The voices of the people are boiling, boiling, noisy, bustling, and crowded.

After entering the competition hall, the hot scene in front of me suddenly made the footsteps stop, the dazzling scene was really overwhelming, the turbulent waves of people coming and going rushed without any regularity, could not distinguish the vein, and naturally could not move forward, just shocked by such a magnificent scale, jaw-dropping.

They are like headless flies, even if they want to fly, they have no direction, and their eyes are black.

At a cursory glance, the whole venue is divided into two parts, on the left hand side is the booth of each winery, the decoration of the booth itself is not complicated, but mainly generous and simple, but the plaque that catches the eye is already full of intimidation, all of them are famous wineries, just a glance, you can see Lafite, Mouton, Zhuolong and other wineries.

Each booth had a staff in formal costume standing in the back, ready to serve the guests who came to inquire, and at this time, before 10 o'clock in the morning, you could see countless people gathered in front of the booth to ask about the winery's harvest in the past year.

However, Lu Li was more curious whether they were just exhibiting, offering tastings, and publicizing, or whether they were also allowed to trade and buy and sell, and became a centralized hunting occasion for international wine buyers and traders. It stands to reason that this is a wine competition, and the competition is the core meaning, and commercial cooperation should not be allowed, but who knows?

With the current scale of Yunding Winery, there is no qualification to place a booth here, Lu Li checked it yesterday, a total of 8,233 wines participated in the competition this year, and the judges came from 51 countries and regions, and the number of people reached 407, several data have refreshed the highest record in the history of the event itself. Not to mention Château de Clouds, even Château Lafite has no special treatment, just a booth of less than five meters.

But that doesn't mean that Clouds will never be able to qualify.

On the right hand side is a large booth, but as far as the eye can see, it is not clear to see the specific appearance of the booth, which makes people confused, and can only see a large number of people, walking between different booths, more people stay next to a certain booth, watching lively, and the picture looks really visually impactful. However, it is the kind of abstract painting.

As for how the competition is carried out and how the selection is carried out, Lu Li really has no idea at all. Turning his head, he saw Fred and Tony who were also dazed, both of them with wide eyes, and the powerful visual impact made the brain a little unable to turn, and they were stunned for a while, looking at the strange scene in the venue in surprise and curiosity.

Anyone who looks at it knows that the three of them are complete rookies.

To be honest, even if you were mentally prepared and knew in advance that this was one of the biggest wine events in the world, and that this year was a new high, the numbers on paper didn't make sense, and the shock and confusion swept over you when you were actually in it. Such a scene cannot be imagined by imagination alone.

Lu Li couldn't help laughing, took out his mobile phone, and dialed Nicholas. Château Romanée-Conti is no exception this year, they do not need to be well-known, but they need the tasting and opinion of the judges, and every year's wines are routinely judged, after all, every year is different.

The phone was quickly connected, and while talking to Lu Li, Nicholas walked towards the gate with his head held high, and in the distance, he waved his hand, and the voice came from the receiver at the same time, "I see you." Then, Nicholas walked up quickly and gave Lu Li a warm hug, as well as a French-style veneer gift.

Fred and Tony were old friends for Nicholas, with Tony having previously visited Château Romanée-Conti and Fred attending Sotheby's auctions. Nicholas greeted the two men cordially, and then offered to lead the way, "Do you have an idea, are you ready to watch the game, or are you ready to take a serious wine tasting?"

Then he added, "Of course, the most important thing for a winery is to participate in the competition, and if you want to, I can refer you to some small gatherings, you know, where several managers of the winery get together and brag about how strong, how far away, how good their winery has been in the past year." ”

Looking at the smile on Nicholas's face, Lu Li's mood also relaxed, "I don't know, there are so many different options here?"

Lu Li and the others, led by Nicholas, walked into the hall, made way of the passage at the door, and then stopped, "Of course, this is Europe. You have a myriad of choices, and since World War II, we've been emphasizing freedom, emphasizing choice, allowing everyone to have a choice, avoiding history repeating itself, and that's the foundation of all our politics and culture now. ”

Only people who really live in Europe can feel the meaning behind this sentence, and only those who have really experienced the precipitation of history can touch the pulse of society. Lu Li can understand and understand the deep meaning, which comes from the power of education, but also from the power of life, after truly opening his eyes and opening his mind, the perspective of the world gradually becomes farther and wider.

