National Tide 1980.

The wine harvest in Burgundy is almost over.

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 regular staff members, and many of the workers were hired temporarily during the picking season.

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

In his sight, the workers carried huge wooden barrels filled with 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 are covered with rows of spaced grape trellises like waves, and the maple trees and cotinus trees scattered between the stone houses are covered with colorful autumn clothes, making the entire hillside golden except for the vineyards.

Such a beautiful scenery is simply a paradise on earth. It deserves the name "Jinpo" and is truly worthy of its name.

Especially when you think that such a golden paradise will belong to you in the future, you will be even more delighted.

Although the accommodation was rather simple, the room was cold and the bed was hard, if you really needed to keep warm you could only rely on a traditional fireplace.

But Ning Weimin didn't care, he was in a very good mood.

Not only because the surrounding pastoral beauty 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-gray-haired winery steward, and heard Alain Delon's envious words all the time, he really understood the value of his new 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 Wines", and believes that Burgundy can be compared with Bordeaux, the "King of French Wines".

But few people know that the Burgundy wine producing area is not very large.
Starting from Dijon in the north and reaching Lyon in the south, Burgundy is connected to the grape-producing areas on the slopes of the Rhone River. Its scope 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.

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

Due to the complex topography and extremely diverse soils, the Burgundy vineyard classification system is extremely detailed and complex, even compared to any other grape-producing area.

In fact, there are as many as 1,247 terroir parcels in Burgundy named after valleys.

Most wine experts can only admire Burgundy and find it difficult to find the essence of it.

Each geography here has specific geological, hydrological and climatic characteristics, and the level of subdivision is shocking.

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

There are a wide variety of wine styles 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 regions simply cannot compare to.

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

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

So much so that in the eyes of connoisseurs who truly know how to appreciate wine, Burgundy means high quality + style + expensive + rare. It is far more noble than Bordeaux wines of the same level, and sometimes even "overqualified".

Of course, the number of vineyards that can produce such high-quality wines that are worthy of such acclaim is bound to 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 region have been used on the labels of Burgundy wines.

However, only 1% of the vineyards are capable of producing the highest-grade Grand Cru wine, and less than 10% of the wineries can reach the level of Premier Cru.

However, Burgundy has 84 vineyards that meet the AOC (French wine certification system) requirements, compared to only 65 in Bordeaux.

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

This shows the characteristics of Burgundy's quality wineries and vineyards.

To put it bluntly, the number is small and the area is small, far less than the vast Bordeaux with all the big wineries.

So Ning Weimin was so lucky to get a vineyard in Burgundy that produced first-class wine.

Although his Jinpo Winery produces more than 40 kinds of wine and there is no special wine among them, it can produce first-class wine. Such a winery is already a classified winery, and it has already crushed 90% of its peers in Burgundy.

In particular, Jinpo Winery has an annual production of 110,000 bottles, of which about 30% are first-class wines and 20% are second-class wines.

The proportion of such high-quality wine production is extremely rare and is far higher than that of most independent wineries.

The reason for this is that the winemaker's experience and dedication are very important, and the person deserves credit for it.

In short, even the French cannot easily buy such rare wineries and vineyards.

If for no other reason, it is because the number of wineries is 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-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 top minority of society and be acquired by them.

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

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

As early as two hundred years ago, this place was once full of glory.

This vineyard is widely known for its excellent grape harvest and wine quality, and enjoys a prestigious status in the French wine industry.

The most famous story about this is that when Emperor Napoleon was on his eastern expedition, he sent someone to ask for fine wine.

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

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

The following year, the banker purchased Romanee Conti, the world's most famous wine estate in Burgundy.

When Ovolard died, Château Kimpo passed 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 that a businessman bought the place for francs, and it was the third time that the owner of the place changed hands since the establishment of the park. Ten years later, the businessman was forced to sell it to the Racamier family because he was facing bankruptcy.

To date, for as long as eighty years, the winery has been the private property of the Lacamier family.

Not to mention how much 300,000 francs from nearly a hundred years ago are worth now, let’s just talk about how much old money like that of the Lacamier and Vuitton families is worth?

They must sell the place publicly, unless they meet a prodigal son who gets into bad habits and squanders all his wealth.

Or when someone dies without heirs or a will, their estate is auctioned off by the government.

Either it is given to Ning Weimin like this to reward the most important friend, otherwise it is impossible.

Because it’s not a question of how much money you have, it’s equivalent to selling your own face.

