Winemaker

Chapter 27 Visiting the Red Winery

Su Qingdai came back from the ancient city and stayed at a hot spring hotel not far from the largest winery in Maitreya that night.

After running around for several days, soaking in a hot spring is the best way to relieve fatigue.

Su Qingdai came out of the pool, packed up and went back to her room, only to find that there were several missed calls on her mobile phone, and the number belonged to Beijing, but there were also some old classmates and old friends in Beijing who called again Many, Su Qingdai called back the phone.

"Hi, hello, may I ask..."

"Dai Dai, I'm Jiang Yicheng, don't hang up."

Su Qingdai froze for a moment, "Hello, what can I do?"

"Where are you?"

"It doesn't seem to concern you."

"Dede..."

Jiang Yicheng's words were interrupted by Su Qingdai, "It's not necessary to be so intimate, just call me Su Qingdai."

"Okay, Dede, let's talk."

"That's not necessary. We should all be sensible exes and disappear from each other's world." Su Qingdai paused, "Is there anything else? I'll go to bed first."

Su Qingdai hung up the phone after finishing speaking.

Just like the mental preparations she made before she came back, Jiang Yicheng will see her sooner or later, and as for this call, she will also answer it sooner or later.

Jiang Yicheng was never someone who would give up easily, and she was never someone who would stick to one thing for a long time.

When she came back, she wanted to say goodbye to the past, not to continue the previous relationship. She said, there is nothing to continue after a bad relationship.

Receiving this call somewhat affected her mood, but after a bowl of hot braised chicken and rice noodles, Su Qingdai felt that she was feeling better again.

Early the next morning, Su Qingdai went to the winery in the suburbs. Not long after leaving the county, large tracts of vineyards began to appear on both sides of the road. The grapes at the end of April had already begun to climb the trellises. The rows of neat grapes, Su Qingdai is in a good mood.

The grapes used for wine making are different from the grapes we usually eat. The grapes we eat are thin-skinned, thick-fleshed, sweet, sour and juicy, while the grapes used for wine-making are mostly thick-skinned and less fleshy, with smaller grains and even more sour.

If it weren't for the driver's Mandarin mixed with dialects, Su Qingdai would really have the illusion that she was in a certain vineyard abroad.

Some roses are planted at the end of each row of grapes. This is not for aesthetics, but because you can tell whether the grapes are short of water by looking at the degree of withering of the roses. Many famous winery vineyards abroad will also do this.

The winery is not far from the county seat. The person in charge of the reception in the park told Su Qingdai that because of the epidemic, and April is not the season for picking or brewing, there are very few workers and tourists in the park.

Su Qingdai expressed her understanding, and she didn't come to see the picking and brewing.

The winery uses stainless steel fermentation tanks. According to the reception staff, commercial yeasts are also used, and Su Qingdai prefers local yeast strains to let "wild" yeasts ferment the wine naturally.

This is also the style of each winemaker, and of course it is also related to the situation and environment of the winery.

Regardless of the fermentation method, it has its own unique characteristics.

Due to the relationship between the grapes used in the winery, the winery mainly produces dry red. Su Qingdai found that the wine flavor here is very unique after careful tasting.

The tannin is very rich, not only from the grape itself, but also from other woody tannins, which may be related to the rich vegetation here.

Although the taste is a bit sour, Su Qingdai was impressed by this taste. It is very firm and has the feeling of Cabernet Sauvignon, but Cabernet Sauvignon is obviously not grown here.

After coming out of the wine tasting hall, before walking a few steps, a rainstorm suddenly came in the originally sunny weather.

The reception staff took Su Qingdai to the eaves not far away, called his colleagues and asked them to drive a battery car to pick them up.

"Does it often rain heavily?" Su Qingdai asked.

The receptionist shook his head, "March and April are fine, now at the end of April, it will be summer soon, and there will be a lot of rain in summer."

Su Qingdai frowned. The abundant rainfall, especially in June, is not a good thing for the grapes used for brewing.

Generally speaking, grapes at this latitude can be picked around July. Grapes are different from avocados and bananas. Grapes will not continue to ripen after being picked, so the picking time is very important.

They must be fully mature on the vines and accumulate enough sugar before they can be picked. However, if the precipitation is abundant during the ripening period, the premature grapes will be rotten, which will not only reduce the yield, but also increase the workload of sorting. After being sorted out, some strains will be left behind.

Because commercial yeast is used, the leftover strains will affect the taste brought by commercial yeast.

It's just that Su Qingdai doesn't have a particularly good way to improve the climate problem.

In fact, the grape variety Su Qingdai used here has only been seen in books.

Among the many wineries she has been to and worked in, there is no mass production of rose honey and French wild, and some vineyards do not even have these two varieties.

It is said that it was brought to China by French missionaries in the second half of the 19th century. At that time, phylloxera pests broke out in Europe, and grapevines were brought to Asia to be preserved and widely planted.

Su Qingdai also went to Dongfeng Farm, a place with a sense of the times just by hearing its name. This is the place where Maitreya's wine industry dream started.

Due to historical reasons in the last century, a group of intellectuals came here, including scientists who had returned from France, and some botanists and ecologists.

Because of their arrival, coupled with the industrious and simple people, and with the help of the unique local terroir, the wine industry here has developed rapidly.

Speaking of domestic wine producing areas, people probably know the most about Shandong and Ningxia at the foot of the Helan Mountains, but they don’t know that the most expensive wine in China is actually produced in Yunnan.

Maitreya has more than 30 wineries and more than [-] mu of vineyards. Naturally, Su Qingdai can't go through them all. The few ones she has been to are all similar, with small scale, new technology, low price and small market.

This is probably the main reason for the slow development of the domestic red wine industry.

Starting from small family workshops, expanding production to private enterprises, and then maintaining the status quo.

Su Qingdai has not learned business management systematically, but her experience tells her that doing so is indeed not a long-term solution.

But without investigation, she has no right to speak. Su Qingdai gave up a few tourist attractions in the middle and went directly to another wine producing area, Shangri-La.

There are vineyards developed by famous luxury brands and red wineries invested in the construction. The red wine production here is not high, but the price is not low, and the price of each bottle is 300 euros.

Su Qingdai was lucky enough to drink it once. The 13 wine is really good. The Bordeaux blending technique adopted is like a fusion product of Spanish Douro River and American Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.

Although the taste is really good, compared to its price, it is still a little below expectations.

Su Qingdai wants to go and see for herself, where is the limited winery that sells for 300 euros?
　Because the thesis task is a bit heavy, I can only change it this month

　　
　
(End of this chapter)