The Redwood Tasting
A large SUV, having traveled down Highway 101 from Healdsburg, turned onto the road leading toward Napa Valley. Mark Harrington, driving with one hand on the wheel, kept his eyes on the road and spoke quietly.
"Sienna. Do you know why I'm going to this tasting today?"
"Isn't it because you're curious?"
"Half right, half wrong."
Sienna, sitting in the passenger seat, turned her head toward her father.
"If curiosity is half, what's the rest?"
"To succeed in business, knowing what you're good at is half, and grasping what your competitor is good at is the other half. If you miss that, you'll never make it to the end."
"You don't mean you're already considering Redwood Winery a competitor? Didn't Mr. Pearson say Redwood was only 15 acres? That's not even a tenth of our farm."
In terms of scale, it wasn't a tenth—it wasn't even a twentieth. Even Sienna, who had thought Brian was extraordinary, felt it was a bit excessive to call such a place a competitor.
However, Mark chuckled and said,
"Sienna, when you're in business, you can't overlook even the smallest details. Especially for a place like ours—this isn't manufacturing or electronics where you win by scale. Wine is about winning with a brand. Depending on what they make, even a small winery can create value that threatens us."
"Hmm... I understand."
Sienna crossed her arms and nodded.
"Small wineries are agile. Because they're small, they can create more creative and high-end brands. That's why you shouldn't underestimate them. This story about Redwood's cherry wine... honestly, I'm a bit skeptical, but curious. From what Pearson says, he's not a foolish kid, so I keep thinking, 'Why specifically cherry wine?' If it's just like any other existing cherry wine, it wouldn't matter, but if there's something different, we need to watch it carefully."
"Does watching it carefully change anything?"
"Haha, sometimes I wonder who you take after with that cynical personality. Your mother isn't like that."
"Someone above you must have been like this, Dad."
"Well, it would be nice if you developed it into a good business mindset, but that kind of cynicism isn't productive."
"I know. I'll try to fix it."
"That's a good mindset. To answer your question first, a place with a large scale like ours has plenty of capital. And places that are small but powerful have plenty of potential but lack capital. The driving force behind our farm's steady growth for nearly a hundred years is that we value the land above all else and have continuously absorbed wineries with good technology. You know that, right? There's no place in Sonoma that puts out a wider variety of wines than we do."
"I know."
That fact made Sienna shrug her shoulders. In fact, that was the very point she felt a strong sense of pride in.
"That goes back to your grandfather, and his father before him. It wasn't just that their skills were good; whenever they discovered good technology, they would pay a large sum to bring it into the family, no matter what. Doing that has two advantages. One is that the family's technical prowess increases, and the other is that the number of competitors decreases."
"Then if Redwood Winery's technology is good, you're thinking of acquiring them? Isn't that... not fair competition?"
Seeing his daughter's slightly stiff face, Mark stroked her hair with his other hand.
"Sienna, nothing in this world is perfectly fair. Just like the fact that you being born as my daughter isn't fair compared to children born into impoverished families."
"That may be, but..."
"And you need to know this. At first glance, it might look like we're the bad guys for buying technology with large sums of money, but if you get closer and look carefully, you'll find that the side receiving the money actually likes it better. Small farms struggle with loans, living expenses, and labor costs. And they dream of a 'big break' that might come someday. We give them that big break they want so much. Of course, it's a slightly smaller amount than that dream, but they are perfectly satisfied with the large sum of money we give them right now."
"I see. My thinking was short-sighted."
"Yes, you're smart, so you don't give your father anything to worry about."
However, Sienna looked out the window with a feigned pout.
"Tsk, but you only like my brother."
"What are you talking about? I love your brother and you equally. It's just that your brother is much older, so he does more work. It will be different once you graduate."
"Really?"
"I promise."
Only then did Sienna's face brighten a little.
At the entrance to Redwood Farm.
The gravel parking lot was already packed with black SUVs and silver sedans. There were far more vehicles than I had expected.
"This way, please. The tasting starts in 20 minutes, so feel free to look around the farm."
Armando, quick-witted and friendly, was guiding restaurant owners and sommeliers at the entrance.
"How many glasses do we need? If I had known, I should have prepared more."
"We bought enough. If you go inside there, there are boxes of unopened glasses."
"Oh, right. I got it. I need to tell your mother."
My father, seeing the buyers flocking in, hurried to prepare to welcome the guests with an excited face.
"More came than I thought."
I had reached out everywhere, but most of the restaurants I contacted had replied with, "I'll think about it." Usually, when they say they'll think about it, it means a rejection, so I hadn't expected much. But for some reason, more people attended than anticipated.
Outside the winery facility, temporary tables that had been prepared a few days ago were neatly arranged on both sides. We had laid out white linen and decorated the centers with small glass vases filled with wild roses and olive leaves.
"Hello. I'm Woody Choi, the owner of Redwood Farm."
Naturally, it was my father who formally welcomed the guests.
"I'm Theodore Goodwin from Blaise Bistro. I came for two hours because of the talk about a top-tier cherry wine I'd never tasted before. I'm looking forward to it."
The visit from Blaise, a one-star Michelin seafood restaurant in San Francisco, was significant enough to announce Redwood Winery to the world, regardless of the results.
