Farm Upgrades (1)
After the barbecue party ended and Brian had left for home, Frederick stepped outside and sat on a bench, already nursing his third glass of Serasia.
“Just how much are you planning to drink?”
At the sound of his daughter’s voice from behind, Frederick didn’t even turn his head, choosing instead to stare at the moon.
“My daughter, you were so sweet when you were little, but now all you do is nag.”
“I only nag because there’s something to nag about. Mom is already passed out from the wine, and Brandon is, well...”
It seemed they had all taken quite a liking to the cherry wine; even Chloe’s mother and Brandon had already succumbed to it. Chloe had also had quite a bit, her face flushed, but she was far from being dead drunk.
“Are you worried about what Brian proposed?”
“How could I not be? This isn’t like some simple deal where I get $700,000 in exchange for providing cherries for ten years and splitting the profits. The future of this farm is at stake.”
Chloe sat down next to her father.
“I don’t see it as being any different.”
“How can you say that? Even a slight change in farming methods can completely alter the ecosystem. Have you forgotten when Mr. Raymond messed up the fertilizer and the mites swarmed? A whole year’s harvest can hinge on such small differences.”
“Dad, it was Brian who fixed that mistake. And he pursues scientific farming more than anyone else I know.”
“I know. That’s why I’m agonizing over it. If anyone else had suggested this, I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought.”
“So, you’re not worried about the profits, but rather that it might fail?”
“Exactly. The profits have always been like this, so even if I give away 30% for 30 years, what’s the loss? I could just sit back and comfortably collect 70% of the increased earnings.”
As Frederick fretted, Chloe leaned in close.
“Just trust him. You were going to give it to me anyway.”
“You think it’s already yours? I’ll write it in my will. That the Harris farm goes to Chloe. Delta Grove will go to Brandon. But not right now.”
“But think about it. What kind of farm do you want to pass on to your daughter? A cherry farm that stays stable but never grows? Or one that grows every single year? It’s going to be my farm after you’re gone, so it’s not strange for me to start caring about it now.”
“I wouldn’t be agonizing if I were sure it would grow. I tasted the wine, which is why I was willing to throw in $70,000, but this... what exactly do you see in that kid that makes you trust him so much?”
Chloe thought for a moment before answering.
“Hmm... his passion for farming? He doesn’t really talk about anything other than farming. He doesn’t seem interested in pop music, games, sports, or even girls. It’s like his entire focus is geared toward agriculture.”
“......”
“How could I not trust someone like that? When Brian says he’ll help our farm, I get so excited. I’m just dying to see how it’ll change...”
Seeing the sparkle in his daughter’s eyes, Frederick realized there was no helping it. And strangely, he had to admit that her words carried weight.
“*Sigh*, alright.”
“Hm? Really?”
“Yes. But I’m going to be the one to draft the contract this time. Honestly, I’m a little scared.”
“Make it a good one. Though Brian won’t be a pushover.”
“I’ve dealt with that kind of thing more than you have. *Sigh*, I wish Brandon would do even half as well as Brian.”
At the mention of her brother, Chloe’s expression shifted instantly, and she let out a scoff.
“Hmph! He couldn’t do it even if he tried his whole life!”
“......”
Sonoma County, Harrington Winery.
Inside the aging room lined with oak barrels, Mark Harrington sat with a heavy expression. The wine in his glass shimmered with a deep purple hue, but he muttered in agony.
“No... this isn’t it.”
What he wanted was the three-month-old Pinot Noir he had tasted at Redwood Winery a few days ago. The balance was simply unbelievable. The tannins, acidity, and fruit notes were already perfectly integrated. Yet, the wine in his hand, despite being made by the decades-old Harrington tradition, felt rough, and the scent of fermentation still lingered.
In truth, this was the expected result. It made no sense for a three-month-old wine to have such excellent balance. Nevertheless, Mark couldn’t just give up. If it were something that didn’t exist, he might have, but he had seen and felt it with his own senses. How could he possibly walk away?
Mark eventually tapped the table and shouted.
“Andrew!”
A moment later, the silver-haired veteran entered. Andrew was the head winemaker who had been crafting wine at Harrington for over 40 years. As always, he had his sleeves rolled up, wearing a white shirt.
“Are you still agonizing over it?”
“That Pinot Noir I drank at Redwood. It was only three months old.”
“You did say that—three months.”
Andrew had been utterly bewildered when he first heard it. If anyone else had gone somewhere, tasted a three-month-old Pinot Noir, and made such a fuss, he would have let it go in one ear and out the other. But because it was Mark who had tasted it himself, he couldn’t simply dismiss it.
“The tannins weren’t rough, and the acidity wasn’t sharp. The fruit notes were already harmonizing with the oak.”
“Yes, I’ve already heard.”
He had heard it several times already. He had pondered whether it was even possible, but he couldn’t get a grasp on it. If he had known the method, he would have used it long ago to elevate the status of Harrington Winery.
However, he couldn’t ignore the suffering winery owner, so he mentioned a few hints he had come up with while thinking it over.
“There are a few possibilities. First, they might have controlled the fermentation temperature with extreme precision. Usually, yeast generates heat while fermenting, and if that’s handled poorly, the taste becomes rough.”
“We have a temperature control system, too. Do you think Redwood’s tiny, grape-sized winery facility is better than ours?”
“That... would be difficult. Second, we could consider the yeast. Instead of the commercial yeast we use, they might have used a new starter. A strain that brings out the aroma clearly and reduces fermentation stress.”
“...Is such yeast available on the market right now?”
