Early the next morning, Xia Yu, accompanied by Curtis Dubois, an executive in the investment department who had completed the acquisition, went to Romanée Conti Winery.

Although the Brochet and Le Very families withdrew their people from Château Romanée Conti after selling their shares, this does not mean that the winery is empty.

After all, Château Romanée Conti has a history of more than 900 years, and although there is a continuous movement of people for more than 900 years, there are still many small families dedicated to Château Romanée Conti.

On the way there, Curtis Dubois first introduced the details of Romanée Conti Winery to Xia Yu.

Today, the two most important families for Château Romanée Conti are the Nobre family, which specialises in winemaking, and the Faulkner family, which specialises in vineyard cultivation and fruit tree cultivation.

It is the two families that have maintained their hearts, mastered their respective fields for hundreds of years, and worked closely together to make Romanée Conti wines of the highest quality in the world.

The Blochet family and the Lehua family, which were previously in charge, mainly played a role in operation and management.

Therefore, after the departure of the Brochet family and the Leroy family, the impact on Château Romanée Conti was not great.

Burgundy is located between the Jura Mountains and the southeastern tip of the Paris Basin, in the area of passage between the Rhine, Seine, Loire and Rhône, two hundred and fifty-one kilometers from Paris.

After nearly three hours of driving, at about 11 o'clock in the morning, Xia Yu came to Romanée Conti Winery.

Curtis Dubois immediately summoned two old men, sixty-eight-year-old André Nobre and sixty-two-year-old Garr Faulkner.

"Boss, this is André Nobré. ”

"This is Gal Faulkner!"

"Old Nobre, old Faulkner, this is what I told you, the real owner of the winery, Mr. Xia Yuxia!"

“......”

Xia Yu's tone was gentle, and he gave people a feeling like a spring breeze when he spoke, so that Andre Nobre and Gal Faulkner had no psychological pressure, and Xia Yu's praise and praise for them also made the two of them happy.

After some small talk, Xia Yu decided to go and see his vineyard first.

Under the leadership of Gal Faulkner, Xia Yu and others came to a small hill.

According to Gal Faulkner, standing on this hill and being able to look out over a large area of vineyards is the best visual treat.

Although it is a hill, there are still vines planted here, and standing on the hill, you can see a row of neatly planted grape vines, like dense green lines, each row is about one meter apart, very symmetrical, this distance should be able to make the grapes in the best proportion of light and land use.

However, it is now February, and the vines are mostly green buds, although not as bright as the dark green in June and July, but the tender green gives people a healing visual enjoyment.

At this time, Gal Faulkner began to introduce Xia Yu to the whole vineyard.

"Boss, the area of our estate is 1805 hectares, and from 1580 to the present for more than 400 years, not a single centimeter of land has been increased or decreased. ”

"Although most of the vines died due to a severe hailstorm in the spring of 1945, we brought in older vines from Château Latachy in the Côte de Noere, and the original vines of Château Latach were brought from our estate after the root odontoma infestation, so that the vines in our vineyard are still purebred Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and they are close to 50 years old, and the quality is very stable......

Gal Faulkner pointed to the busy workers in the distance, and continued to introduce to Xia Yu: "Now our estate does not have any mechanized equipment, the grape planting and care is completely manual, no chemical fertilizers are used, and other chemical methods are used as little as possible......

Xia Yu smiled and nodded with satisfaction.

In an era of rapid changes in winemaking, more scientific winemaking techniques are widely used in winemaking, but Romanée Conti has chosen to disconnect with the times.

However, it is precisely because the cultivation, management, harvesting and vinification of the Romanée Conti vineyards are not particularly different from those when the winemaking began in the 11th century, that this inheritance and adherence to tradition is an important reason why Romanée Conti wines remain as high as ever and are sought after by the world.

Xia Yu looked down at the nearly fifty-year-old vines again, checked the growth of the vines, and then returned to the winemaking area.

In the winery area, André Nobre is in charge of the lectures.

A stable and controlled temperature is an important factor in the perfect fermentation of the wine.

As a result, the cellars of most wine estates are underground, and Château Romanée Conti is no exception.

After André Nobre opened the door, a strong aroma of wine came to his nose, and after entering, Xia Yu found that the entire wine cellar was filled with a strong fragrance, which made people intoxicated.

