Chapter 1099: This is a treasure trove!

Early the next morning, Xia Yu, accompanied by Curtis Dubois, the investment department executive who had personally completed the acquisition, went to the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Although the Brochet and Leva families had withdrawn their family members from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti after selling their shares, it did not mean that the winery was without any available personnel.

After all, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti had a history of more than 900 years, and although there had been a constant flow of personnel over those 900 years, there were still many small families that existed specifically for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

On the way there, Curtis Dubois first introduced Xia Yu to the details of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

The most important families at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti today are the Noblets, who have been making wine for over 400 years, and the Faucherts, who have been cultivating the vineyards and fruit trees for the same length of time.

It is precisely because these two families have remained true to themselves, specialising in their respective fields for centuries and working closely together, that the wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti are of such outstanding quality.

The previous owners, the Brochetts and the Levards, played a role in the running and management of the estate.

Therefore, the departure of the Bloch and Levavasseur families did not have a significant impact on the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Burgundy is located between the Jura Mountains and the southeastern end of the Paris Basin, in the passageway between the Rhine, Seine, Loire and Rhône rivers, 251 kilometres from Paris.

After a nearly three-hour drive, Xia Yu arrived at the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti at around 11am.

Curtis Dubois immediately summoned two elderly men, André Nobre, 68, and Gérard Falconer, 62.

'Boss, this is André Nobre.'

'And this is Gérard Falconer!'

'Old Nobre, old Falconer, this is the real boss of the winery I told you about, Mr. Xia Yu Xia!'

'...'

Xia Yu's gentle tone and spring-like demeanour put Andre Nobre and Gal Faulkner at ease, and Xia Yu's praise and compliments made them feel good.

After a little chat, Xia Yu decided to go and have a look at his vineyard.

Led by Gal Faulkner, Xia Yu and the others arrived at a small hill.

According to Gal Faulkner, standing on this hill, you can overlook a large area of vineyards, which will give you the best visual enjoyment.

Although it is a hill, there are still grapevines planted here. Standing on the hill, you can see rows of neatly planted grapevines, like dense green lines. The spacing between each row is about one metre, very symmetrical. This distance should be able to achieve the best ratio of grape light exposure and land utilization.

But it is February, and the grapevines are mostly covered in young, green shoots. Although they don't have the same visual impact as the deep green of June or July, the young green colour is soothing to the eye.

At this point, standing in the middle of the vineyard, Gérard Falkner begins to describe the vineyard to Xia Yu.

'Boss, our estate covers an area of 1.805 hectares. In the more than 400 years since 1580, not a single centimetre of land has been added or subtracted,'

'Although most of the vines died due to the severe hailstorm in the spring of 1945, we introduced old vines from the Latour Chateau in the Cote de Nuits, which were originally planted on our estate after the phylloxera outbreak. So now our vineyard is still planted with pure Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines, all of which are nearly 50 years old and have maintained a very stable quality...'

Gérard Falkner then pointed to the busy workers in the distance and continued to introduce Xia Yu: 'Our estate does not have any mechanised equipment at the moment, and the cultivation and care of the grapes is completely done by hand. No chemical fertilisers are used, and other chemical methods are used as little as possible. After the grapes have ripened, only skilled workers are allowed to pick them. After the harvest, a rigorous selection process is carried out to separate the good grapes from the bad ones, which are then taken for winemaking...'

Xia Yu nodded with satisfaction as he smiled.

In an era of rapid technological change in winemaking, more scientific winemaking techniques are widely used in winemaking, but Romanee Conti has chosen to remain disconnected from the times.

But it is precisely because the cultivation, management, harvesting and winemaking of the Romanee Conti vineyard have not changed significantly since the beginning of winemaking in the 11th century that this inheritance and adherence to tradition is the key to maintaining the consistently high quality of Romanee Conti wines, which are sought after by people all over the world.

Xia Yu then bent down to take a closer look at the nearly 50-year-old vines and check the growth of the vines before returning to the winemaking area.

In the winemaking area, André Noble was in charge of the tour.

A stable and controllable temperature is an important factor in allowing the wine to ferment perfectly.

That is why most wine cellars are underground, and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is no exception.

After André Nobre opened the door, a strong aroma of wine hit Xia Yu's nose. Once inside, Xia Yu found that the entire cellar was filled with a strong aroma that intoxicated the mind and soul.

'Boss, we use fine oak barrels for winemaking, and use local wild yeast, not commercial yeast and thermostatic stainless steel fermentation tanks like some wineries,'

'Although this makes the process more complicated and the cost higher, it is the only way to ensure the quality of our wines.'

