checked the weather and fire status every few hours.
But those weren't the only things on my plate.
With Redwood's flagship, Echelon, now out on the market, the farm's finances had started to have some breathing room, which meant I couldn't just sit still.
"Let's go, Dad!"
"Right."
I packed up my laptop, Oakton's portable acidity measurement kit, and the portable spectrophotometer (Mini Spectrophotometer). Then Dad and I set out from the farm in the morning and arrived at our destination.
The venue had been temporarily decorated to look like a small village. A banner reading [Napa Harvest Gala & Barrel Auction] hung at the entrance, and at the reception desk, staff in sleek suits were checking invitations and fastening ribbon bracelets around guests' wrists.
Dad glanced around and let out a low whistle.
"Wow... this is grand. It's more like a festival than an auction."
"Right. At this Barrel Auction, Napa wineries put up their unreleased vintage barrels."
"Ah, so it's not aimed at individual consumers, but at people in the winery trade?"
"Exactly."
Once past the entrance, a festival-like mix of liveliness and tension hit us at the same time. Winery owners, importers, restaurant sommeliers, and even members of the press were all gathered together, exchanging greetings threaded with laughter. Well-tailored suits and dresses, and jackets pinned with winery-logo name tags stood out everywhere.
Each person's specific criteria would be different, but fundamentally everyone shared the same goal: to find the barrel they wanted.
"So what are you looking for here?"
I looked over at a long table set up on one side of the venue. Small glass decanters and tasting glasses sat on it, and young wines drawn straight from the barrel were lined up, each marked only with a small paper label bearing the vintage year and the winery's name.
"Back when we did the blending, we went with a wine that was decent enough from the place Mr. Pierce Morgan over at the Agricultural Extension Office introduced us to, right?"
"Right."
"But if you really break it down, that can't exactly be called a perfect combination."
"Not perfect? You see the reviews Echelon is getting, right?"
Dad asked, as if he couldn't quite believe it. And in fairness, Dad wasn't wrong. John, our distributor, had been personally delivering Echelon to restaurants and wine bars, and the feedback he relayed to Dad was, almost unanimously, that the value for money was outstanding.
Echelon's wholesale price was $30, and while John Anderson distributed it at $37, in restaurants it was being sold for $80 to $100.
That price range sits in the premium category, but is still reachable enough that it's also called Accessible Premium. Getting praised for Value for Money in that range basically meant you were delivering high-end quality at a relatively reasonable price.
"I know. But if it can come out better, shouldn't we try? We could sell it at a higher price later, too."
"If that's doable, sure."
"That's what we're here to look for. I'll raise the quality of our Cabernet Sauvignon, which holds the main blending position at over 80 percent, on my own. But if we source the best possible pieces for the rest here, wouldn't combining them create even more synergy?"
"Won't that be expensive, though?"
"If it's too expensive, we give it up."
At my cool reply, Dad nodded. Really, as anywhere else, cheap and good rarely coexist. Still, the reason I was interested came down to this: the flavor of wine now and a year from now are not the same, and even an expert would find it hard to clearly see that shift.
What others struggled to notice, I could predict to some extent with scientific analysis equipment. So it was with the hope of finding a good barrel on the cheap that I stepped into the huge warehouse-style building.
"This is something else."
Once inside, the enormous hall looked like a wine expo. Each winery had set up a small booth, with barrel samples poured into decanters, ready for tasting.
As we wove between the barrels, snippets of conversation drifted in.
"I heard the Pantesca lot went for up to five thousand dollars per barrel last year."
"The Rutherford barrels are hot this time, so I'm headed there."
Dad's eyes widened at "a thousand dollars per case."
"I guess even cult-tier wines take part?"
"I hear wines at ten thousand a case show up from time to time, too."
"Ten thousand a case? Wow..."
"But barrels from less well-known places usually get ignored."
"Makes sense... from the outside, it's an unfinished wine, so without a name behind it, people would pass on it easily."
"But if you manage to turn a cheap barrel from a lesser-known place into a success? You stand to make a huge profit. That's why everyone in the industry gathers here."
"Ahh..."
"Shall we start tasting, ready to drink every wine in this place?"
And so Dad and I started working our way through the hall. Dad tried each one and wrote down his impressions, but I was doing something a little different. While Dad drank the wine, I used the portable measuring instruments I'd brought to check the wine's acidity, color, polyphenols, and tannin concentration.
Then we arrived at the Kenaz Vineyards booth. People were finishing their tastings and walking off without asking any further questions.
"It's a killer Merlot. Why don't you give it a try?"
A woman who looked to be in her fifties was standing in front of a large barrel, promoting it enthusiastically as she held out the decanter. Dad extended his glass, took a sip, and then slightly knit his brow, apparently finding it quite astringent.
His face said something wasn't quite right, which probably explained why no one was lingering at this booth. But I stuck the portable spectrophotometer into the wine Dad had tasted and measured the readings, and...
"Huh?"
After checking the spectrophotometer's numbers, I quietly led Dad away from the booth. A while later, Dad showed me the notebook where he had jotted down the booths he'd rated well on his own.
"This one was pretty good... Probably pricey, though, right?"
"Probably?"
And at the appointed time, the auction began.
*****
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