KEO.PLUS

July 1,1900, in the outskirts of Sydney.

The meeting yesterday made it clear to Arthur just how backwards Australia is in every aspect. Although he had made detailed plans with the various ministers and mobilized up to thirty million pounds of funds, he probably wouldn’t see the results until at least a year later.

But the good news was that after the cabinet meeting, Arthur would have some time to relax.

That wasn’t to say he really had nothing to do, but compared to the previous busy days, he had a lot more free time on his hands.

What Arthur didn’t expect was that on the very first day he was invited by Hunter Steward to the outskirts of Sydney as his private winery was about to be completed.

As Roger Joseph Albert, who previously managed Arthur’s assets alongside Hunter Steward, had become the Finance Minister of Australia, the full responsibility of managing Arthur’s private assets now fell on Hunter Steward.

It was no easy task, Arthur’s current private assets included two steel factories, a military factory and a shipyard, plus 130.2 million in cash and a loan of 150 million pounds to the government.

After handing over all these assets to Hunter Steward, Arthur essentially stopped poking his nose into it.

European nobility have a special affection for red wine. For nobles, red wine is as important as a banquet dress.

In Europe, you may not be regarded as a low-ranking noble if you don’t have a castle, but if you lack your personal winery, you are likely to be seen as a fallen or low-ranking noble.

Wine in Europe has been endowed with special significance, seen as a blessing from God and adored by all European nobles.

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

After coming to Australia, Hunter Steward had already started scouting locations for Arthur’s winery and had completed over half the winery construction while Arthur was busy with state affairs. Now, it was just waiting for Arthur to visit in person, name the winery with a noble title, then production could officially begin.

Upon hearing that Arthur was heading to the outskirts of Sydney, Margaret and Patricia both wailed, insisting on going with him.

Left with no choice, Arthur agreed to let them accompany him but on one condition – Duchess Louise had to come with them.

After all, given Margaret and Patricia’s erratic personality, without Duchess Louise’s supervision, who knows what they’d do.

Thus, what was initially a solitary trip for Arthur, became a grand procession involving the entire Australian royal family.

In addition, there were numerous servants and guards. The scale of the entire entourage was in the hundreds.

By the time the grand procession arrived at the winery, it was already noon.

Hunter Steward had been standing outside the entrance early on, waiting for Arthur and the royal family’s arrival.

“Hunter Steward, how are things?” asked Arthur, as he slowly got off the horse carriage.

“Everything is going smoothly, Your Highness. We’re merely awaiting the arrival of you, Duchess Louise, and the two young princesses,” replied Hunter Steward, giving a gentlemanly bow.

Once Duchess Louise and the two princesses had alighted from the carriage, Arthur then said, “Let’s go, let’s see how the winery has turned out.”

Although called a winery, it’s more accurately a combination of a vineyard and a winery.

And with the current vastness of Australia and its sparse population, the size of this winery has reached a staggering three square kilometers, or three hundred hectares, the equivalent of 4,500 acres.

Just how big is this winery? If you wanted to walk around the estate, it’d take at least six kilometers. Even walking briskly, it would take over an hour.

Thankfully, Arthur didn’t conceive the idea of walking around the estate, otherwise whether he could return here within an hour would be questionable.

“Hunter Steward, where do we get the grape trees for such a large red wine estate?” Arthur asked curiously.

Under normal trellis grape vines, about 140 grape trees can be planted per acre. This is a suitable spacing that ensures each grape tree gets enough sunlight without wasting too much land area.

Although a part of the winery’s area is used for the production and fermentation of wine, hence the planting area for grape trees isn’t as big, it would still require at least 600,000 grape trees.

So many grape trees, even if you searched all over Australia, you probably wouldn’t be able to collect them all.

“Your Highness, ever since you sold off the red wine estate in England, I had already started hoarding grape tree seeds. Our winery now has almost five hundred thousand grape seeds and we’ve also purchased ten thousand grape trees from Australia, as well fifty thousand grape seedlings and tens of thousands of fruit trees. Until the seeds grow into grape trees, our winery should be able to produce about 130,000 liters of grape wine each year.” Hunter Steward explained with a laugh.

While mature grape trees are difficult to purchase, good grape seeds are readily available everywhere.

Although most of the winery’s plantations are grape seeds, it would still yield a large number of mature grape trees in two or three years’ time.

Arthur was somewhat surprised, as he hadn’t expected that Hunter Steward had started planning the Australian winery back when they were still in England.

“Hunter Steward, surely our current yield is enough, right? If the yield is too large, it can’t be sold, at least for several years, our wine can’t possibly compete with French red wine.” Arthur asked in slight surprise.

Currently, the most famous wines in Europe are mostly produced in France, due to geographical location and climate factors.

Without the large European market, no matter how much red wine the winery produces, it can’t sell, resulting in losses.

“Your Highness, the winery’s annual expenses are less than a hundred thousand pounds, entirely within our acceptable range. Although we won’t be able to compete with European wines in the short term, we can steadily dominate the Australian market. As immigration increases, Australia’s red wine market will gradually expand too, maintaining a balance in income and expenditure isn’t difficult for the winery. When the European wine market fluctuates, we can then enter the European market, it would not be too late. Besides, aged wines have a richer taste compared to newly produced wines. We can create two brands, one high-end to operate in the European market, and one low-end to operate in the Australian market.” Hunter Steward explained.

As for red wine, the newer it is doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better to drink. On the contrary, aged red wines have a richer taste and attract more European nobility.

Wine produced by the same winery this year versus wine produced ten years ago could have a price difference of several times..