I thought that if it had been any other wine, it might not have drawn this much interest. The curiosity about a cherry wine different from the existing ones must have been what called him here.
"I'm sure the two-hour drive won't be a waste."
After that, the owner of 'La Fiorentina' in downtown Napa, known for its Italian fine dining and well-received pairing menus, and the owner of a natural wine bar popular with the younger generation in Sonoma County called 'The Wine Gallery Bar,' also participated.
In addition to them, restaurant representatives whose names alone were recognizable, such as 'Le Jardin,' which specializes in French cuisine, the high-end steakhouse chain 'Highland Grill,' and 'Vineyard Table,' which operates a wine tour course in Santa Rosa, one by one shook hands with my father and took their seats.
And then...
"Nice to meet you. I heard our child and your child are school alumni. I'm Mark Harrington of Harrington Winery."
The handsome white man was a head taller than my father.
"I'm Woody Choi. All the restaurants Mark introduced have arrived. I don't know how to express my gratitude."
But Mark, seeing the bustling scene in front of the winery, wore a mysterious smile.
"No need for such thanks. It seems you've asked many other places besides me?"
This time, I answered from the side.
"I reached out to them separately. I wanted to talk to as many clients as possible at this tasting."
"I see, so you gave advice to my child? It was very impressive. Thanks to that, Sienna learned about the shortcomings in her wine production. Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Please, go on in."
As I pointed inside, he gave an unreadable smile and walked with Sienna to the table prepared inside.
There were more guests.
"Brian! This is huge! So many people came to the tasting?"
Chloe, who came up with a bright smile, was wearing a floral white dress, and the giant Frederick was following behind her.
"Hello."
"Seeing so many people gathered for a tasting, you must be quite nervous. I'm really looking forward to today."
"Thank you for coming again."
My father and Frederick hugged and shared some conversation. Then, Chloe poked me in the side and said,
"Are you not going to reply to me?"
"In the East, it's polite to greet elders first. You rude Westerner."
"Tsk, they say when in Rome, do as the Romans do."
"Well said. At Redwood Winery, you have to follow the laws of Redwood Winery. Come on in."
Chloe, as if she couldn't win the argument, made a strange face and followed behind me. Frederick, the owner of the cherries, and Chloe had pre-assigned seats, so they sat in the designated seats at the very front.
Since it was before the tasting, people looked around the winery. One side lined with stainless steel fermentation tanks, the oak barrels arranged in a half-moon shape, and even the winery walls that had been newly cleaned for today. Even though it was a simple facility, for those interested in wine, each and every thing was an object of interest.
Some chefs took out their notebooks and wrote something down, and people who looked like shop owners or managers whispered to each other.
"Well, it's time, so..."
As my father received wine from an oak barrel into a large stainless steel decanter, everyone focused their eyes on it.
"Thank you again for coming such a long way. This is Redwood Winery."
Clap, clap, clap!
Applause erupted, and my father bowed with a bright smile. Then, lifting his head again, he pointed to the stainless steel decanter and said,
"What we will give you today is a bit of a special wine. It's the first cherry wine we've made. Usually, when you think of wine, you only think of grapes. But the cherries from Brentwood have a good balance of sugar and acidity, so when the juice is condensed during the fermentation process, it shows a unique aroma and taste that is as good as grapes... no, in some ways, even more original than that."
My father held up the red liquid being poured into a clear glass. The ruby color sparkled in the sunlight.
"This wine is not a sweet dessert liquor. Rather, it contains the vivid aroma characteristic of cherries, subtle roses, and nuances of red fruits, while being dry. We added structure through oak aging, so it will be perfect as a light aperitif or paired with dishes like meat or cheese."
Since it would raise doubts if a mere twenty-year-old stepped up to say he manufactured the wine, I deliberately put my father forward. People were already focused on my father's explanation and falling into it.
I stood at one side of the prepared table and served the cherry wine with my father. The moment I carefully poured it from the stainless steel decanter, the red liquid filled the glass and sparkled under the sunlight. Ruby and crimson colors overlapped and spread out.
"Please, try a glass."
People brought the wine to the tips of their noses with a bit of curiosity. Naturally, the aroma spread into the air, and the scent of ripe cherries, subtle roses, and soft vanilla and spices that seemed to have seeped from the oak filled the space.
"Oh-."
Someone's surprised exclamation wasn't awkward. And the tasting and exclamations continued for a few sips.
"Wow... is this cherry wine?"
"Amazing."
Everyone couldn't hide their surprise on their faces, and some drank it all at once and asked for more. In particular, Mark and Sienna were clearly very surprised by the taste of the cherry wine, which they had never tasted before.
"It's definitely different..."
Mark, who felt that the abilities of this Asian father and son were extraordinary, decided that he should make a move after the tasting was over.
Just as the surprise of the people hadn't faded, someone jumped up. I was surprised to see that it was Frederick, the owner of the cherries.
While everyone was watching in surprise, he suddenly approached me, who was standing next to my father, and put his thick hand on my shoulder as if a bully was shaking me down. And he said quietly,
"Can we talk for a moment... just the two of us? Quietly."
And so, I couldn't watch the reaction of the bosses whose dopamine was exploding anymore, and like a good student caught by a bully, I was quietly dragged into the winery. And Mark was watching that scene from afar, looking flustered.