“Not to my knowledge... but to be honest, it’s more accurate to say I haven’t tried hard to find it. We’ve been maintaining stable quality with the yeast we’ve been using all along.”
Mark had nothing to say to that. They were famous for producing one of the top three Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays in Sonoma County, and Mark took immense pride in that, so the thought of further development hadn’t even crossed his mind.
With a regretful sigh, Mark exhaled.
“Then what’s the last one?”
“Oxygen management. But this, too, is unclear... Usually, wine softens its tannins as oxygen enters very slowly through the oak barrels, so I thought perhaps they utilized that type of technique more aggressively.”
“Damn it, that just means we don’t know anything.”
“No, it means that if we dig into these three things, we might find the answer.”
“Ha, to think I’d start studying wine at my age.”
“There is no age limit to learning. Thanks to you, sir, I’ll have to do some wine studying myself this time.”
Mark rose from his seat with a self-deprecating smile on his lips.
“Fine. Look up the latest papers. UC Davis, Dijon in France, anywhere is fine. Scrape up every bit of relevant data. And we’re going to experiment, too.”
“Understood.”
“We have to catch up. If we don’t... it means we’re falling behind.”
“I will do my best.”
After Andrew left and the door closed, Mark, now alone, lifted his glass. He brought it to his nose, recalling the scent of the wine he had tasted at Redwood yesterday. But no matter how he swirled it, the wine in his glass today didn’t possess that vivid fruitiness and smooth balance from before.
“Redwood...”
In his eyes as he muttered the name, a strange spark flickered alongside his frustration.
“What on earth did you do?”
UC Davis.
I was about to leave after finishing my last lecture, Physics, when I sat back down at the sight of Professor Thomas Edward walking through the door. As he entered, he turned his head, searching for someone, and our eyes met perfectly.
“There you are. The other students may leave, but Brian, could you come to the front for a moment?”
“Yes...”
I walked to the front feeling awkward. Half the students left the lecture hall, while the curious half stayed in their seats. They were wondering why the department head had personally sought out a freshman.
Then, the back door opened slightly, and a few more students entered, among them Sienna and Matthew. The curiosity in the students’ eyes began to deepen.
“I’ve been busy, so we’re only just now getting to talk.”
“If it’s something important, perhaps somewhere quiet...”
“No. It’s a story that’s good to hear together. Those two friends over there couldn’t contain their curiosity, so if I talked to you separately, they’d just come and pester me, and I’d end up telling the same story anyway. It’s better to talk here.”
This old man is only thinking of himself. It’s absurd that he isn’t considering my discomfort at all...
“Haha, yes...”
“It’s about the grapes grown at Redwood Farm... Have you ever seen the terroir of To Kalon in person?”
Naturally, I have. When I was doing a wine research project at Cornell University, I had been invited to the UC Davis research vineyard.
“No.”
“I see... Well, hypothetically. Could you go to our research vineyard and tell us what’s different from your vineyard?”
“I’m sorry, but that’s... a secret unique to our winery.”
At the disappointing answer, Department Head Thomas’s expression soured.
“As I thought... It’s a shame, but I expected as much. Then how about this? The students going on a field trip to your farm. That should be fine, right?”
“That is fine.”
Wineries usually supplement their insufficient profits by operating for general tourists anyway. The winery itself isn’t wrapped in total secrecy. One can’t know the winery’s unique manufacturing process unless they watch it being made right next to them.
“Good. When we go, will we be able to taste that famous three-month-old Pinot Noir?”
So this was the old man’s goal all along?
“Haha, yes... It’s not a large quantity, so I will provide it specially for you, Professor.”
“Hahahaha! If you had refused even this, I would have been very sad. You’ll be contacted once the date is set. See you then.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
It was a trivial conversation, but because he had it in front of the other kids, more people were paying attention. As I escaped, Armando was waiting in front of the lecture hall.
“Oh! Popular guy! Popular with students! Popular with professors!”
“That’s not funny.”
“But today, I’m a popular guy too! Do you know who I met today? On my way here...”
As Sienna watched Brian and his friend walk away from a distance, Matthew asked her.
“Why aren’t you talking about having been to their winery?”
Sienna turned her head to look at Matthew. Matthew was always calm and composed, but it was unexpected for Sienna that he couldn’t contain his curiosity regarding that Asian friend of theirs.
“Because I don’t want to.”
Gentle Matthew’s face lost its composure slightly.
“You didn’t want to?”
“Yeah.”
“Would it be rude to ask why?”
“...... Because my pride was hurt. That’s why I didn’t want to... Ah, I see.”
As Sienna’s eyes lit up with a sudden realization, Matthew’s eyes wavered.
“What is it?”
“Why you keep paying attention to Brian. Your pride was hurt, too, wasn’t it?”
“Ha... it’s not like that.”
Despite his denial, Sienna’s sparkling eyes didn’t change.
“Is it because of the wine evaluation? Ah, that might be part of it, but was it because of the grapes back then? Hmm... I’m curious.”
“What else?”
“My pride was hurt because I tasted the Pinot Noir, which is our farm’s main product, at Redwood! But you saw the grapes, yet you didn’t get to drink the wine. The Cabernet Sauvignon.”
“......”
“If Brian manages to pull off the Cabernet Sauvignon well, too... Wow, I’m really curious to see what kind of expression you’ll make.”
“Do you want to see me lose?”
“I’m not sure myself. My heart...”
Sienna’s index finger traced Matthew’s jawline.
“I can tell you one thing. I don’t like men I can’t respect.”
“I won’t lose.”
“If that’s the case, then good.”
Sienna, with a faint smile, turned and disappeared.