Your Reputation Precedes You (1/2)

Writers: Kaysea
Date Posted: 9th October 2007

Characters: Causton, Bazel
Description: Causton makes enquiries about the state of the newly planted vines
Location: Vintner Hall
Date: month 6, day 3 of Turn 4

"Journeyman Bazel?" Causton asked, approaching his office. "Good, good!
I like a man who knows to be prompt. Come in, come in." He opened the door and ushered the journeyman through. "Take a seat, and let's get straight to it."

"You wanted to see me about what, precisely?" Bazel asked.

"The vines, and how they've been doing since they were planted?"

"Not as much was planted as what we lost." Bazel answered sorrowfully.
"We salvaged what we could from Amethyst Cliff Hold, and planted here, but still not nearly enough. Fiel... that is, the previous Hallmaster did what he could, but we don't have nearly as much... We lost more in that quake than lives." he said mournfully, shaking his head.

"Yes... I know." Causton said soothingly, mishearing the old journeyman, "You lost family?" he asked in what he hoped was a compassionate manner.

"Me? No." Bazel's eyes widened a little in confusion, the clear blue holding no painful memories of loved ones lost. "My family live west of River Bluff, I haven't married, have no ties - except to the grapes."

"Oh, I see." Causton frowned a little at the man's lack of compassion about the deaths at Amethyst Cliff. "So its the loss of wines?" he asked, trying to fathom what the man was sad about.

"We lost a tangible history of our craft when the old hall was buried."
Bazel continued. "Some of which, will never be replaced. Different soils give different yields, could be turns before we realise just what won't be replaced."

"Yes, you're right. We won't know for a good two turns or more what the acidity and alkali level is in the soils around here, and what effect they will have on taste. To say nothing of the wood, the smoke will give a whole new variety of flavour. But now Bazel, it is up to us to replenish what we have lost and move on from it." Causton continued, still not entirely comfortable with a man who cared more about the loss of the wine than the loss of lives the hall had suffered. "The vines that were transplanted here, how do they look for the coming season?"

"As well as can be expected, since they were planted so late in the season. And we've had none to harvest this seasons end, not from around here anyway." was the reply. "Been busy getting the hall in order, after planting the pitiful amount of vines we could save."

"The Hold? Has it had any vines worth taking cuttings from?" Causton asked.

"I'm not sure about Amber Hills, Sir." Bazel shook his head, "But I know Sure Meadow and Far Tinder have sent in small amounts of white grape samples, and the vines they came from. But only a wagonload of grape or so from each, not near enough, and we had to _purchase_ from those two." he said disdainfully, and muttered a further, "Inferior grapes won't produce more than a weak vinegar."

Even though he could see how steeped in tradition the old journeyman was, he wondered if he would be welcoming of another form of wine making until the vines were ready to produce. Plentiful fruit stock lay in the orchards surrounding the main Hold; and even here at the Hall the kitchens were bottling of fruit from the trees that surrounded the hall. Traditional vintnering it may not be, but it could bring in the much needed revenue.

This seasons fruit would be an addition to the stock they could lay down at the end of the season next turn. It was what Causton had been well known for; the brandies and wines he had produced over the Turns - and to have it available as a saleable commodity, he couldn't see the harm.

It may be turns before the maturing vines would produce any stock of value. Young vines produced young, sharper tasting grapes and the cuttings, though salvaged from the old hall, would still be classed as young stock. He dreaded how long it would take before the vines would produce the quality and quantity the old hall had been famous and popular for.

He was loathe to purchase harvests from too many sources, the wines became unpalatable and harder to predict the tastes as well, when combined from two or three sources.

"Have you ever tasted a good redfruit brandy or wine?" he asked, casually. Broaching the subject to one or two of the other journeymen, had brought forth mixed results, some more enthused than others, he could take a side bet with himself over Bazel's reply - and probably win. His mouth lifted slightly in mirth at the thought.

"Never been to my taste, a bit too -" Bazel paused to consider, "-
commonplace for me. Everyone who has access to a fruit tree tries to make at least one batch of rot-gut." he sniffed.

**I owe myself ten marks.** the thought sprang unbidden into Caustons' mind.

"Ah, but it isn't rot-gut I have in mind. I mean a really fine brandy, one than warms the deepest recesses of your body and is as smooth as water sliding over your tongue and down the back of your throat."

Bazel laughed derisively, "Can't say I've ever tasted anything as smooth as that, even some of the wines we've produced in the past, had a tendency to bite."

Last updated on the October 9th 2007

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