The narrator introduces us to a wine merchant named Cosimo. He's been drinking a lot of wine lately, and he's having a good time. He pours a glass of red wine into his nose and smells nothing but "acid" . The narrator tells us that this wine smells like "wild berries" , "sharp cheeses," and "raw honey" ; it's the "finest classico" he'd ever tasted . He wants to know why he can't just pour him another glass of wine. The wine changes color, and the narrator tells him that the wine has a "secret" that only he, the wine's creator, can keep. He promises that if he sells the wine, he'll become the richest person in the world, and that's just the tip of the iceberg . So, if you want to know what the secret of the wine is, you've got to buy it from the wine merchant. He gives you the names of the bottles: "chianti classico," "carmignano," "imorellino dei scansano," "vino di immonte pulciano," and so on. He also gives you a little tip: "in that case, i'll enjoy the wealth the wine brings me instead !" . In other words, the narrator is saying that if you buy the wine from him, you get to keep the secret, but if you sell it to someone else, you lose the secret. So the narrator gives us a little "hint" : if you don't sell the wine to him, he won't be able to keep it forever. But if you do, he says, you can always buy it back from him at a later date. So