• Solo • Smooglenuff Wine: Making Wine

[Devin]

Continued from here.

Vhalar 55, Arc 722

“Making wine”, Mrs. Adams, the head cook of Smooglenuff Manor, a vivacious redhead in her forties, told Devin and the trainees from Cally’s. “Is no more complicated than baking a cake or roasting a chicken. It just requires different tools and a slightly different skillset – and a decent amount of strength of course since we’ll need to crush the grapes in order to turn them into juice and finally wine”, she added and gestured for them to grab a basket filled with grapes each and carry it into the cellar.

Devin eyed the baskets for a moment and wondered if he should follow the trainees’ example or not, before he flashed them a brilliant smile and shouldered a basket, both in order to show them that he was a very helpful baron and in order to demonstrate his superior strength.

Once upon a time, he had refused to get strong because he had been worried that he would grow a lot of ugly, bulky muscles, but he had come to realize that you could be in good shape and be slender and attractive rather than turning into a freaky looking bodybuilder.

That was great!

What was great as well was the deal he had made with Cally’s. The trainees would work in the vineyard and learn how to make the wine, and in exchange Cally’s would get to market it.

So, without further ado, he carried his basket down the stairs, with a spring in his step because he was so excited about the delicious glowing wine that would soon be served at Cally’s – and at restaurants all over Idalos, because he didn’t plan on limiting himself to Scalvoris.

His goal was to conquer the world – with wine!

[Devin]

Before long, Mrs. Adams, Devin and the trainees stood in front of a number of big containers that were empty – and a few more containers that were filled with a translucent liquid. Furrowing his brow, Devin dipped a finger into the liquid, licked it and came to the conclusion that it was water. It was nothing but plain, boring, old water. He looked at Mrs. Adams in confusion, wondering what they needed so much water for.

Mrs. Adams looked at Devin and smirked before she explained, her eyes twinkling with mirth, “You can buy a press to crush the grapes and get the juice flowing, but stomping them with your feet doesn’t cost anything and is so much more fun. The water is for washing your feet. Everybody, take off your shoes, grab a bar of soap and clean your feet thoroughly”, she said and proceeded to take off her own shoes in order to set an example.

Devin furrowed his brow some more and softly wondered, “But don’t we have a mechanical press somewhere?” He dimly recalled that they had acquired a mechanical press in spring, but if Mrs. Adams wanted to do it that way instead, he decided, he would go along with it. He didn’t want to undermine her authority when she was more or less in charge of this project, even though he wasn’t looking forward to having grape juice all over his feet and wasn’t sure if it was really that much fun either.

So, without further ado, he took off his stylish footwear, washed his feet until they were completely clean, dried them and positioned himself in front of an empty container, hands clasped behind his back and an expectant and slightly amused expression on his face that belied the fact that he still wasn’t excited about this particular aspect of making wine.

“Now what?” one of the trainees, a pretty young man with green eyes and platinum blonde hair, asked as he dried off his feet with a towel. He was, Devin observed, a little impatient.

“Now we’ll dump the grapes into the big containers and step on them”, Mrs. Adams said in a cheerful tone of voice and looked at them expectantly. It was just then that Devin remembered their previous conversation. Mrs. Adams was a skilled cook and brewer, but she wasn’t much of a teacher. Devin himself didn’t know much about brewing, but he was a decent teacher and decided to help her out with that part of the process as a consequence.

They’d talked about it before. She’d take care of the brewing part, and he’d teach her how to teach!

“Perhaps, you could show us exactly how it’s done first so that we’ll do it correctly? I’m pretty sure that some of our guests also have questions”, he remarked in a perfectly innocent tone of voice, batted his eyelashes a bit, as if he were just another one of her students and proceeded to gesture towards the trainees that were looking at them expectantly.

Mrs. Adams smiled at him and nodded.

[Devin]

Their guests did indeed have questions (Giving them the opportunity to ask them was very important!). A young woman with hazel eyes raised a hand almost immediately and wanted to know, “Grapes have stems and skins and seeds and such. What are we going to do with those? I can’t imagine that wine with stuff in it is very pleasant. People might even choke on it”, she added and shuddered.

Five heads (the four other trainees and Devin) immediately turned towards Mrs. Adams. The young Baron would never admit it out loud, but he hadn’t considered the matter of stems and skins. He had kind of thought that they would just be crushed into oblivion by his feet.

“That depends on whether we’ll make white or red wine”, Mrs. Adams replied and looked at Devin, furrowing her brow. “Are we going to make red wine or white wine today, Your Grace?” she wanted to know. They hadn’t talked about that in detail yet.

