经济学人下载:酿酒回忆录

Books and arts
文艺

A memoir of winemaking
酿酒回忆录

In the drink
沉醉美酒

The Road to Burgundy: The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and a New Life in France. By Ray Walker.
《通往勃艮第之路：美国人法国学酿酒，绝处逢生》雷沃克

RAY WALKER, a trainee securities representative at Merrill Lynch in California, cashed in his chips before his career had barely begun and decided instead to learn how to make wine.
雷沃克是加利福尼亚州美林证券公司的有价证券实习生代表，就在要开始他的职业生涯之际，他决定去学酿酒。

He then moved to France to make red Burgundy, the most rarefied and tricky wine of them all.
于是他来到了法国，学习最纯正最优良的勃艮第红酒制作。

Now a successful vintner, he has an intoxicating tale to tell.
如今他作为一个成功的葡萄酒商人，接下来要告诉我们一个动人的故事。

Mr Walker knew nothing about wine before his wife began serving it at mealtimes. But soon it became a passion, then a pursuit.
沃克先生对葡萄酒一无所知，直到他的妻子在餐桌上摆上了酒，猛地激发了他对酒的爱好，于是变成了他一生所追随的事业。

Though his wife was six months pregnant at the time, he dropped his banking career to follow his dream.
他不顾妻子已有六个月的身孕，辞去了银行的工作，开始追随他的梦想。

The reader may well be mystified as to how the author could be so capricious, particularly as he had little beyond his own savings to draw from.
读者可能会困惑，为什么作者会这么任性出走特别是在他还有妻小储蓄也不多的情况下。

But had events gone another way, this would be a rather different memoir.
但他还是走了，换另外一个说法，这将会是一个特别的回忆录。

Once he gleaned what he could from books, Mr Walker sought lowly work at wineries in California to learn more about the business.
沃克先生来到加利福尼亚的一家酿酒厂索诺玛公司做低等工，他已经不能从书本提供的知识里得到满足了，他期望在公司学到更多关于这个行业的东西。

After a season of back-breaking work in Sonoma, this Panglossian figure heads to Burgundy to buy modest grapes from a wine broker.
筋疲力尽地工作了一个季度后，这个过分的乐观主义者从法国勃艮第区的一个葡萄酒代理人那里买来了价格适中的葡萄。

Instead he ends up securing enough to make three different Burgundies, including two barrels of Chambertin, one of France's greatest wines.
结果，他买到的葡萄足以让他做成三种不同的勃艮第葡萄酒，包括两桶香贝坦红葡萄酒，这是法国最好的葡萄酒之一。

None of this could have happened without the support of a laid-back Californian financier, a friend of someone Mr Walker met through an online wine forum.
如果没有那个生活优越的加利福尼亚金融家支持，所有这些都不会发生。那个金融家是沃克先生在葡萄酒论坛上认识的网友的朋友。

After a single telephone call, this man cheerily upped his stake in this modest business to around 150,000.
沃克和他通了一次电话之后，这个男人就欣然把投资增加到了15万美元左右，虽然这个行当业绩平平。

Mr Walker's good fortune continued in Burgundy, where nearly everyone he dealt with was honourable and helpful, save for two winemakers who tried to sabotage his plans.
沃克先生在勃艮第也遇到了好运气，除了两个试图破坏他酿酒计划的勃艮第酒商，那里的人几乎个个都为人正直而又乐于助人。

Fortuitously, his first vintage was an exceptional one in Burgundy.
意外的是，沃克先生第一次酿的酒在勃艮第特别出众。

But there is more to Mr Walker's success than that.
沃克先生不仅成功了，他还成了一个受欢迎的又能干的人。

He comes across as a likeable, can-do guy who earnestly believes that hard work, confidence and some luck is all it takes to make things happen.
他相信努力、自信和好运气是成功的垫脚石。

Now ensconced in Burgundy with his wife and young family, he is the only non-Frenchman ever to have made Chambertin.
沃克成了第一个做出香贝坦红葡萄酒的非法国籍人士，如今他和妻儿在勃艮第的生活别提有多安逸。

A common fantasy of overworked executives is to throw it all in and retire to a vineyard.
那些过度劳累的公司高管们通常是幻想着退休后要变卖掉一切然后到一个葡萄园里去享福。

Rarely do such endeavours end well.
没有人像沃克先生那样如此竭尽全力做到最好收尾的。

Mr Walker's story is sure to inspire a few more leaps of faith.
沃克先生的故事值得激励那些人来一个一百八十度的转变。