National Tide 1980

It is the season when the harvest in Burgundy is coming to an end.

When Ning Weimin and his two friends came to inspect his "fiefdom", they could still see the winery workers working in the large and small vineyards on the hillside.

The winery that Henri Lacamier gave to Ning Weimin had only nine formal staff members, and many workers were hired temporarily during the harvest season.

But this still did not affect Ning Weimin's ability to feel this special joy of harvest when he first saw this scene.

In his vision, the workers carried huge wooden barrels full of fresh grapes on their heads, and walked like worker ants towards the crushers and squeezers outside the old wine cellar down the slope.

The hills were covered with rows of spaced grape vine racks like waves, and the maple trees and cotinus trees distributed between the stone houses were covered with colorful autumn clothes, making the entire hillside golden except for the vineyards.

Such a beautiful scenery is simply a paradise on earth, worthy of the name "Golden Slope", which is indeed worthy of the name.

Especially when he thought that such a golden paradise would belong to him in the future, he was even more delighted.

Although the place where he could stay was relatively simple, the room was cold and the bed was hard, and he had to rely on the traditional fireplace 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 brought him a brand new experience, but also because when he saw the wine cellar with rich wines, listened to the introduction of the half-white-haired winery steward, and the envy of Alain Delon that always filled his ears, he really understood the value of the winery he had just acquired.

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.

From Dijon in the north to Lyon in the south, it is connected with the Rhone River slope grape producing area. The scope of Burgundy is only a few hundred miles.

Even the total output of the entire Burgundy region only accounts for about 0.5% of the world's wine production.

And it is also known as "the most complex and difficult wine producing area on earth".

Due to the complex terrain and extremely diverse soils, the Burgundy vineyard classification system seems extremely fragmented and complex even compared to any other grape producing area.

In fact, there are as many as 1,247 subdivisions of Burgundy's terroirs named after valleys.

Ordinary wine experts can only sigh at Burgundy and find it difficult to find the essence of it.

Each terroir here has specific geological, hydrological and climatic characteristics, and its subdivision is embarrassing.

However, it is precisely because each small piece of vineyard here has its own unique personality.

Various wine styles have been produced in the Burgundy vineyards.

Even an ordinary small winery can produce at least a dozen kinds of fine wines, and a medium-sized winery can produce as many as dozens of kinds. In terms of product variety, it can be said to be extremely rich.

This is something that other well-known wine producing areas cannot compare with.

Although the output of many wines is not high, it is even only a few thousand or a few hundred bottles.

But among the many niche wines here, the world's most prestigious and distinctive red wines, white wines and sparkling wines were born.

In the eyes of experts who really know how to appreciate wine, Burgundy is equal to high quality + style + expensive + rare, far more noble than Bordeaux wines of the same level, and sometimes even "over-level killing" occurs.

Of course, the high-quality vineyards that can create such famous wines that are praised by people must be a minority among the minority.

You should know that since the Burgundy classification system was officially established in 1855, the four classifications of Grand Cru, Premier Cru, Village and Regional have been used on the labels of Burgundy wines.

But all vineyards that can produce the highest-level Grand Cru wines only account for 1% of the output, and less than 10% of the wineries can reach the level of Premier Cru.

However, there are as many as 84 vineyards in Burgundy that meet the AOC (French famous wine supervision system), compared with only 65 in Bordeaux.

In fact, the smallest AOC production area in France is in Burgundy, which is only 0.85 hectares.

From this, we can know the characteristics of Burgundy's high-quality wineries and vineyards.

To put it bluntly, there are few in number and small in area, far less than the vast Bordeaux where all the big wineries are.

So Ning Weimin was so lucky 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 crushed 90% of its peers in Burgundy.

In particular, Jinpo Winery's annual output of 110,000 bottles can be about 30% of first-class wine and 20% of second-class wine.

The proportion of such high-quality wine production is even more rare, far higher than most independent wineries.

The reason for this is that the experience and dedication of the winemaker are very important reasons, and he has made great contributions.

In short, such rare wineries and vineyards are not easy to buy even for the French.

For no other reason, it is because the wineries are limited and fixed, which is determined by the objective conditions of the natural environment.

There are less than 2,000 wineries in the whole of Burgundy, and only 9,000 wineries in Bordeaux, the largest wine producing region in France.

When someone wants to own such a wine 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 a few top social classes and be annexed by them.

The French old money that can obtain such high-quality assets is accumulated over generations and obtained from historical opportunities, which is difficult to find in the current market.

For example, Ning Weimin learned from the steward of the winery that this Jinpo Winery was one of the earliest wineries established by French monks.

As early as two hundred years ago, this place was once infinitely glorious.

Because the grape harvest and wine quality of this garden are excellent, it is widely known and has a high status in the French wine industry.

The most famous related story is that Emperor Napoleon sent a special person to ask for fine wine during his eastern expedition.

Later, the French Revolution changed the fate of Jinpo Winery, which was confiscated and auctioned to individuals.

It is recorded that in 1818, Jinpo Winery was purchased by banker Julien-Jules Ovolard.

The following year, the banker bought the world's most famous winery in Burgundy, Romanee Conti.

When Ovolard died, Château de Champagne was passed on to his youngest son.

From this perspective, it can even be said that Château de Champagne is the Romanee Conti brothers.

It was not until 1900 that a businessman bought this place for 300,000 francs, and this place experienced the third change of ownership since the establishment of the winery.

Ten years later, the businessman was forced to sell it to the Lacamier family because he was facing bankruptcy.

So far, for as long as 80 years, the winery has been the private property treasured by the Lacamier family.