“Red wine, with a lot of Fire Grapes in it, so that it looks especially pretty”, Devin replied immediately and grinned at her. While he wasn’t looking forward to getting grape juice on his feet, he was quite interested in the finished product. His wine wouldn’t only taste good, it would also look good. In fact, everybody would admire how pretty it was!

“In the case of red wine, we’ll just ferment the whole mixture of juice, skins, seeds and so on after we’ve removed as many stems as possible”, Mrs. Adams said and added, “If we wanted to make white wine, we’d use a funnel and a colander to remove as many of the skins and seeds as possible. Some winemakers leave the stems in in order to add different flavors to the wine, but it’s a risky venture in my opinion.”

“Stems can make or break a wine, so I’d rather do something else to achieve a more complex taste. I think His Grace mentioned wine with honey in it”, she said and looked at Devin for a moment before she clapped her hands, stepped into a container and started crushing the grapes inside. Everybody followed her example – including Devin. He did so with very mixed feelings at first, but after a while he decided that destroying stuff was actually fun.

He was determined to invent grapes that didn’t turn your feet weird colors though!

[Devin]

“Unlike white wine, red wine doesn’t need to be put into a container that can be closed tightly during fermentation”, Mrs. Adams explained while Devin and the trainees cleaned their feet that had bits of grapes on them and removed as many stems as possible from the mixture. “You can just use a large open container and put a towel over it in order to keep dirt, rats and insects out. Now where’s the wine yeast?” she asked and looked around. Where on Idalos was that very important ingredient?

Fortunately, Devin spotted a container that was filled with some kind of powdery substance on a table in the corner of the cellar that was lit by lamps now that the sun was finally sitting.

“Is that it?” he wanted to know as he carried it over to Mrs. Adams who smiled brightly. As she accepted the container, he suddenly had an epiphany. He had a lot of epiphanies all the time because he was pretty much a genius, but this was a really good one. Instead of teaching Mrs. Adams how to teach, he’d just lie to her and make her believe that she was a good teacher – and boost her confidence tremendously in the process.

“You know”, he said to her and leaned closer to her, smiling brightly. “You were worried, but you are a wonderful teacher. You are pretty much a natural at this and don’t really need to be taught much. It’s true. You are awesome at this”, he insisted in a perfectly honest tone of voice when Mrs. Adams looked at him a little doubtfully. “When have I ever lied to you?”

“Now, what shall we do with the yeast?” he asked, sounding perfectly innocent, and made a step back.

“We’ll put the mixture into fresh containers, I’ll add the yeast, and then you’ll all give it a good stir. If everything goes as expected, the wine should begin fermenting by tomorrow”, Mrs. Adams replied. Without further ado, Devin and the trainees got to work and helped Mrs.Adams.

Devin had assumed that the wine would also be ready the following trial, so he was quite disappointed and even pouted a little bit when Mrs. Adams said that the wine needed to ferment for two or three weeks and that it needed to be stirred at least twice a trial during that time. And what more, it needed to reach a certain temperature in order to ferment (Mrs. Adams kept the containers warm by surrounding them with bags filled with orange Faldrass sand.).

Why was making wine so complicated, and why did it take so long?

He decided to add another thing that he needed to invent to the list – fast-fermenting wine!

For the time being, he asked Mrs. Adams and the trainees to join him on one of the balconies once the work was done, and they had extinguished the lamps though. There was no better way to end the trial than with a bit of wine in his opinion, even if the wine in question was not from the Barony!

[Pegasus]

Your Review

Devin

Feedback

Devin is so much fun - from his fond recall of the time that he thought muscles=freaky bodybuilder to his goal of conquering the world, this was a fun and engaging read from beginning to end. I really enjoyed this story - I thought your portrayal of Mrs Adams was fantastic and you filled the thread with both small details and really well-paced story. I very much enjoyed the way that you showed how Devin helped Mrs Adams teach better - he's such a kind fellow and the way he both encouraged her without taking over and then his words of support show him as a very nice man!

I think he should invent grapes which don't stain your feet while stomping - or use that mechanical press that he has! All in all this was a great thread and I look forward to seeing the wine being drunk round the tables at Smooglenuff Manor.

Rewards

• Renown: 5
• XP: 10

Knowledges

• Brewing: Grapes need to be crushed before you can turn them into wine
• Brewing: For white wine, you only ferment the juice
• Brewing: For red wine, you can ferment the juice with skins and seeds
• Brewing: Leaving the stems in adds different flavors to the wine
• Brewing: Red wine can be fermented in an open container
• Strength: Crushing grapes with your feet

Loot

• Fire grape wine, fermenting away. Now that you've gotten to this point, you can add this wine to the Barony tracker. Well done!

Your RPG rewards are in your UCP - please check and make sure I didn't forget anything.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this review - drop me a PM.