Duke Arthur's Winery

July 1, 1900, on the outskirts of Sydney.

The meeting yesterday had given Arthur a clear understanding of the fact that Australia was lagging behind in every aspect. Although he had drawn up detailed plans for every area with the various ministers and allocated as much as thirty million pounds in funding, it would probably be at least a year before any results could be seen.

The good news, however, was that after the Cabinet meeting ended, Arthur would enjoy a period of free time.

That did not mean he truly had nothing to do, but compared with his formerly hectic days, he now had plenty of leisure.

What Arthur had not expected was to be summoned to the outskirts of Sydney by Butler Hunter on his very first day. The reason was that Arthur's private winery was about to be completed.

Roger Joseph Ebert, who had previously managed Arthur's assets together with Butler Hunter, had become Australia's Minister of Finance. As a result, the heavy responsibility of managing Arthur's private assets had fallen entirely on Butler Hunter.

This was no easy task. Arthur's current private holdings included two steel mills, a munitions factory, and a shipyard, along with £132 million in cash and £150 million in assets lent to the government.

After handing all these assets over to Butler Hunter to manage, Arthur had basically stopped asking about them.

European nobles had a special attachment to red wine. To them, red wine was as important as formal attire at a banquet.

In Europe, not having a castle did not necessarily mean one was a lesser noble. But nobles without their own private wineries were, nine times out of ten, either impoverished or low-ranking.

Wine had already been endowed with a special meaning in Europe. People believed it could earn them God's protection, and it was pursued and adored by all European nobles.

Duke Arthur also had his own private winery in the United Kingdom, but he had already sold it off.

After arriving in Australia, Butler Hunter had begun choosing a site for Arthur's winery. While Arthur had been busy with affairs of state, he had already completed most of its construction. All that remained was for Arthur to visit in person, give the winery a noble name, and put it into production.

When Marguerite and Patricia learned that Arthur was going to the outskirts of Sydney, the two girls cried and clamored to go along.

Arthur had no choice but to agree, on the condition that Princess Louise accompany them.

After all, given the two girls' restless personalities, if Princess Louise did not keep an eye on them, who knew what they might get up to again?

And so, what had originally been an outing for Arthur alone evolved into a motorcade carrying the entire Australian Royal Family.

Many servants and guards accompanied them as well, bringing the motorcade's total size to several hundred people.

By the time the grand motorcade reached the winery's location, it was already noon.

Butler Hunter had been waiting outside the gates for quite some time, awaiting Arthur and the Royal Family's arrival.

"Butler Hunter, how are things?" Arthur slowly stepped down from the carriage and asked with a smile.

"Everything has gone smoothly, Your Highness. We were only waiting for you, Her Highness the Princess, and the two little princesses." Butler Hunter gave a gentlemanly bow and spoke respectfully.

Once Princess Louise and her two younger sisters had stepped down from the carriage, Arthur smiled and said, "Come on, let's go see how the winery turned out."

It was called a winery, but in reality, it was a combination of a vineyard and a winery.

Moreover, because Australia was currently vast and sparsely populated, the winery covered an astonishing three square kilometers—that was, three hundred hectares, or a full 4,500 mu of land.

Just how large was this winery? Walking around the estate once would require covering at least six kilometers. Even at a brisk pace, it would take a full hour or more.

Fortunately, Arthur had not gotten the idea to walk around the estate. Otherwise, whether he could make it back here after an hour would have been another question entirely.

"Butler Hunter, with such a huge vineyard, where are we going to get all our grapevines?" Arthur asked curiously.

With ordinary trellised grapevines, about 140 vines could be planted per mu. This was a fairly suitable spacing: It ensured that each vine received enough sunlight without wasting too much land.

Although part of the winery's area would be used for producing and fermenting wine, leaving a smaller area for grape cultivation, it would still require at least six hundred thousand grapevines.

There were so many vines that even if they searched all of Australia, they probably could not gather enough.

"Your Highness, even before you sold off your British winery, I had already begun stockpiling grape seeds. Our winery currently has nearly five hundred thousand grape seeds planted. We also purchased ten thousand grapevines, fifty thousand grape seedlings, and tens of thousands of fruit trees from Australia. Before the seeds grow into grapevines, our winery should be able to produce approximately 130,000 liters of wine each year." Butler Hunter explained with a smile.

Finished grapevines were difficult to purchase, but high-quality grape seeds could be found everywhere.

Although most of the winery's plantings consisted of grape seeds, in two or three years they would still be able to harvest a large number of mature grapevines.

Arthur was somewhat surprised. He had not expected Butler Hunter to have begun planning the Australian winery back when they were still in the United Kingdom.

"Butler Hunter, our current production is enough, isn't it? If production is too high, we won't be able to sell it all. At least for the next few years, our wine won't be able to compete with French wine." Arthur asked with slight surprise.

At present, most of Europe's most famous red wines came from France, owing to its geography and climate.

Without access to the vast European market, even if the winery could produce vast quantities of wine, it would not be able to sell them and would only suffer losses.

"Your Highness, the winery's annual expenses are less than £100,000, entirely within what we can afford. Although we cannot compare with European red wine in the short term, we can firmly control the Australian market. As immigration increases, Australia's red wine market will gradually expand, and maintaining a balance between income and expenses will not be difficult for the winery. When the European red wine market experiences turmoil, it will not be too late for us to enter Europe. At worst, aged red wine will be smoother than newly produced wine. We can create two brands: one following a high-end route and targeting the European market, and another following a low-end route and serving the Australian market." Butler Hunter explained.

With red wine, fresher did not mean better. On the contrary, aged red wine had a richer, fuller flavor and would be even more coveted by European nobles.

Even when produced by the same winery, wine made this year and wine made ten years ago could differ in price by several times.

First update—please show your support! All kinds of votes and investments are welcome!