Chapter 89: The Retasting (1)
TL: Hanguk
In May 2006, the early summer weather in Napa Valley was warm and sunny.
Christopher's steps as he visited COPIA (The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts) were as light as the weather, but the moment he saw the enormous banner hanging at the front entrance, a thrill ran through him.
[Judgment of Paris 30th Anniversary Retasting 1976-2006]
There wasn't a single person working in the California wine industry who didn't have high expectations for this event. Christopher was no exception. He was caught between excitement and worry over how the results would turn out this time.
Inside the convention hall, the preparation meeting was in full swing. Wine critics, sommeliers, professors, and journalists had gathered, each holding a freshly printed 'judges' roster' in hand.
The roster, with French and American names lined up side by side, only heightened the tension.
"If Michel Bettane and Jean-Pierre Louang are on the French panel, then Christopher White and Kenneth Lee are on the American side."
"Louang? Isn't that the guy who assisted with the judging back at the original Judgment of Paris?"
"That's right. He was in his thirties back then. Now he's become a French legend."
Amid the murmurs spreading around him, Christopher organized his documents and let out a deep breath. Just being responsible for the tasting at such an event was an enormous burden.
Thirty years ago, a single round of judging had shifted the center of the wine world. Could it happen again this time?
"Mr. White."
The one calling him from behind was the aide to the NVV Association President. The aide handed Christopher the schedule for the day of the event and spoke.
"You mentioned you'll be distributing Redwood Winery's Sylphide for this 'New Blood of Napa', correct?"
"That's right. If you let me know anything regarding Redwood, I'll pass it along."
"Excellent. The event program starts at 9:30. There's a panel talk on the topic 'After Judgment: Where Does Napa Go Next?' Then from 11:00 there's the New Generation Wine Tasting Session, where 2004/2005 vintages will be tasted, with each producer giving a three-minute presentation. Redwood will be included in that."
"Oh, I see."
The 2004 vintage meant they could showcase Echelon and Sylphide, both Double Gold winners, so it would essentially be Redwood's solo stage. The only regret was that, while the tasting itself was one thing, hoping for an explosive sales bump on the back of this event would be hard, since they had almost no remaining inventory.
In any case, looking at the participating wineries, none stood out particularly.
Silver Oak Winery
Duckhorn Estate
Redwood Winery
He liked it even more that Redwood was last in the lineup.
"Each winery will likely try to highlight their strengths. Could you tell me what Redwood's strength is?"
"For now... I haven't been able to confirm that part myself."
"Can't be helped. By the way, the day before the retasting, there's a seminar called Legacy & Innovation co-hosted by Napa Valley Vintners & Wine Institute, where young winemakers will showcase barrel samples and demonstrate new blending techniques."
"Is that so?"
"Would you perhaps...?"
Christopher waved a hand with a regretful expression.
"From what I know, almost all of their finished wine has been sold out, so there's nothing they could really put forward as a barrel sample."
"My goodness... Redwood Winery certainly deserved both Double Gold awards."
"Indeed. And they probably won't be participating in the new blending technique demonstration either."
From Christopher's view, Brian wasn't the type to constantly show off his abilities. If he had been, he'd have stepped forward himself from the very beginning, instead of letting his father do it.
In particular, when Christopher had asked back at Grendel Hill Vineyard how Brian had built Sylphide's structural feel, Brian had answered as if reluctant to share. Christopher hadn't shown it on his face, but it had quietly stunned him.
A Brian like that would clearly never want to put his blending techniques on display in front of a crowd.
"That's a shame. Anyway, the mood will shift quite a bit depending on the retasting results, but please tell him to prepare well regardless."
"Understood. I'll pass that along."
If they came away victorious from this retasting, set up to re-evaluate the same vintage wines used in the 1976 Judgment of Paris, the momentum would clearly draw even more attention to the upcoming 'New Blood of Napa.'
At that moment, in Redwood Winery's lab, only the quiet whirr of the cooler filled the room as I sat staring at the computer monitor with a pen in one hand and coffee in the other.
