Experiments

Writers: AmajoS, Paula
Date Posted: 11th September 2007

Characters: Lynson, Keayd
Description: Lynson and Keayd discuss the possibility of blueberry wine.
Location: Vintner Hall
Date: month 6, day 4 of Turn 4

Lynson unstoppered the keg, which was tilted just slightly to encourage a steady stream of wine to flow into the bottles and jugs that were lined up. This was one of Lynson's personal kegs, a blend of grapes he'd been toying with. This keg held the best results of his experimenting so far. There wasn't a great deal of it yet, as he hadn't wanted to waste resources on what might've just turned out to be another mediocre wine. However, now that he knew how well the blend had turned out, he had plans for the next season.

In the mean time, these bottles would do. Of course, some of them were destined to be submitted back to the Hall, but the rest were his to do with as he pleased and he was looking forward to showing them off, after they'd aged a bit more in their bottles, of course.

He quickly slipped the cork back into the keg's bung-hole, stopping the flow from overfilling the bottle. Glancing around, Lynson frowned, realizing that he must have used the last of the cork stoppers that were sized for this bottle type.

Spotting a young Journeyman not too far off, Lynson called out, "Keayd! Do you have any corks handy?" He held up the bottle he needed to cap, to show what size cork he meant.

"I got several, somme of them should be that size," Key replied and limped over. He was re-corking some wine's whose corks looked like they might be moulding. He offered the other vinter an basket full of corks. "Just take your pick."

Lynson took the basket and rummaged through, finding three possible candidates. He tried them all, and discarded two. "Thank you," he smiled at the younger man. "This one'll do nicely." He handed the basket back.

"You're welcome," Key shrugged. "Erh, Can I ask what are you doing?"
he asked bit timidly.

"Creating, my good man, creating!" Lynson beamed, pleased with his results and eager to show off a bit. "Here," he paused, searching through the box he'd used to bring the empty bottles and jugs down with and found a small tasting glass. He poured just a bit of the new wine into the glass and handed it to the younger man. "It needs a bit of aging of course, but I think it's turned out quite well."

Keayd swirled the liquid around in glass and looked it against the light. "Nice colour, bit dark for white wine," he commented. Then he smelled it before taking a small sip. "You're right, it's still bit raw but it has lovely, refreshing aftertaste."

Lynson smiled proudly, "Thank you. I've got high hopes for this blend."

Key nodded. "No wonder," he grinned.

"How about yourself? Any special projects?" Lynson asked as he got to work corking the bottle he'd just filled.

"I've started a experimental batch of fruit brandy. I found this old receipe during the move here and I trying it out," Keayd told him.

"Oh? Brandies are becoming popular too," Lynson commented thoughtfully. "What fruits are you using?"

"Well, the receipe didn't specify what fruit was used, so I'm trying with several variety. Red fruit, citrus, grapes and so forth. I have five small casks going on," Keyad replied.

"That sounds like an interesting experiment. You'll let me know how it turns out? I'd wager on the grapes myself, but then I'm biased."
Lynson laughed.

Key smiled. "It's a long process," he warned. "It also made me wonder if you could do something from blueberries."

"I imagine you could, blueberries have a good sugar-content. They ought to ferment nicely."

"Might be interesting to try blueberry wine," Key mused.

"Might indeed," Lynson replied thoughtfully. He generally preferred to work with grapes excluseivly, but it was a personal preference. He enjoyed the challenge of creating subtle differences by blending different species of grape or even the same grape grown in different locations. That didn't mean he'd never worked with other berries and fruits, of course. "I made a very nice wine using strawberries a few turns ago, was fairly popular."

"Strawberry wine? I think it would go well with a dessert, like all sweet wines."

"Exactly so," Lynson agreed. "That's what it was most used for. I imagine a blueberry would work just as well."

"I'm half tempted to try," Key said thoughtfully.

"If you decide to, let me know. I'd like to see how it turns out."

"I will," Key promised. He looked the basket full of corks and sighed.
Recorking was such boring and tendious job. "I better get back to work," he said.

"Ah, me too." Lynson gestured to the rest of the bottles he had to fill. "Thanks for your help there."

Last updated on the September 13th 2007

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Experiments