"Boss, our wines are made in fine oak barrels, using local wild yeasts, not commercial yeasts and thermostatic stainless steel fermentation tanks like some wineries. ”

"This makes the process more cumbersome and costly, but it is the only way to ensure the quality of our wines. ”

"That's because we grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and oak barrels allow the ingredients in the wine to blend closely, which is especially important for wines such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which are complex and ageable. ”

"The barrels add aromas of vanilla, cloves, leaves, nuts, toast and caramel to the wine, and the barrels are also the site for secondary fermentation, which is unmatched by thermostatic stainless steel fermentation tanks......"

André Nobre pointed to the oak barrels piled up on the wooden shelves around him and introduced Xia Yu.

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

Xia Yu looked at the wine barrels around him and asked softly, "Old Nobre, are all the brews here made last year?"

André Nobre shook his head, pointed to the two rows of oak barrels in front of him and said: "No, only these two columns are from last year's wine, and our vineyard produces about 2,500 liters a year, unlike those large wineries that produce 780,000 liters." ”

Then he pointed to the oak barrels not far away and said, "Those two columns were harvested on September 28, 1980." ”

"The two farthest columns are the wines harvested on September 25, 1979. ”

"There is no longer the time to go, because oak barrels will be scrapped in a maximum of three years, so the wines harvested on September 25, 1979, we will start bottling in March......

Xia Yu bowed slightly, and said to Andre Nobré: "Where is the wine that has been bottled and stored before?" ”

"Okay, please come with me!"

After speaking, André Nobre took Xia Yu along a road to turn left and right, and came to a large wooden door, and after opening it, he turned on the light in the storage room.

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

This is an arched straight passage, at the end of which there seems to be a corner, like a brick kiln, and on both sides of the passage, there are wooden wine racks with inclined supports, and a wine is placed in each position of the wine shelf, densely packed like a beehive, giving people a strong visual impact.

"Old Nobray, how many bottles of wine are still stored in the storeroom, is there a list of the various vintages?"

took out a bottle of wine at close range, and found that it was marked in 1964, which was eighteen years ago, Xia Yu put the wine back again, feeling that there were so many wines, and he couldn't see it in a short time, so he asked André Nobre directly.

"Yes, every time you go out of the warehouse and enter the warehouse, you will do registration, there is a special statistics room here, please follow me!"

After speaking, André Nobre took Xia Yu for a while, came to an office, and took out a huge leather-shelled notebook.

He put the notebook on the table, opened it, and introduced to Xia Yu: "Boss, the number of remaining wines for each age is registered here, and the oldest wine in the current storage warehouse 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 is even a 1754 vintage, which is two hundred and twenty-eight years old!

Older than the 1787 Lafite that the Rothschild family took out before!

However, the number is only eleven bottles, which is indeed rare enough!

Then Xia Yu looked down the table.

The wine of 1755 is still stored in five bottles.

The wine of 1756 is still in storage for three bottles.

Neither in 1757 nor in 1761.

So 1756 is directly below 1762, and there are still thirteen bottles stored.

There are many more vintage faults in the future.

According to André Nobre, it is because the climate in those years is not good, and the grapes produced are not full of tannins, so they cannot have a long enough lifespan, and many of them are completely emptied after decades or even hundreds of years.

......

Until 1800, a statistic was made that there were still 129 bottles of wine before that.

Then between 1801 and 1900, the number was even higher, reaching five hundred and twenty-five bottles.

It's definitely a huge treasure trove!

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

Looking at the period after 1900, the closer we get to the present, the more we store them.

There is one exception, of course, such as in 1945, when there were still 420 bottles in storage.

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

Seeing Xia Yu's gaze staying there, André Nobre immediately explained: "Boss, because the climate changes every year, the annual grape yield will change, and the grapes produced in a bumper year can even make more than 9,000 wines, so the proportion of new wine used for long-term storage after every ten years is also different, but in 1945, because of the hailstorm, most of the vines died, and only 600 bottles of wine were made that year, because the number is small, so the proportion of all storage is very high." ”

"For six years, from 1946 to 1951, the newly transplanted vines were cultivated, and not a single bottle of wine was made because of the unstable quality. ”

Xia Yu bowed his head slightly, and said softly: "In 1945, the total output was only 600 bottles, and I was a little surprised that there were still 420 bottles left. ”

PS: The second update is sent, I wish you all a happy weekend!