The current season is when the vineyard harvest in Burgundy is coming to an end.
When Ning Weimin and his two friends came to inspect his "fief", they could still see the workers of the winery working in the large and small vineyards on the hillside.
The winery that Henri Lacamier gave to Ning Weimin has only nine formal staff members, and many workers are hired temporarily during the picking season.
But this still does not affect Ning Weimin's ability to feel this special harvest joy when he first saw this scene.
In his field of vision, workers carried huge wooden barrels filled with fresh grapes on their heads, winding like worker ants toward the crushers and extruders outside the old wine cellar down the slope.
The hills are covered with rows of spaced grapevine trellises like waves, and the maple trees and cotinus scattered among the stone houses are covered with colorful autumn clothes, making the entire hillside except for the vineyards golden.
Such beautiful scenery is simply a paradise on earth. It is worthy of the name "Golden Slope" and it is indeed worthy of its name.
Especially when I think about it, this golden paradise will belong to me from now on, which makes me even more happy.
Although the place where you can stay is relatively simple, the cold room and the bed are hard, and you can only rely on traditional fireplaces for heating.
But Ning Weimin didn't care, he was in a very good mood.
Not only because the surrounding pastoral scenery and the mysterious and complex winemaking knowledge gave him a new experience, but also because when he saw the rich wine warehouse and listened to the introduction of the half-white-haired winery steward, he also
It was only when Alain Delon's envious words filled his ears that he finally understood the value of his newly acquired winery.
As we all know, Burgundy is a famous wine-producing region in France. The wine industry often praises Burgundy as the "Queen of French Wine" and believes that Burgundy can be compared with Bordeaux, the "King of French Wine".
But few people know that the Burgundy wine producing area is not large.
Starting from Dijon in the north and reaching Lyon in the south, it is connected with the Rhone slope grape growing area. The scope of Burgundy is only a few hundred miles.
Even the total production of the entire Burgundy production region only accounts for about 0.5% of the world's wine production.
Moreover, it is also known as “the most complex and difficult-to-understand wine region on earth”.
Due to the complex terrain and extremely diverse soils, the Burgundy vineyard classification system is extremely fragmented and complex compared to any other grape-growing region.
In fact, there are as many as 1,247 subdivisions of terroirs named after valleys in Burgundy.
Most wine experts can only look at Burgundy with admiration and find it difficult to find its essence.
Each terroir here has specific geological, hydrological and climatic characteristics, and the degree of subdivision is embarrassing.
However, it is precisely because every small piece of vineyard here has its own unique personality.
A variety of wine styles are produced in Burgundy vineyards.
Even an ordinary small winery can produce at least a dozen kinds of fine wines, and a medium-sized winery can produce dozens of kinds. In terms of product types, it can be said to be extremely rich.
This is unmatched by other well-known wine producing areas.
Although the output of many wines is not high, there are only thousands or hundreds of bottles.
But among the many niche wines here, the world's most prestigious and distinctive red wines, white wines and sparkling wines are produced.
So in the eyes of connoisseurs who really know how to appreciate wine, Burgundy is equal to high quality + style + expensive + rare. It is far more noble than Bordeaux wines of the same level, and sometimes even "overkill" occurs.
Of course, there must be only a handful of high-quality vineyards that can create such high-quality wines.
You must know that since the Burgundy classification system was officially established in 1855, these four classifications, Grand Cru, First Class, Village and Region, have been used on the labels of Burgundy wines.
However, all the vineyards that can produce the highest level of premium wine account for only 1% of the output, and less than 10% of the wine gardens can reach the first-class level.
However, there are as many as 84 vineyards in Burgundy that comply with the AOC (French Wine Supervisory System), compared with only 65 in Bordeaux.
In fact, the smallest AOC production area in France is in Burgundy, with only 0.85 hectares.
From this we can understand the characteristics of high-quality wineries and high-quality vineyards in Burgundy.
To put it bluntly, they are few in number and small in area, far lower than Bordeaux, which is vast and full of large wineries.
So Ning Weimin is so lucky to be able to get a vineyard in Burgundy that produces first-class wine.
