A Vintage Year is the second mission (and first non-tutorial level) in Hitman: Blood Money. Agent 47 is assigned to eliminate Fernando Delgado, owner of Colchagua Valley Vineyard, and his son Manuel Delgado.
A Vintage Year[]
Hello, 47. Your next target's in Chile.
His name is Fernando Delgado. Used to be a Colonel in Pinochet's intelligence service; now he's running a cocaine factory under cover of a vineyard. Satellite imaging suggests that the lab is underground.
Fernando's son Manuel is in on the coke trade, so to make it look like a drug hit, you'll need to take him out too. We'll get you in with a pensioner's club from Santiago for the big celebrity unveiling of Delgado's new wine label, named for 80s "B" action star Rex Stanton. There'll be at least one T.V. crew on hand, so keep an eye on them and their cameras.
Delgado's got a seaplane, and that may be your best way to get out in a pinch.― Mission Briefing
Description[]
47 receives an ICA briefing contained on a flash drive. He loads it into his laptop and receives the mission details. He must eliminate Fernando Delgado, a former colonel of the Pinochet regime, who owns a vineyard that is actually a front for a cocaine factory. In order to make the assassination appear to be a drug-related hit, 47 must also eliminate Fernado's son Manuel, and escape via a seaplane kept in an underground hangar.
Outcome[]
47 successfully eliminates his targets and escapes via seaplane. The assassination of Fernando Delgado attracts the attention of the US intelligence agencies, in particular Alexander Leland Cayne, who suspects that 47 is the only person capable of pulling off such a feat on his own.
Objectives[]
- Kill Don Fernando Delgado.
- Kill Manuel Delgado.
- Escape the Vineyard.
Intel[]
- The guided tour of the wine cellar might prove useful, especially when looking for potential death traps.
- We've heard that Manuel likes to entertain friends and enjoy the merchandise in the wine cellar.
- The entrance to the secret lab is hidden somewhere in the wine cellar.
- The insides are guarded by highly trained guards.
Weapons[]
Firearms[]
Shotgun
Carried by most outdoor Guards. Found in weapon caches.
Carried by most outdoor Guards. Found in weapon caches.
SAF SMG
Carried by VIP Guards and some outdoor Guards. Found in weapon caches.
Carried by VIP Guards and some outdoor Guards. Found in weapon caches.
Melee[]
Kitchen Knife
Found in the food storage room near the hacienda.
Found in the food storage room near the hacienda.
Hammer
Found in top floor storage room, on a barrel in the hangar, and in outside storage room.
Found in top floor storage room, on a barrel in the hangar, and in outside storage room.
Fire Extinguisher
Found in the drug lab.
Found in the drug lab.
Disguises[]
Worker
Permitted in all areas except the hacienda.
Can open carry Fire Extinguisher without arousing suspicion.
Permitted in all areas except the hacienda.
Can open carry Fire Extinguisher without arousing suspicion.
TV Crew
Permitted outdoors and in the wine cellar.
Permitted outdoors and in the wine cellar.
Notes[]
- 47 can explore the wine cellar in his suit without arousing suspicion, providing he sticks with the guided tour. Sometimes, this will NOT work and guards or Manuel will demand you leave the premises or they will fire their guns at you.
- Agent 47 can throw an RU-AP mine onto the balcony (in front of where Fernado plays the cello) from the ground below.
- If 47 pushes the vineyard guard over the wine cellar balcony and Manuel spots the body, he will run upstairs to alert the guards; if you wait where the guard was, he will run up to you and ask you to leave at which point you can shove him over the balcony to join the guard.
Bugs and developer oversights[]
Bugs[]
- If the game is running over a particular frame rate, much higher than 60 fps, the cliff path at the rear of the Hacienda becomes impossible to pass, as seen in this video. It is easily fixed by having your operating system or the game run at 30, 60 or any other desirable but considerable lower frame rate than at present if you experience this issue. Alternatively, you can set the screen's refreshrate to 60,20 hz instead of 144,15 hz.
- Fernado's Cello might be completely silent on occasion, it might be related to the soundtrack playing but this is unconfirmed
Developer oversights[]
- The whole playable area is inaccessible from the outside, there are no roads, tunnels or mountain paths. Making the appearance of the villa, vineyard and presence of people and vehicles impossible if it were set in the real world.
- Considering Fernado's Hacienda produces both wine and cocaine, it is worth noting that there is no sign of agriculture of any kind in the surrounding area for growing either grapes or coca.
- During the exit cutscene, it is shown that 47 not only enters the seaplane from the wooden pier to the left side of the plane before the cutscene starts, but the plane itself is also oriented 180 degrees, actually facing the more desirable direction for a getaway.
Gallery[]
Don Fernando arriving in the intro cutscene.
Agent 47 being inconspicuous in the drug lab.
The hidden drug lab.
The waterfall.
Getting the disguise without waking up the guard.
Agent 47 as a VIP Guard.
The mansion is fully decorated with paintings and butterfly collections.
Portrait of one of the developers.
Other paintings showing Corky the Clown, and the War Ducks.
Don Fernando's quarters.
Don Fernando walking past 47.
Fernando Delagdo after having been strangled by 47
Observing patrols through the keyhole.
Agent 47 standing outside of a building.
Staff area.
The waterfall towards the seaplane.
Don Fernando's seaplane.
A guard sleeping near the seaplane
The newspaper with Don Fernando's death.
Trivia[]
- The term "A Vintage Year" is used to describe a year in which the wine produced was of an especially high quality.
- This mission marks the first time since Hitman: Codename 47 to take place in South America.
- The music being played by Fernando on his cello is Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello suite No. 1, prelude.
- Manuel and Rex Stanton's agent's meeting scene is the same as Fabian Fuchs (or 47 dressed as him) and Sergei Bjarkhov's meeting in Hitman: Contracts's mission, The Bjarkhov Bomb
- A Vintage Year, Nightcall and The Farewell are the only confirmed missions in the entire series where Agent 47 visits the Southern Hemisphere, though it is possible that Find the U'wa Tribe, The Jungle God and Say Hello to My Little Friend take place in the part of Colombia that is south of the Equator. It is also possible that Three-Headed Serpent (which also involves killing a member of the Delgado family, Rico Delgado, who is the cousin and nephew of the targets in A Vintage Year) takes place in the southern part of Colombia, though it is questionable whether the drug-smuggling submarine which was under construction in the Delgado's underground facility would be able to navigate the rivers of that part of the country well enough to reach the sea.
- It is stated that Fernado produces quality wines, and is mentioned several times throughout the mission. However in the post-mission newspaper, the caption beneath Fernado's photograph says that Fernado is infamous for making some of the worst wines in all of Chile. This might be a situation of business associates of Fernado trying to be diplomatic and try to maintain their business relationship with the drug lord.
| Missions in Hitman: Blood Money | ||
|---|---|---|
| Training | Hideout - Death of a Showman | |
| Chile | A Vintage Year | |
| France | Curtains Down | |
| California | Flatline - A New Life | |
| Louisiana | The Murder of Crows | |
| Colorado | You Better Watch Out... | |
| Mississippi | Death on the Mississippi - Till Death Do Us Part | |
| Nevada | A House of Cards - A Dance with the Devil | |
| Epilogue | Amendment XXV - Requiem | |