Dionysus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vineleaves) wrote2024-09-15 01:31 pm
vineleaves) wrote2024-09-15 01:31 pm
Open Interlude: For the gentle tendrils that intertwine to produce the grapes that produce the wine
His class was originally supposed to be weeks ago, but with everything that was happening - the wedding preparations, the beach suddenly appearing out of nowhere, all of... everything else... it seemed a good idea to postpone the class slightly. Now he's grateful he decided to do that, it's giving him something productive to focus on. Teaching people how to make wine is something he has always enjoyed doing, and getting things prepared has been almost meditative for him. He has been able to pay attention to setting up the garden, and finding a wine press, and making all of the various bottles they'll need, and getting supplies, rather than letting his mind drift and dwell on Aornis.
They meet out in his garden, where he hands everyone a notebook, pen, grape shears, and a nice, big basket. It's important to know how and when to harvest the grapes before you even get into any of the business of fermentation. He has set the garden up to show the progression of grapes from seedling to harvest, and spends the first part of the day going over how grapevines grow, ideal growing conditions, and other things related to the plant itself. They spend some time collecting all the grapes they'll need for the day in the baskets, then make the journey back into the mansion, where he has one room set up with tables and everything else they will need.
Each station has a small flight of different wines to try (Dionysus offers to make them nonalcoholic for anyone who wants to taste but doesn't want to drink the alcohol; this is a perk of taking wine classes with the god of it, after all) and Dionysus explains the basic concepts behind how different sorts of wine are made. Today they're going to be making a red wine, so they'll be leaving the skin of the fruit in with the juice as it ferments.
After they've cleaned the grapes and Dionysus has shown them what stems to leave on versus what stems to cut away, they start crushing them - in a bowl with a potato masher, since they're each making relatively small batches. Mercutio in particular seems disappointed they're not just throwing everything into a big vat and stomping on it, but Dionysus promises him he can do that some other time, if he really wants to. Each student has two large jars to pour everything into and cover tightly with cloths. One jar they will continue working with today, the other he has them set to the side for now. Another perk of learning how to make wine from the god of it is that he's able to speed things along a little, so that everyone can do the entire winemaking process in a few hours. The second jar will be for them to work on in real time, putting the knowledge Dionysus is giving them today to use to make it on their own.
Between each step, Dionysus uses his powers to age everyone's wine along, mentally checking how it's going for everyone and offering suggestions on how to better care for it, so they each get the best possible version of wine out of it all. Twice "a day" they need to push the floating skins down into the juice, the liquid changing impossibly fast from a cloudy clear to a dark red as he speeds the process up for them. He explains how and why and when to check the sugar levels of everything, helping everyone with that as needed.
Pretty soon he has everyone transfer the liquid to a carboy, then everyone combines the leftover skins in the wine press. They take turns squeezing the remaining juice out of the grapes, which then gets used to top off what's in their jugs, that gets sealed off with an airlock. Now it would be a waiting game, but again Dionysus ages everything about a year in seconds' time. He explains in detail all of the steps you'd take to properly care for the wine as it ages, then has everyone bottle up their batches. Everyone should have enough for around five or so bottles, if they didn't spill too much during the process along the way.
He hopes everyone had a good time. It seemed to go over well at least, he thinks.
They meet out in his garden, where he hands everyone a notebook, pen, grape shears, and a nice, big basket. It's important to know how and when to harvest the grapes before you even get into any of the business of fermentation. He has set the garden up to show the progression of grapes from seedling to harvest, and spends the first part of the day going over how grapevines grow, ideal growing conditions, and other things related to the plant itself. They spend some time collecting all the grapes they'll need for the day in the baskets, then make the journey back into the mansion, where he has one room set up with tables and everything else they will need.
Each station has a small flight of different wines to try (Dionysus offers to make them nonalcoholic for anyone who wants to taste but doesn't want to drink the alcohol; this is a perk of taking wine classes with the god of it, after all) and Dionysus explains the basic concepts behind how different sorts of wine are made. Today they're going to be making a red wine, so they'll be leaving the skin of the fruit in with the juice as it ferments.
After they've cleaned the grapes and Dionysus has shown them what stems to leave on versus what stems to cut away, they start crushing them - in a bowl with a potato masher, since they're each making relatively small batches. Mercutio in particular seems disappointed they're not just throwing everything into a big vat and stomping on it, but Dionysus promises him he can do that some other time, if he really wants to. Each student has two large jars to pour everything into and cover tightly with cloths. One jar they will continue working with today, the other he has them set to the side for now. Another perk of learning how to make wine from the god of it is that he's able to speed things along a little, so that everyone can do the entire winemaking process in a few hours. The second jar will be for them to work on in real time, putting the knowledge Dionysus is giving them today to use to make it on their own.
Between each step, Dionysus uses his powers to age everyone's wine along, mentally checking how it's going for everyone and offering suggestions on how to better care for it, so they each get the best possible version of wine out of it all. Twice "a day" they need to push the floating skins down into the juice, the liquid changing impossibly fast from a cloudy clear to a dark red as he speeds the process up for them. He explains how and why and when to check the sugar levels of everything, helping everyone with that as needed.
Pretty soon he has everyone transfer the liquid to a carboy, then everyone combines the leftover skins in the wine press. They take turns squeezing the remaining juice out of the grapes, which then gets used to top off what's in their jugs, that gets sealed off with an airlock. Now it would be a waiting game, but again Dionysus ages everything about a year in seconds' time. He explains in detail all of the steps you'd take to properly care for the wine as it ages, then has everyone bottle up their batches. Everyone should have enough for around five or so bottles, if they didn't spill too much during the process along the way.
He hopes everyone had a good time. It seemed to go over well at least, he thinks.