Although his Jinpo Winery produces more than 40 kinds of wines, there is no special wine, but it can produce first-class wine. Such a winery is already a classified winery, and it has already crushed 100% of Burgundy's wines.
Ninety-ninety companions.
In particular, the annual output of Jinpo Winery is 110,000 bottles, of which about 30% are first-class wines and 20% are second-class wines.
The proportion of this kind of high-quality wine produced is very rare, much higher than that of most independent wineries.
The reason for this is the winemaker’s experience and professionalism, which are very important, and he plays an important role.
In short, such scarce wineries and vineyards cannot be easily purchased even by the French.
For no other reason than because wineries are numerous and fixed, and this is determined by the objective conditions of the natural environment.
There are less than 2,000 wineries in Burgundy as a whole, and there are only 9,000 wineries in Bordeaux, the largest wine-producing region in France.
When someone wants to own such a wine-making estate, he cannot build a new one, he can only buy one.
However, there is only one trend for high-quality land, which is to flow to the few top strata of society and be annexed by them.
The old French money that can acquire such high-quality assets has been accumulated over generations and obtained from historical opportunities. It is difficult to find it in the current market.
For example, Ning Weimin learned from the winery steward that Jinpo Winery was one of the earliest wineries established by French monks.
As early as two hundred years ago, this place once had great glory.
Due to the excellent grape harvest and wine quality of this vineyard, it is well known and enjoys a prestigious position in the French wine industry.
The most famous related story is that Emperor Napoleon sent a special person to ask for wine during his Eastern Expedition.
Later, the French Revolution changed the fate of Château Jinpo, which was confiscated and auctioned to individuals.
It is recorded that in 1818, Château Gimpo was purchased by banker Julien-Jules Overard.
The following year, the banker purchased Romanee Conti, the world's most famous vineyard in Burgundy.
When Overard died, Château Gimpo was passed on to his youngest son.
From this perspective, it can even be said that Jinpo Winery is the Romanee-Conti brothers.
It was not until 1900, when a businessman purchased the land for 300,000 francs, that the land changed hands for the third time after the park was established.
Ten years later, the businessman was facing bankruptcy and was unable to resell it to the Lacamière family.
So far, for eighty years, the winery has been the private property treasured by the Lacamier family.
Not to mention how much 300,000 francs from nearly a hundred years ago are worth now, but how much is the respectability of old money from the Lacamier and Vuitton families worth?
To let them sell this place to the public, unless they meet a prodigal son who gets into bad habits and loses his family property.
Or if you are about to die without an heir or a will, your estate will be auctioned off by the government.
Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible to give it to Ning Weimin like this to reward his most important friend.
Because it's not a matter of more money or less, it's equivalent to selling one's face.
Apart from anything else, a big French star like Alain Delon is already middle-aged, and he has no chance to get such a winery.
He himself said that the winery he bought ten years ago was in the central highlands of France and had only four hectares of land.
The wine produced by his winery is of the highest quality, which is village level, and is completely incomparable. Naturally, he is envious of Ning Weimin's windfall.
But having said that, if Jinpo Winery is so good, then why does such a winery have such a low annual income?
His annual income is less than one million francs, which is equivalent to the income of Henry, a lawyer, in several months.
This answer is actually easy to answer, that is because its original owner-Henri Lacamier was too careless.
This guy is all about LV, and he likes drinking more than making wine.
He is not very keen on the annual awards competitions and exhibitions in Burgundy and France's major wine regions.
As long as the Jinpo Winery produces good quality wine every year and sends part of it to Paris to satisfy his drinking needs.
Then he can occasionally go on vacation and live a rural life, which is enough for him.
He doesn't even care much about how much money the winery makes every year. Speaking of which, he is more wanton than Jia Zhen in "A Dream of Red Mansions".
Because Jia Zhen was suffering from a deficit in her house, she also complained that the grain farm's output was too little, and scolded Wu Jinxiao, who paid tribute to her.
But that was not the case with Henry. He alone owned the properties of two aristocratic families and was not short of money at all.
What's more, he has much more than just one winery under his name.