Two data sheets were displayed side by side on the screen.
[Heart Vineyard]
[Grendel Hill Vineyard]
Harvest was still a long way off, but I needed to organize my thoughts before the season arrived. If I had the direction of the wine set before the grapes ripened, I could start the aging process quickly. If I waited until the grapes came in to start figuring out which way to take the wine, I'd burn through a lot of time.
Several printed sheets were scattered next to the laptop, each row noting hours of sunlight, humidity, wind speed, soil iron content, and organic matter. A small flavor mapping (Flavor Map) chart sat on the desk as well.
This was a chart I had made myself.
The horizontal axis was sunlight hours, the vertical axis was acidity, and each dot was the coordinate of an aroma I could draw out of the grapes. 'Cherry' sat at the center, 'vanilla' at the lower right, and 'spice' marked the upper corner.
I was trying to pin down the flavor of the wine I wanted to make, exactly the way I used to do it back at the lab.
"Something different from Sylphide..."
For other wines, I had only been thinking about producing something appropriate by drawing on memories from before my regression, but after accepting Mr. Grendel's request, I couldn't approach it that way. Maybe my competitive streak was kicking in?
While I was deeply absorbed in research like that, Dad's voice came from outside.
"Brian! Your friends are here."
I looked up at the clock and saw three hours had already gone by. When I hurried out, Chloe, Armando, and Jacob were all in the office.
"Figures, the winemaker heading off to the 30th anniversary retasting is always busy."
Armando spoke in a tone that was either teasing or not, and beside him, Chloe narrowed her eyes and glared at me.
"You invited everyone? And here I thought you only invited me..."
As I quietly turned my head away, Jacob defended me on my behalf.
"He originally only invited you, but Armando got wind of the retasting from the association and called Brian right away. Heh heh heh... You should've seen how upset he was that we weren't invited."
Arms crossed and nodding, Armando actually shot Chloe a sharp look and said,
"Isn't that obvious? I got close to Brian way before you did. Like she's been buddy-buddy with him forever..."
"Oh please! What does the order matter?"
"It does matter. And you might not know this, but Asians are naturally sensitive about order and age. Right?"
He suddenly handed the baton over to me.
"Well, I mean... it depends on the situation..."
"See, he agrees!"
"How is that agreeing!"
At that moment, Dad stepped in and brought out the snacks he'd already set aside in the office.
"Stop arguing and just talk while you eat. Want some wine? You're all over twenty-one now, so it's fine, right?"
"I drove here, so I'll pass."
"I'll have some, I don't live far."
Only Armando took the wine; the rest stuck with juice. Honestly, Armando's farm in Aguna Creek was over thirty minutes away by car, but that area was practically countryside, and barely anyone around here would call a few glasses of wine drunk driving.
That was because most of the great folks living in this neighborhood treated wine as just another beverage.
Of course, in Armando's case, it wasn't simply that he drank wine like water. The bigger reason was that he never turned down a chance to drink our winery's wine.
"What are you giving me?"
"I've got a few barrels of Echelon left."
He was talking about the barrels we kept aside without selling, to preserve the winery's history.
"Oh yeah, this is exactly why I want to come over more often!"
"How about the vinegar? It's about time to launch, isn't it?"
Armando broke into a satisfied smile.
"Yeah. Mr. Anderson reached out at exactly the right moment. He said there are tons of customers waiting now. We've got shelf-placement offers from three supermarket chains and two department store chains. So we're going to bump the price up a bit, and since there are some idle oak barrels at the winery, we're planning to age part of the vinegar and release it as a premium line."
"Oh, that's a good idea."
"My mom and stepdad were worried at first, but they're at ease now thanks to all the orders coming in."
"How's the vinegar coming along?"
"That's exactly why I brought some."
As if he'd been waiting for the question, Armando pulled a small vinegar bottle from his bag, and the moment he popped the cap, a tangy, deep grape aroma spread through the office. I grabbed a teaspoon from the office, poured a little vinegar onto it, and tasted it.