Not to mention how much 300,000 francs nearly a hundred years ago are worth now, just say how much is the old money of the Lacamier and Vuitton families worth?

To let them sell this place publicly, unless they meet a prodigal son who has acquired bad habits and squandered his family property.

Or when they die, there is no heir and no will, and the estate is auctioned by the government.

Either it was given to Ning Weimin as a reward to his most important friend, otherwise it was impossible.

Because it was not a question of how much money it was, it was equivalent to selling one's own face.

Apart from anything else, French stars like Alain Delon were already middle-aged, and he had 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, with only four hectares of land.

The wine produced by his winery was of village quality at best, which was completely incomparable, so he was naturally envious of Ning Weimin's unexpected harvest.

But then again, since Jinpo Winery is so good, why is the annual income of such a winery so low?

It actually has an annual income of less than one million francs, which is equivalent to Henry's income for a few months as a lawyer.

This answer is actually very easy to answer, that is because its original owner, Henry Lacamier, was too careless.

This guy is all about LV, and he likes to drink more than make wine.

He was not very enthusiastic about the annual awards and exhibitions in Burgundy and other major wine regions in France.

As long as Jinpo Winery produced good quality wine every year and sent some to Paris to meet his drinking needs.

Then he could come here occasionally for vacation and live a pastoral life, which was enough for him.

He was not even very concerned about how much the winery made every year. In fact, he was more unbridled than Jia Zhen in "Dream of Red Mansions".

Because Jia Zhen was constrained by the deficit in the mansion, he also complained that the grain farm produced too little and scolded Wu Jinxiao who paid tribute to him.

But Henry was not like that. He alone occupied the property of two aristocratic families and was not short of money at all.

Moreover, he had far more than just one winery under his name.

Like the Jura foothills in eastern France, Chablis in northern Burgundy, Champagne in northern France, and Bordeaux, he also had several wineries.

So since he inherited this winery, he has completely adopted a laissez-faire attitude, as Buddhist as he can be.

Probably, I never thought about whether to let the Jinpo Winery, which produces first-class wine, evolve and become a famous winery that produces special wine.

Think about it, with such a boss who does not ask for progress at all and takes the initiative to lie down, can we still expect this winery to make a lot of money?

In addition, due to the lack of information in this era, the luxury trend of wine has not really blown up, far less crazy than a few decades later, and the wine market has not yet reached the era of huge profits.

In France, and even the whole of Europe, wine is still a fast-moving consumer product, not representing the luxury economy, and the price is very close to the people and very rational.

Take Paris as an example. 70% of the wine sold in supermarkets is sold at a price between 15 francs and 80 francs, equivalent to 2 to 12 US dollars.

Among them, the average price of red wine is 30 francs per bottle, and the most expensive average price is sweet white wine, 45 francs per bottle. Only 5% of the wine costs more than 80 francs, and 25% of the wine is below 18 francs, and the cheapest one can buy a bottle for one dollar.

Especially for regions producing niche products like Burgundy, it is impossible to expand. Many excellent products are consumed internally and have never been able to go out of France or even out of the production area.

Even if there is no additional market demand, Burgundy wineries will not have enough wine to sell due to their small average volume. Many famous wineries have already implemented a quota sales system.

The winery usually packages different wines according to its own rules and sells them to long-term partners.

For example, Romanée-Conti, one of the most expensive wineries in Burgundy, only produces about 500 boxes (6,000 bottles) each year, and even less in bad years.

At present, this kind of wine is far less famous in the market than Lafite in Bordeaux, and the price of each bottle is less than half of Lafite, only about 12,000 francs.

At the same time, the winery never sells it alone, but only supplies it to long-term private customers and importers with limited quotas and other wines.

Failure to pay on time or making too troublesome requests may even result in being kicked off the list - there are many people waiting in line.

Romanée Saint-Végé has a similar output and is priced at only 9,000 francs.

Who can believe that the annual output value of Burgundy's world's number one winery is not even over 100 million?

This is the situation in Burgundy that Ning Weimin sees with his own eyes now.

What made him particularly happy was that the winery that could surpass Lafite in the future was less than 20 kilometers away from his Jinpo land, and his winery steward was quite familiar with the person in charge of Romanée-Conti, and they were friends who could sit down and taste wine together.

So just for this reason, Ning Weimin felt that this Jinpo winery was simply too good. Even if it could only produce mass-market wines at the regional level, he still considered it a high-quality asset.

Henri Lacamier gave him a treasure.

Apart from anything else, if he could get some quotas of Romanée-Conti and Romanée-Saint-Végne every year, and stock up dozens of boxes every year, it would be enough to show off in front of the big families in the future.

Not to mention, Jinpo Winery itself is not bad. According to Ning Weimin's personal understanding, the reason why it failed to produce special wines was not because the quality of the wines was really so different, but because the public relations and publicity work was not done well.

And he happened to be the best at marketing. If such a good winery fell into his hands, it would really complement each other.

Therefore, when he got to know the steward of the winery better, he began to tell him that they didn't need to worry about the future after he became the owner.

Not only would the treatment of all the staff not be reduced, he would also give them a 20% salary increase.

And what they had to do, in addition to continuing to produce wine well, was to help him introduce the person in charge of the Roman-Conti winery to see if they could get some quotas.

Also, the wine of Jinpo Winery should not be sold outside in the future. He would arrange all the sales. It would be too bad for him to sell it to wine merchants at the current price.

To be honest, he not only re-recognized the quality of the gift that Henri Lacamier gave him, but he also agreed with Henri Lacamier's suggestion that the wine produced by his winery should indeed be sold only from restaurants with which he had connections.

Only sell it to those rich people and make a lot of money from them.

Otherwise, it would be a waste of resources.