Tasting Wine

Writers: Danielle, Eimi
Date Posted: 2nd December 2005

Characters: Catriana, Jio
Description: Catriana brings Jio dinner and they start talking about wine
Location: Vintner Hall
Date: month 9, day 1 of Turn 3

The evening meal was finished, but Cinale was still sending out trays to those hard-working individuals who hadn't made it to the formal dinner down in the dining hall. Among those were Masters and journeymen who were too involved in a project to come down- and it was to the cellars that Catriana found herself sent, laden with a tray and klah for Jio- one of the Journeymen who was working too late for the Cook's liking. Catriana climbed down the steps with care, not wating to spill the tray or the pot of klah.

"Oh, hello. Did Cinale send you?" Jio asked as he looked at the young girl through the glass of wine he was holding up to the light.

"Yes, sir." She glanced around for a place to put the tray, not wanting to disturb his work. Cat smiled as she watched him examining the wine. Father always said she'd had a good eye for wine. But that was all but useless here. "Where would you like me to set the tray?"

"Well..." He looked down at the table covered in notes, bottles of herbs and bottles of wine. "How about at the end over there."

Cat carefully cleared a place, without disturbing his notes and things too much, and set the tray down. As she began to lay out the silverware on the tray, she asked, "Might I ask what you are working on, sir?"

"I'm trying to decide which wines will taste best with which herbs.
Actually," he smiled over at her, "I could use your help if you have a moment."

"Oh?" She smiled and finished fussing with the tray. "I have some time. Yours was the last tray I had to deliver." Herbs and wine...interesting. "I'm Catriana, by the way."

"Jio," he said with a polite nod. "Well what I need from you is a fresh nose. Mine has been corrupted."

"I think I could help with that. What do you need me to do?"

He held out the glass in his hand. "Take a small sip of this wine, swish it around in your mouth and inhale the smell abit. Don't swallow."

"Alright." She did as she was told sipping and inhaling the bouquet of the wine, hiding a smile with the glass. Since she wasn't to swallow, she arched a brow at him in question, as if to ask 'what next?' He held up a vile of herbs under her nose. "Ok, now breath in the smell of the wine and the herbs. Just be careful you don't breath in the wine itself," he smiled. "When you've got it you can spit the wine out in the bucket there, or swallow if you like."

She smelled the vial, then swallowed the wine. She'd only taken a tiny sip, but why waste it? "Alright, Jio, now what?" An interesting way to taste wine, comparing scents. Most paired flavor and Cat was intrigued as to where his experiment was going.

"Ok, now, what do you think? Do those two flavors work well together?"

Cat thought about it for a moment. "Almost. The herbs seem to be a little astringent compared to the earthy flavor of the wine. The wine is dry as well, which brings out the sharp acidity of the herbs. Its not bad, but it needs...something. Something to cut the bite. Maybe choose a wine with less tannins in it, more berry flavor?"

Jio blinked at the young woman a moment. He set the bottle of herbs down and regarded the young woman a moment. "Is there something you _don't_ want to tell me?"

"What do you mean?"

The jourenyman looked at her sternly. She wasn't fooling him any.
"Just how much do you know about wines - Catriana, is it?"

"I grew up around wine. My father works a cothold that produces its own wine. You pick up stuff when you're exposed to it. I apologize if that wasn't the answer you were looking for, sir. " Catriana shrugged.
She ought to have left, or kept her mouth shut, or both.

"What are tannins?"

"Something that makes wine bitter. That's what Da always said when he had the family taste a new vintage. 'Too much tannin, don't you think?' We'd nod and agree. I thought it just meant bitterness.
Doesn't it?"

"Bitterness is _part_ of it," Jio nodded slowly. There was more to this girl than first thought. "Do you know what causes tannins?"

"Not really. I guess I never thought about it. I always assumed it was just a descriptive word," Catriana said with a shrug of her shoulders, her dark brown eyes wide. "Like acidic, or tart, or savory...we use so many different words to describe flavors when we're cooking. I just figured it was like that."

"Tannins come from the skins of the grapes. It is a chemical reaction.
But it is very necessary. Can you guess why?"

Catriana thought for a moment, weighing her words with care before answering, "Well, other than tempering the taste- wine could become too sweet, I imagine, without somehting bitter to mellow the flavor. It would be sugary like juice, wouldn't it?" She could have continued on that vein, but she didn't really want to. Safer, to speak in terms of taste and flavor, things she was likely to know about having worked in the kitchens...

"Ah," Jio said holding up one finger, "but there is a more important reason. Do you know what that is?"

She thought she did, but was certainly not going to offer it. Not to him. "No, sir. I can't say that I do."

"It's a preservative. It helps the wine from going bad." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Still, you seem to have a mind for it."

She'd guessed right, in her own mind. But no hint of that triumph reached her eyes. "If you say so, sir." A thousand questions about the wine-making process began to form in her head, and she wasn't able to voice any of them. Instead, she asked, "So, what are you doing with the herbs?"

"I'm steeping them in the wine to make a kind of medicine."

"Oh. But doesn't the alcohol make the herbs lose potency?"

Jio shrugged. "Well, the herbs are dilluted a bit, I suppose. But the chemicals within the herbs are released into the wine, and that's the important part. That's what makes it effective. And the wine itself has medicinal uses as well."

"True. Mother always gave us tea and a cup of hot wine when we were sick. It does make sense to put them together. Would you steep the herbs in hot wine like tea? Or add them in earlier...if that's possible...during the wine making process?" She was fascinated, which, if she wasn't careful, could be dangerous.

"You can do both, but I am mostly interested in added them into the process."

"Oh." Her mind was working furiously. She suddenly wished she could find time to talk to her brother. "But won't adding them into the wine-making process completely change the taste of the wine?"

Jio nodded. "Yes, like any spice wine would. That's why I needed you to tell me if you thought that herb would go with that wine"s flavor."

"I see. Well, from a purely 'taste' standpoint, I think a sweeter wine would serve you better. Most medicines are bitter anyway, and are hard enough to swallow." Catriana smiled.

Jio shrugged. "In this case you might be right. But many herbs, or combination of herbs, go with drier wines."

"Just so. It seems like you have a lot of tasting to do, to get just the right combinations. But also, different people like different kinds of wine, and might be uninclined to drink medicines if it's in a wine they don't like."

"You can't please everyone all the time. That is true of everything."
Jio's stomach began to growl audible. He smiled at her guiltily. "I guess that's my body's way of saying its time for a break."

"Oh, no! And here I've distracted you and your dinner has grown cold.
Cinale is going to kill me...." Catriana knew the Cook probably wouldn't. But still. "My apologies, sir. Shall I fetch you something warmer from the kitchen?"

Jio shook his head as he lifted the cover from the tray. "No, this is fine. I'm used to eating my meals cold."

"Even so, I am sorry." She felt terrible.

He waved of her apologies. "Ah, why should you be? I'm the one who distracted you, after all. And Cinale knows me well enough. I'll probably have to be reminded to eat dinner was well."

"Well, I could stand here and make sure you eat it," Catriana smiled to soften the threat. "But I ought to be getting back."

"Thank you for bringing it down to me. And thank you for your help. We should talk again sometime."

"I'd like that. And I'd be happy to help with tasting again, if you'd like."

Jio nodded and smiled. "Yes. I think you could be a great help."

Last updated on the December 2nd 2005

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