Chen Xiao picked up Xiong Jieming early in the morning, and Chen Mo picked up Ellie and headed to Benziger Winery in Sonoma.
This winery is hidden in the mountains. It is one of the most famous wineries in Sonoma County and one of the most beautiful places.
“The biggest feature of Benziger Winery is the use of biodynamic planting technology, which emphasizes nature and harmony. Biodynamic planting technology is a very magical technology. I have done some related homework and still have only a little knowledge... I will have a dedicated guide later.
I will guide you to explain." Entering the winery, Ellie got down to business.
"Paid guide?"
"I have already paid. You are a super rich man, so there is no need to worry about it?"
Chen Mo shrugged and teased Ellie. It was very interesting to see her angry: "I am out to play, there is no reason to pay the tour guide fee for two people."
"I know. So, I have paid in advance. The fee for one hour is US$35, which is super expensive."
Chen Mo smiled...
Ai Li drove the car into the parking lot, where Chen Xiao and Xiong San were waiting...
"Miss Chen Xiao, good morning."
"Good morning."
Ellie looked at Xiong Jieming and Chen Mo introduced...
Outside the parking lot, a woman in professional attire looked towards us and came over: "Excuse me, is this Miss Ellie?"
"Hello, my name is Ellie. Hello, Ms. Margaret."
"I am your guide, would you like to visit the winery now?"
"Of course. The history of the winery is the soul of the winery's wine. Let's visit the winery first."
Margery is an intellectual beauty. She looks quite charming in a well-fitting professional attire. She puts away her professional smile and makes an inviting gesture with a charming smile.
The group boarded the winery's electric sightseeing car and walked along the asphalt road in the vineyard to the mountaintop observation tower. Margery then introduced the winery and the biodynamic technology it insists on...
Gardening in winery vineyards is almost an art.
At the same time, the series of wines produced by this winery have passed the organic wine certification, making it a completely green winery. And one-third of the park is a park that has passed the biodynamic cultivation method...
Biodynamic farming is adopted by many well-known wineries, such as Romanée-Conti, where most wines are grown using biodynamic farming.
Take a look at the top of the mountain, walk into the park, and visit the B&B hotel and gardens in the winery.
An hour passed quickly, and the group returned to the winery and wine tasting room.
When tasting wine, what you taste is not only the taste of the wine, but also the story behind it, which is the style.
Take the 1982 Lafite. If you took off the label and put it together with Great Wall Dry Red without informing you in advance, I think...most people would not be able to tell the difference between them.
Another example is the wine from Benziger Winery. If you don’t know about organic wines and biodynamic wines in advance... you will drink it just like that. It is not even much different from the local wines in Sonoma that cost ten or twenty dollars, and may even be mediocre.
Some.
Biodynamic farming is difficult to produce good grapes, and it is impossible to produce wine with complex flavor levels.
To put it bluntly, how many people really understand wine?
Chen Mo actually thought wrong on this point.
Europeans and Americans are accustomed to lighter flavors, while Chinese...especially those from Chen Mo's hometown, like heavy flavors, spicy and delicious, and are not so sensitive to light flavors.
The taste of European and American food is relatively light, and most people do not make the taste very strong. Since childhood, the taste system has been relatively sensitive.
When he went into the tasting room to taste the wine, Chen Mo could feel the aroma of black fruits in the wine, but he couldn't quite place it.
With stars in Ellie's eyes, she talked about the aroma of the grapes one by one, as well as the layering issues, and finally gave a score of 88.
"You missed something. This is a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon wine, so... it's 90 points. What you said before is not entirely correct."
"Oh?" Ellie asked humbly.
"1999 itself is not a good vintage. But for this wine, we weakened the oak flavor. You can feel the weight of the wine, but there is only a faint oak aroma. This is very rare, and it is also the reason why it received high scores.
The reason. The blackberry flavor is actually a black fruit aroma, which is an aged mixed aroma...not the single fruit aroma of new wine."