He also has several wineries in the foothills of the Jura Mountains in eastern France, Chablis in northern Burgundy, Champagne in northern France, and Bordeaux.
So since he inherited this winery, he has adopted a completely laissez-faire attitude and wants to maintain the Dover system.
Probably I have never thought about whether Jinpo Winery, which produces first-class wine, should evolve and become a famous winery producing super wine.
Think about it, if you have a boss who doesn’t ask for progress at all and takes the initiative to defeat you, can you expect this winery to make big money?
In addition, due to the lack of information in this era, the luxury of wine has not really taken off. It is far less crazy than it would be a few decades later, and the wine market has not yet reached the era of huge profits.
In France, and even in Europe as a whole, wine is still a fast-moving consumer product. It does not represent a luxury economy, and the price is very close to the people and very rational.
Taking Paris as an example, 70% of the wines sold in supermarkets are priced between fifteen and eighty francs, which is equivalent to two to twelve US dollars.
Among them, the average price of red wine is 30 francs a bottle, and the most expensive sweet white wine is 45 francs a bottle. Only 5% of the wines cost more than 80 francs, and 25% of the wines are
For less than eighteen francs, you can buy a bottle for as little as one dollar.
Especially niche product-producing areas like Burgundy cannot expand. Many excellent products have been digested internally and have not been able to leave France at all, or even the production areas.
Even if there is no additional market demand, Burgundy wineries will not be able to sell enough wine due to their small average size. Many famous wineries have already implemented a quota sales system.
Wineries usually package different wine combinations according to their own rules and sell them to long-term partners.
For example, Romanée-Conti, one of the most expensive wineries in Burgundy, only produces about 500 cases (6,000 bottles) per year, and even less in bad years.
Now this kind of wine is far less famous in the market than Bordeaux's Lafite. The price of each bottle is less than half of Lafite, only about 12,000 francs.
At the same time, the winery never sells the wine alone, and only supplies quota-matched packages with other wines to long-term private customers and importers.
If you don’t pay on time or if your request is too troublesome, you may even be kicked off the list - there are many people in the queue.
As for Romanée Saint-Vivin, the output is similar, and the price is only 9,000 francs.
Who can believe that the world's number one winery in Burgundy currently has an annual output value of less than 100 million?
This is the situation in Burgundy that Ning Weimin sees with his own eyes.
What makes him particularly happy is that the winery that will surpass Lafite in the future is less than 20 kilometers away from his golden slopes, and his winery steward is quite familiar with the person in charge of Romain-Conti Winery.
Friends who can sit down and taste wine together.
So for this reason, Ning Weimin thinks that Jinpo Winery is simply too good. Even if it can only produce regional-level popular wines, he thinks it is a high-quality asset.
Henri Lacamier gave him a treasure.
Apart from anything else, I would buy some Roman-Conti and Roman-Saint-Victor every year, and I would stock up on dozens of boxes every year, which would be enough to show off in front of the major wealthy families.
Not to mention, Jinpo Winery itself is not bad. According to Ning Weimin's personal understanding, the reason why it failed to produce special wine is not that the quality of the wine is really so different. The key is that the public relations and publicity work was not done.
good.
And he is the best at marketing. For such a good winery to fall into his hands, it really complements each other.
Therefore, after he got acquainted with the steward of the winery, he began to reassure the steward, saying that after he became the owner of the winery, they did not need to worry about the future at all.
Not only will the salary of all staff members not be less, he will also give them a salary increase of about 20%.
What they have to do, besides continuing to produce wine well, is to help him introduce the person in charge of Chateau Romain-Conti to see if they can get some quotas.
Also, in the future, Jinpo Winery’s wine should not be sold out anymore. He will arrange all sales connections. Selling it to wine merchants at the current price would be too much of a loss for him.
To be honest, not only did he now have a new understanding of the quality of the gift given to him by Henri Lacamier, he also recognized Henri Lacamier's suggestion that the winery produced by him should really only come from his own.
Relationships with restaurants sell out.
Only sell to rich people and give them a good price.
Otherwise, it would be a waste of resources and a complete waste.