THE GIAPPONESE ARE COMING!

Although most of my work is done outdoors and in the vineyard, I've had the chance to learn a little bit about the wine business. Catching snippets of conversation, using the machine that puts the labels on the bottles, etc. Yesterday GB enlisted me to be translator for his newest Swiss client who only spoke French. Thank god for some reason I retained the word "degustation" from somewhere in my past.



There is a giant wine conference in Verona that happened two weekends ago that GB (my 'boss' in case I didn't mention him before) attended. Here was where he met the Swiss buyer, as well as the JAPANESE buyers. He explained to me this is a big deal. The wine industry is really just beginning there, it's very elite so the buyers don't want wines that are already international successes, they want to start their own fads. They are the new young eyes of the wine industry GB tells me.



Really, this meant little to me as me & Mario were still out in the fields the day of their arrival. It was unseasonably hot that day and we were hoeing the plants and adding fertilizer around - ORGANIC fertilizer. As I mentioned, it was HOT that day. Mario chugged four litres of water before lunch. I put on six layers of suncreen and then gave up and pulled my hair in front of my face to protect my nose. By 3pm, sunstroke had set in. We were competing over who could make the weirdest or most inappropriate noises as we hack and heft away at the earth (such as car alarm noises, swears in various languages at shrill volumes etc).
Mario is mid-oink and I throw down my hoe and bellow "E CHE SUA PAPA!?" ( italian for "WHO'S YOUR DADDY!?") just as the Hyundais purr past. Click, click goes their Nikons. Konnichwa?

In the end, the Japanese bought an unheard of amount of sales for the early summer. My wine is in Japan.