"Well, why don't you start with the game itself? You know, people outside of Europe are always eager for quick success, especially businessmen like me. Lu Li's self-deprecation and self-blackening easily enlivened the atmosphere, and naturally completed the transfer of the topic.

Nicholas turned to the right-hand side, "This year's competition is very complete, and the whole venue is divided into five areas, red wine, white wine, spirits, fruit wine, and sparkling wine. Different varieties, just in different areas, as you can see, the two largest areas are red and white wines. Then Nicholas leaned over to Lu Li and whispered, "But I've heard that there are quite a few excellent top-notch varieties in the spirits section this year, which are worth looking forward to." ”

Following Nicholas's guidance, the chaotic scene in front of him gradually became clear, you can see the division of different areas, and you can also see the trajectory of the flow of people in each area, and along this direction, those core areas also become clear and clear.

"This time, there were more than 400 judges, with an average of 15 to 18 people in groups, divided into 26 groups. In small groups, they took turns appearing at different booths, tasting different wines, and then scoring them separately. The competition is divided into three days, which means that there are nearly 3,000 kinds of wine to taste every day. Nicholas quickly explains, "You see, different groups have been crossing over in different ways, tasting, identifying, discussing, scoring. ”

More than 8,000 wines, which is unimaginable. Many people who may not be able to taste hundreds of different brands and different kinds of wine in a year can now all come together and complete all the appraisals in just three days. It's no wonder it's one of the top wine competitions in the world.

It is impossible to describe the progress and outcome of the contest just by imagining.

Pointing to the nearest stand, Nicholas further explained, "All the wines are divided according to their vintage, region, variety, etc., in addition to their own variety, and each time they are placed according to a different label, telling the judges only one piece of information, nothing else, and the judges give a rating based on color, aroma and taste." ”

"Yes, I know. Lu Li nodded in affirmation, this information had been understood before, and Mark explained it in great detail. He believes that such a wine competition must make countless efforts to maintain fairness and authority.

For Europe, wine is a work of art, there is no best, only better, even a perfect score of 100 does not necessarily please everyone, they know this, the so-called, the Brussels Wine Competition is mainly an average taste score from all over the world. In terms of authority, it can be trusted.

Nicholas chuckled, "Instead of talking this nonsense here, you should taste it yourself, and things will be much simpler all of a sudden." ”

"Shall we allow tastings too, won't it disturb the judges' work?" said Tony, eager to get ready to try. It's paradise for Tony.

"Of course. Nicholas didn't say anything more, replied succinctly and affirmatively, and immediately let Tony and Fred out, they had been waiting for too long, and now they were finally ready to go out, like a tiger out of the gate.

Lu Li expressed his helplessness, "Let's hurry up and keep up." Greeting Nicholas, the two people also followed, and when they got closer, they found that there were thirty or forty people around the booth, and everyone was scattered, no more than two floors or so, not crowded, not too dense, but it seemed extremely lively.

Outside the crowd, more than a dozen people can be seen standing at a long, crimson table, sipping their own red wine. The nearest man to Lu Li was an old man of about sixty or seventy years old, with a big bald head and no hair to be seen, but the snow-white goatee on his chin and the thousands of layers of wrinkles still looked like annual rings, clearly leaving traces of time.

The old man held the glass, but he didn't taste it, he didn't observe, he just put it under his nose, shook it gently, shook it like this, and a simple action lasted for nearly two minutes, and then took a sip, rinsed his mouth vigorously, and spit it directly into the vessel next to him, and then repeated the action at the beginning again, this time after taking a sip, he rinsed his mouth carefully, and seemed to be tasting the layers and tastes inside with the tip of his tongue. After three minutes, finally, the wine was spit out into the vessel next to it again.

It seems, like, maybe, probably, that's all?