Drops of God: Duel - Episode 3 - Recap
Now that Camille is finally tasting wine again she manage to identify the components or at least what she think the components are, at this point things are very uncertain, Camille just started tasting wine after many years of having this extreme reaction to alcohol, Camille identify the components of the wine she tasted at Tokyo as Mirabelle, blueberry, celery root, cacao, pencil, chalk, fern, clay, licorice, not a very common combination and to a certain point misleading but only Phillip knows this because he has tasted this wine before, a wine from 1986 from a Tourine winegrower called Andre Gigon who used an old grape variety no one has used since World War II, called the Lignage and he manage to both create a red and white wine who very often confuse people, Phillip and Thomas finds out all bottles were sold the last one five years ago at the time of the series at the modes price for $10k per bottle, Camille don't have that amount of money to spend on a bottle even if she cold find one so Thomas takes the drastic decision to take Camille and pay a visit to Andre but they went bankrupt in 1996 so who knows if they still have any bottles around.
Thomas and Camille make the trip to find Mr. Andre Gigon, when they arrive their was no vineyard, after all they went bankrupt so it was all gone, Camille and Thomas had some time to chit chat during on their way to Mr. Gigon and out of no where Thomas asks Camille if she is seen some one, I think this question confuse her, to this point of the series its no secret she likes him but they haven't had that alone moment to clear things out. When they arrive Mr. Andre Gigon was old and his son live with him, they seem to be alone and accept to talk to Camille, Gigon's son talks a bit about how they knew using old grapes that no body knew about was key for the wine to be successful but they were a small company with limited budget for marketing and they didn't produce large volume neither, at first selling bottles for 40 franks to latter on find out that the last bottles were sold for $10k USD a mind blowing reality, been successful but just too late for them, he and his father had to sell everything to pay debts and close the company. This trip was not so useful for Camille her success on the contest but at least she was explained that from the same vintage they could make either red or white wine meaning both having same aromas despite the color something that may confuse people and Gigon's son also gave her a hint that the bottle she was probably looking for could be a Lignage, vintage 1987.
One Episode 1 Camille was not ideally pleased of how Luca receive her, he pick her up from the airport on a small white cargo bus and she judge him by his car but now she knows Luca is a baller, big boss restaurant owner but wont "open a bottle worth 12,000 euros just for could be" but Miyabi had an idea of who could open that bottle and then Camille would have to hustle out her way to taste this wine, one of Luca big customer is has reservation for that night and he is known to close deals every time he arrives so he has no weakens to spend large on wine, but the problem for Camille is that Mr. Matsubara never leaves a single drop behind, they going to offer him the bottle and if he agrees then at least Camille will have the chance to figure out how to taste it, Luca will have the bottle send out from Osaka to Tokyo and ready for Mr. Matsubara.
Miyabi who is Lucha Sommelier and Lorenzo his nephew are put in charge of Camille, to "train" her on how to serve the wine and take care of the table for the night without knowing they were wasting her time, Camille was told this ritual by his father when she was eight years old putting them to shame, what a troll Camille can be some times.
The night comes, Mr. Matsubara arrives with his client and Miyabi who is Luca Sommelier introduce Camille as the one in charge to serve Mr. Matsubara wine for the evening, everything goes according to the plan, from now on Miyabi and Lorenzo became part of Camille team to find this mysterious wine she tasted once for the competition, Camille was able to sneak a single drop of Mr. Matsubara wine but it was not, the bottle Luca had was 1990 and Mr. Gigon's son told her she was looking for a 1987 which could make all kind of difference, Camille start feeling desperate feeling all her effort is a waste of time but then again Thomas comes to the rescue.
Remember this TV Series is based on the popular manga of the same name, at times the decisions and actions that characters take feel like out of a manga, some of them very extreme and laughable at, all it took for Thomas to go to Tokyo is heard Camille sad about the contest over the phone, was as when they went to visit Mr. Gigon for a $10k bottle, he took off with Camille like it was nothing.
Luca gave Camille full access to his cellar without limits to take and taste what ever bottle of wine she needs to and win the contest.
From now on we will see more of Lorenzo and Miyabi, a love story out of a manga, how silly Lorenzo is when it comes to Miyabi and how she clearly feels for him, starting to laugh at the silly lovely things he does for her like in this case they are at a Karaoke drinking to free their mind and help Camille, basically taking the rest of the night off and a break for this quest they are part of now.
Camille keeps getting this mix signals from Thomas, like when he ask her if she is seen someone, taking her to potentially buy a $10k wine bottle and now taking a flight to Tokyo just to help her, I think for at least 70% of human population that's been way too helpful if there is not some kind of interest or benefit from this contest, besides Thomas is not getting anything from Alexander inheritance so why put so much effort on helping Camille?, he gets a called from his girlfriend and goes out of the bar to talk to her, didn't look too excited to talk to her, while watching a rusty bike an idea came to him, it was not celery root what Camille taste it was the oxidation of the wine, they were totally off.
After spending the rest of the night trying to find that single bottle of wine it came to Lorenzo, the wine they looking for has to be a great wine over 2006, oxidation is key and only two wines with this characteristics could be the one Camille is looking for but Lorenzo said it would be better to identify what makes them different, its either a Cheval Blanc with classic maturation on new barrels or The Vega Sicilia Unico staying for at least six years in oak old barrels, so she basically screwed without the correct wine and trying to identify this on the fly, with no where to go or ask the day of the contest comes and Camille had it, Cheval Blanc 1999 but at the last minute change her mind for 2000, its worth mentioning that it took Issei just a few minutes to identify the correct wine and didn't hesitate, he is well trained and has been constantly tasting wine for all those years that Camille didn't, she could be talented but experience is on Issei side, although his family is not supporting him at all on this quest except his father, that side of the story for me is still not relevant enough but on next episodes its a side story that starts to pick up.
So far this series is proven to have an awesome story, the manga is so popular so I was not expecting less than this, the story is getting better and better, seems like its that time of the year where very few action TV Series are release and most are drama series, Issei story so far is not that relevant but its starting to be, for now all I know is that his family is rich, he doesn't want anything to do with it and its trying to create his own company as a great Sommelier. As I mention the story does have that funny way of doing things, where characters take crazy last minute decisions without thinking much about consequences and been able to leave everything behind.