"Hmm, this is pretty good."
"Right?"
"The Merlot in there gives it just a slightly different flavor from before, but that's not a bad thing. It's really good. If you age it in an oak barrel for another six months from this point, it'll get even deeper."
At my praise, Armando's mouth split into a grin as wide as a basket.
"Great, great. Once the oak-aged vinegar launches, I'll send some to you first."
"Me too."
"Send me some too."
Not just Jacob; even Chloe, who'd been bickering with him moments ago, jumped at the chance.
"Don't worry. I'll send some. In return, do a little promotion for me with the people around you."
"Of course."
All four of us friends were essentially running our own businesses, so promoting each other's ventures was a given.
Next, Jacob pulled a bottle out of the paper bag he'd brought with him.
"Can you taste this for me?"
Armando immediately showed interest.
"What's this?"
"It's a premium soju I made using the recipe Brian taught me a while back."
"Different from 'The One', right?"
"That one feels like a refined vodka, almost pure alcohol, but this is a soju with a strong grain aroma. The moment you drink it, the scent alone is completely different."
"Let's give it a try. Open it up."
When Jacob opened the bottle and poured the liquor into a glass, a rich grain aroma drifted out.
"Feels different from sake too, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but I wanted to know what you think."
When I lifted the glass and took in the aroma first, instead of the sharp punch of alcohol that vodka delivered, this was much softer; a subtle scent rising from the rice settled in heavily. Then I slowly took a sip, and the texture in my mouth was astonishingly smooth, with a faint sweetness lingering long on the finish.
"This is good."
"Really?"
"Hmm..."
But seeing my expression, as if something more was coming, Jacob tensed up. If he were just a student learning at school, I would have stopped here, but this was a product being sold to consumers, so I spoke honestly about what was lacking.
"Good, very good. But... it needs just a bit more refinement. Right now the aromas overlap slightly, so what you get isn't complexity but layering. Keep the grain aroma, but try cutting the mid-layer alcohol scent by just 5%."
"Cut the alcohol?"
"No, not the distillation temperature... I mean shorten the 'lead time'. Trim three minutes off the time between distillation and cooling, so you cool it down right away before the volatile aroma compounds escape. If you do that, the aroma in the first sip will come through much more clearly. As it is now, it's fine for people who already enjoy soju, but to someone trying it for the first time, it might come off as a little flat."
Jacob nodded repeatedly.
"Okay, I can try that right away. I'll give it a shot."
"Good. Have you decided on a name?"
"Not yet... You decide it later. I feel like this one should have a name that you choose."
"Sure, I'm looking forward to it. But this isn't familiar to Westerners, so don't expect it to take off from the start the way The One did."
"I know. The One alone is bringing in plenty of sales as it is. It's amazing and rewarding to see rice from my farm turned into something like this. Lately even my mom has a glass before bed, you know?"
Armando jumped in with a joke.
"She'll end up an alcoholic in her old age. Stop her."
"You think?"
Shaking his head at Jacob's pleased expression, Armando turned to look at me and asked,
"How do you think this retasting is going to go?"
"Who knows."
I knew the result, but I didn't say.
"Yours is the day after the main tasting wraps up, right?"
"Yeah."
"So when I go, I'll get to see both you and Elaina."
"Elaina?"
When I tilted my head in confusion, Armando shot me a look like he couldn't believe I didn't know.
"Seriously, you didn't even check which wineries are participating that day?"
"Didn't really feel the need... wait, don't tell me...?"
"Yeah, when I looked into it, Silver Oak Winery was on the list. I was the only one getting all excited about it."
Now that I thought about it, I had vaguely heard that Silver Oak's wine from last year was pretty decent.
"Huh."
"It's not just a 'huh' for you. I called and asked around, you know? Apparently Mr. Pike isn't the one representing Silver Oak."
"Huh? Then who?"
"It's Elaina."
She'd been quietly attending school since the wildfire incident... but this time, even I couldn't help being a little surprised.
*****
Join our Discord for announcements or to report any mistakes.