Chen Xiao held Ellie's arm and listened with interest, while Chen Mo and Xiong San listened with confusion on their faces.
It’s just a taste. Is there so much knowledge inside?
"Hmm, that's what it seems. It's great. This is the best wine I have ever tasted."
"Thank you for the compliment."
Is it really that good? I really want to take a few boxes back with me.
Chen Mo asked about the price, which was US$31 (tax included) per bottle.
"This is the best wine I have ever tasted..." Ellie used this sentence in the following wineries. This is an afterthought.
After sitting at Benziger Winery until after eleven o'clock, Chen Mo and the others went to another winery that was equally famous...
Wine tasting is not drinking.
To taste wine, taste the thickness and aroma of the wine in your mouth, then spit out the wine, rinse your mouth, and continue tasting.
There are densely packed wineries here, and each winery has at least a few wines, and as many as a dozen or dozens of wines. If you take a sip of every wine, you can drink it all from just one winery.
In the evening, the group visited seven wineries and tasted no less than fifty wines before arriving at the Sonoma River Hotel hidden deep in the mountains...
The hotel is backed by a national park and has beautiful scenery.
The hotel is nice, but too expensive... Ai Li is becoming more and more familiar with Chen Mo, and she feels more and more free...
The dinner restaurant was in an independent glass room. Chen Mo ordered a bottle of good-quality red wine. After the group sat down, Chen Mo looked at Ellie: "California stipulates that people under the age of 21 cannot drink alcohol."
"It's okay, I started drinking secretly when I was 15 years old. It doesn't matter if I drink a little..." Ellie had a silly and sweet smile on her face.
"Okay. Pour it yourself... By the way, I saw on the Internet that there are many old vine gardens in Sonoma. Why didn't I see them today?"
"Mona Winery's old vine garden is very small. At that time, Sonoma vineyards still used elevated gardening. Gardening was also pruning, so the grapevines did not look very big. Many people regarded Sonoma as
The grape-producing area is considered Sonoma Valley. In fact, Sonoma County is very large... and there are many very famous wine-producing areas, such as Russian River Valley, Santa Rosa Valley, etc. Santa Rosa Valley and Russian River Valley are the most
An ancient grape-growing area with a much longer history of grape-growing than Napa Valley..."
The next day, the group left Sonoma Valley and headed to the Russian River Valley...
"Today's destination is Rockwell Plantation. Have you made an appointment with the owner of the plantation for me?"
"Of course, you can rest assured that I will handle the matter. I confirmed it again this morning..." Ellie turned her head and glanced at Chen Mo: "Are you planning to acquire this plantation?"
"If the price is right, it has 1,490 acres after all."
Coming to the plantation, on the left side of the Russian River, the plantation is a rolling hill. The park is well planned and all can be farmed by machinery...
Ellie suddenly stopped when she saw the sign on the roadside, got out of the car, looked around, found a spot, took out her mobile phone and took a selfie...
"Hey, what are you doing?" This girl is getting more and more unrestrained.
"Wait for me..." Ellie quickly clicked on the blog website and found a bald Weibo...
“Post on Weibo and wait for the evening.”
"No." Ellie scratched her head: "This is Walker George's Weibo. He is a member of the Strategic Investment Department of Constellation Group." Constellation Group, a global wine giant, is estimated to have acquired more than 5,000 acres in Northern California.
of vineyards.
"I saw Walker George's Weibo a few days ago. There was a selfie on it. It seems to be here. It won't be long... but now, it has been deleted."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, I have an almost photographic memory."
Entering the plantation, the plantation owner received Chen Mo, took a group of people to tour the plantation and picked some fruits.
During this period, Chen Mo expressed his idea of acquiring the plantation, and the plantation owner smiled and quoted a sky-high price of US$260 million...
Chen Mo didn't really want to buy it... and he didn't have the money.
He is not good at bargaining, so this job is left to Ellie. If the plantation owner can be fooled...