Apart from anything else, French superstars like Alain Delon are already middle-aged and have no chance of owning such a winery.

He himself said that the winery he bought ten years ago is in the central highlands of France and only has four hectares of land.

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

But then again, if Jinpo Winery is so good, why does such a winery have such low annual profits?

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

The annual income was less than one million francs, which was equivalent to the income of Henry, a lawyer, for several months.

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

This guy's mind is all on LV, and as for wine, he prefers drinking rather than brewing.

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

As long as Jinpo Winery produces good quality wine every year, a portion will be sent to Paris to meet his drinking needs.

Then it would be enough for him to come here occasionally for vacation and live a pastoral life.

He doesn't even care about how much money the winery makes every year. In fact, he is even more unscrupulous than Jia Zhen in "Dream of Red Mansions".

Because Jia Zhen was suffering from a deficit in the mansion, he also complained that the granary produced too little and scolded Wu Jinxiao who paid tribute to him.

But Henry was not like that. He possessed the wealth of two noble families and had no shortage of money.

What's more, he owns far more than just one winery.

He also has several wineries in places like the foothills of the Jura in eastern France, Chablis in northern Burgundy, Champagne in northern France, and Bordeaux.

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

I guess they never thought about whether they should evolve the Jinpo Winery, which produces first-class wine, and turn it into a famous winery producing special-class wine.

Think about it, with a boss like this who never seeks to make progress and takes the initiative to lay down his hands, 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 had not really taken off and was far from being as crazy as it would be a few decades later. The wine market had not yet reached the era of huge profits.

In France, and even in the whole of Europe, wine is still a fast-moving consumer product. It does not represent a luxury economy, and the price is very affordable and rational.

Take Paris as an example. 70% of the wines sold in supermarkets are priced between 15 francs and 80 francs, equivalent to 2 to 12 US dollars.

The average price of red wine is 30 francs a bottle, and the most expensive average price is sweet white wine, which is 45 francs a bottle. Only 5% of the wine costs more than 80 francs, and 25% of the wine is below 18 francs. 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 digested internally and have never been able to go beyond France or even beyond the production area.

Even without additional market demand, Burgundy wineries will not have enough wine to sell due to their small average size, and many famous wineries have already implemented a quota sales system.

Wineries usually package different wines according to their own rules and sell them to long-term partners.

For example, one of the most expensive wineries in Burgundy, Romanée-Conti, only produces around 6000 cases ( bottles) each year, and even fewer in bad years.

At present, this wine is not as famous as Bordeaux's Lafite in the market. The price of each bottle is less than half of Lafite, only about 12000 francs.

At the same time, the winery never sells individually, but only supplies the wines in limited quotas as sets together with other wines to long-term private customers and importers.

Failure to pay on time or making requests that are too onerous may even result in you being kicked off the list – there are already many people in the queue.

Romanee Saint-David has a similar production volume and sells for only 4000 francs.

Who can believe that the annual output value of Burgundy's world-class winery is less than 100 million yuan?

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

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 Hill, and his winery steward is quite familiar with the person in charge of the Romanée-Conti Winery. Not only is he a friend with whom he can sit down and taste wine together, but he is also a distant relative like his eldest uncle's second brother-in-law from his mother's side.

So just for this reason, Ning Weimin thinks that the Jinpo Winery is simply great. Even if it can only produce regional-level mass-market wines, he believes it is a high-quality asset.

What Henri Lacamier had given him was a treasure.

Apart from anything else, if you get some quota of Romanée-Conti and Romanée Saint-Vigne every year and stock up dozens of boxes every year, that will be enough to show off in front of all the big names 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 premium wine is not that the quality of the wine is really that different, but the key is that the public relations and publicity work was not done well.

And he happens to be the best at marketing. It is really a perfect match for him to have such a good winery in his hands.

So, after he became more familiar with the steward of the winery, he had already started to tip the steward off, saying that after he became the owner, they would not have to worry about the future at all.

Not only will all staff members receive the same salary, he will also give them a salary increase of about 20%.

What they have to do, in addition to continuing to produce wine, is to help him introduce the person in charge of the Romanée-Conti winery to see if they can get some quota.

Also, Jinpo Winery will not sell its wines outside anymore. He will arrange all sales. It would be too disadvantageous for him to sell them to wine merchants at the current price.

To be honest, he not only now recognized the quality of the gift 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 through restaurants with which he has connections.

Only sell to rich guys and make a killing from them.

Otherwise, it would be a waste of resources. (End of this chapter)