'This is because we grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and oak barrels can make the ingredients in the wine blend closely together, which is especially important for complex, aged Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

'And the oak barrels can add aromas of vanilla, cloves, leaves, nuts, baking and caramel to the wine. The oak barrels are also the place for secondary fermentation, which is unmatched by the constant temperature stainless steel fermenter...'

André Nobre pointed to the wooden shelves full of oak barrels around him and introduced Xia Yu.

Xia Yu walked over and touched an oak barrel, looking at the time written on the bottom of the barrel, which was surprisingly September 21, 1981.

Xia Yu looked at the barrels all around him and asked softly, 'Nobre, was all of this made last year?'

André Nobre shook his head and pointed to the two rows of oak barrels in front of him, saying, 'No, only these two rows were made last year. Our vineyard produces about 2,500 litres of wine each year, not like those large wineries that produce 70,000 to 80,000 litres.'

Then he pointed to the barrels not far away and said, 'Those two rows were harvested and brewed on September 28, 1980.'

'The two furthest rows were harvested and brewed on September 25, 1979.'

'There are no more barrels from earlier times, because they are scrapped after a maximum of three years. So the wine from the harvest of 25 September 1979 will be bottled in March...'

Xia Yu nodded slightly and said to André Nobre, 'Where is the wine that has been bottled and stored before? Take me there to have a look.'

'Okay, please follow me!'

After saying this, André Nobre led Xia Yu along a road that turned left and right, until they arrived at a large wooden door. After opening it, he switched on the light in the storage room.

Suddenly, the sight of the storage room came into view.

It was a straight, arched passage with what seemed to be a corner at the end, like a brick kiln. On both sides of the passage were wooden wine racks supported at an angle. Each position on the rack was occupied by a bottle of wine, densely packed together like a beehive, giving a strong visual impact.

'Nobre, how many bottles of wine are stored in the warehouse right now? Do you have a list of all the vintages?'

Taking a bottle of wine out close up, Xia Yu discovered that it was labelled 1964, which was also eighteen years ago. Putting the wine back, Xia Yu felt that there were so many wines that he could not look through them all in a short time, so he asked André Nobre directly.

'Yes, every time a wine is taken out of the warehouse and put back in, it is registered. There is a special statistics room for this. Please follow me!'

After saying this, André Nobre took Xia Yu on another walk, to an office, and took out a huge leather-bound book.

He placed the book on the desk, opened it, and introduced it to Xia Yu: 'Boss, here is the quantity of remaining wine of each vintage recorded. Currently, the oldest wine in the storage is from 1754, and there are only eleven bottles left!'

Xia Yu raised his eyebrows in surprise, and looked at the top row of the table.

There was still wine from 1754, which was already 228 years old!

It was even older than the Lafite Rothschild 1787 that the Rothschild family had previously produced!

But there were only 11 bottles left, which was indeed very rare!

Xia Yu then looked down the table.

There were still five bottles of wine from 1755 in storage.

There were still three bottles of wine from 1756 in storage.

There was none from 1757 to 1761.

So 1756 is directly followed by 1762, with 13 bottles still in storage.

There are many more gaps in the years after that.

According to André Noble, this is because the climate was not good in those years, and the grapes produced did not have enough tannins to make full-bodied wines, so they could not have a long life. Therefore, many of them were emptied after being stored for decades or even centuries. The prolonged storage of wines with insufficient tannins will only make the taste worse and worse, and they will turn sour once they exceed the drinking period. (Wine has no shelf life, only a drinking period)

...

Until 1800, a survey was conducted and it was found that there were 129 bottles of wine from before that time.

Then, between 1801 and 1900, there were more bottles, with a total of 525 bottles.

This is definitely a huge treasure trove!

The reason why Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is so valuable is that these stored old wines are a very important factor!

Looking at the wines after 1900, the closer they are to the present, the more are stored.

There is of course an exception, for example, the year 1945, there are still 420 bottles stored.

But in the six years from 1946 to 1951, not a single bottle of wine was stored.

Seeing Xia Yu's gaze lingering there, André Nobre immediately explained, 'Boss, because the climate changes from year to year, the annual grape yield will also change. A bumper year can even produce more than 9,000 bottles of wine, so the proportion of new wine brought for long-term storage after every ten years is also different. However, in 1945, due to hail damage, most of the vines died, and only 600 bottles of wine were produced that year. Because of the small quantity, the proportion of all wines stored was very high.'

'And during the six years from 1946 to 1951, they were cultivating the newly transplanted vines, so they didn't make a single bottle of wine because the quality was unstable.'

Xia Yu nodded slightly and said softly, 'I'm a little surprised that there were still 420 bottles left after a total output of only 600 bottles in 1945.'