Ellie pointed out the Constellation Group straight to the point: "Perhaps the Constellation Group doesn't really want to buy it. They prefer to directly acquire existing wineries and wineries. I guess the price they give you should not exceed 160 million, which includes several
Valuable stocks (stocks that cannot be sold in the short term).”
The plantation owner chuckled and his eyelids flicked uncontrollably: "This is a business secret. What is your quotation?"
"110 million." Ai Li looked at Chen Mo and saw that he had no expression: "110 million, we can complete the transaction quickly."
"You're kidding. 110 million, absolutely impossible. 25,000, I won't consider anything lower than this price. I will take you to visit my plantation first, and then discuss the quotation..."
The plantation has approximately 600 acres of vineyards, 200 acres of pasture, and the remainder is woodland.
"250 million, cousin... I think it's very suitable." Xiong Jieming walked to Chen Mo and whispered: "The land in Sonoma has a lot of room for appreciation."
Chen Mo rolled his eyes...
In Sonoma County, high-quality vineyards in excellent production areas can sell for three to four hundred thousand per acre. Most of the more mediocre wines sell for more than ten or two hundred thousand per acre. Most vineyards cost around one hundred thousand...
The plantation area is large and integrated, and there is room for expansion. This is rare and can be a bonus. The location of the land... is not particularly remote, which is a plus.
"Xiong San, do you have no idea about money?"
Xiong Jieming smiled awkwardly: "I read online that the average price of a Sonoma vineyard exceeds 150,000."
"If you don't understand, just stop talking. 150,000 US dollars... Do you think California's per capita income is high, so prices must also be high? 150,000 can buy a small sailboat more than ten meters long, which is enough to pay for a house in the East Bay area...
As for cars, there are more styles to choose from." Chen Mo looked at Ellie and continued: "Allie is also 18 years old, a few months younger than you. Look how she bargains..."
Before coming here, Chen Mo told Ai Li that if the deal could be negotiated for 15,000 yuan, he could almost buy it.
150 million is not expensive. You can make money by buying it and selling it. But I guess it is unlikely...
As for money, as long as he dares to sell it, Chen Mo will lend it to him.
Chen Xiao was also watching, watching Ellie chatting and laughing with the plantation owner, while criticizing the plantation's shortcomings... The plantation owner's face became more and more ugly, and when he was about to explode, Allie changed the subject.
It's also a compliment and a compliment.
"230 million, it can't be cheaper."
"It's too high. It's not worth so much money... The plantation is the joint effort of you and your family. There must be some difficulties in selling it. 135 million. My boss is not short of money and can complete it quickly."
trade."
"This is naked robbery." The plantation looked at Ellie's childish face and wondered whether to laugh or cry: "Can your boss really come up with a large amount of cash?"
“Wells Fargo didn’t tell you who my boss is?”
"No." The plantation owner shrugged.
"Wells Fargo VIP, you should understand that my boss is Chinese..."
"Okay, Chinese... damn... great Chinese." Rockwell took a deep breath: "200 million, my final compromise. Complete the transaction within three days."
"140 million, it can't be higher."
"No way."
"My boss is an investor, not an operator. Would he buy it for 200 million and sell it to a fool?"
"I'm not a fool. I know how much my ranch is worth."
The plantation owner cannot understand Chinese, but Xiong Jieming can understand English...
Ellie was just dissatisfied with Xiong Jieming's casual interruption. This is the most taboo point in business negotiations. If the plantation owner can understand, there will be no need to continue the negotiation.
Xiong Jieming was ashamed at this moment. When he heard that 200 million was sold to a fool, he wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it...
With nearly 1,500 acres of land, you can never see the end of the vineyard. You can only feel its charm when you are in it. Domestic land is expensive, especially the land that has been developed...
Land in the United States is relatively cheap. In the most famous grape-producing area in the United States (Sonoma and Napa are basically equally famous, Napa is more commercial and the land is more expensive), a large-scale vineyard area has been formed...a large area of land.
There is a lot of room for premium. If it is a first-hand external quotation, it is common sense to bargain.