• Solo • Smooglenuff Wine: Spring in the Vineyard

[Devin]

Continued from here.

Ashan 55, Arc 722

“I’m incredibly glad that you are back!” Devin who was wearing a wine-red suit to match the activities of the trial (enjoying a dessert with wine and working in the vineyard) greeted the trainees from Cally’s in an enthusiastic tone of voice. They were the same five trainees as before, three women and two men which was something that he was excited about, since he would get to look at the green-eyed man and the lovely woman with the hazel eyes some more, even though he would refrain from flirting with them. That would be utterly unprofessional, and he really wanted to be professional and make his second-favourite Immortal ever, namely Saoire, happy. She lived on Faldrass!

“Korim and one of the other servants will take your bags to the guestrooms where you’ll be spending the night. Before we’ll go to the vineyard where you will work – and learn something about wine – there will be a little dessert for you. It contains wine of course, not enough to get you drunk, but a little, because not eating something with wine on a trial like this one would be totally unacceptable in my opinion”, he continued, in just as enthusiastic a tone of voice as before, and gestured for them to follow him to the dining room. The trainees had visited Smooglenuff Manor before, but they admired the luxurious interior, nevertheless.

“You still remember Miranda, I presume?” he asked as they entered the dining room. Miranda, the mouse cadouri maid who was also a decent gardener, was sitting on a chair that was a little higher than the rest and had a thick cushion on it so that she would be able to eat with them (She was only three feet tall!). When she saw the trainees, she waved to them and smiled somewhat shyly at them.

“How do you do, Miss Miranda?” the woman with the hazel-eyes who wore her brown hair in a thick braid this time asked while the other four trainees just greeted her.

“I’m fine, thank you very much”, Miranda replied softly. “It’s good to see you all again. If you’d like, I can tell you a bit about the work that needs to be done in a vineyard in spring while we enjoy our dessert”, she continued. “I also brought a couple of books about making wine and taking care of grapevines”, she added and patted the small stack of books that was lying on the table next to the bowl with her dessert.

Devin recognized one of them. Its title was “So you want to start a vineyard?”. It was a beginner’s guide to vinting, and it had served them well when they had first planted the grapevines. He still didn’t like the picture on the cover particularly though. It was a picture of a bearded man that was holding a bunch of grapes. He was probably supposed to look friendly, but he showed a lot of teeth so that Devin couldn’t help but find him a bit scary!

“Mrs. Adams, our resident cook and brewer, and Marvin, our engineer will join us after the meal as they still have work to do”, he told the trainees once everybody had sat down (Being the Baron, Devin sat at the head of the table, of course!).

“This looks interesting”, the lovely green-eyed man remarked as he eyed his dessert (Devin was quite happy about the fact that he had decided to take the chair next to him!).

“It kind of looks like mousse au chocolat, without the brown color”, another trainee remarked.

“It’s called wine sabayon”, Devin explained and took his spoon that had nice ornaments on it and was made of silver. “It’s made with sugar, eggs, a hint of lemon juice and wine, among other things. I made it myself”, he added and grinned, hoping that it would impress them. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he didn’t think that most Barons and such knew how to cook. They definitely weren’t as good at cooking as he was.

“It’s good. I like the fact that you put nuts into it. I love nuts”, the green-eyed woman remarked, and soon they were all enjoying their dessert and chatting with each other. Some people thought that chatting during a meal was a sign of bad manners, but Devin dared to disagree. Besides, there was nothing more boring than a meal during which nobody said a word.

He preferred to have fun!

[Devin]

“Spring in the vineyard is really beautiful”, Miranda told the trainees who listened to her with interest. “Shoots and buds begin to grow, and the grapevines turn a lovely shade of green. Birds begin to sing everywhere, and what more, worms appear in the soil, and the air smells of new life and is full of promise. Spring is also one of the most critical times of the arc as far as making wine is concerned though. Desuckering begins in earnest, for example”, she pointed out. The mouse cadouri who was normally a little on the quiet side was actually getting talkative now.

And what more, she was smiling all over her furry face. She loved the fact that gardening was slowly becoming more than just a hobby that she engaged in in her spare time. She could actually help the Barony with her gardening skills now, and she just loved the fact that Devin continued to let her take the lead even though he had become a decent gardener himself.

“What’s desuckering, if you don’t mind me asking, Miss Miranda?” the woman with the hazel eyes wanted to know and briefly stopped eating her dessert in order to turn to look at her, as did the other trainees.

“Desuckering involves removing unwanted shoots. We will also be shaping the grapevines and fix errors”, Miranda replied and briefly checked one of her books in order to make sure that she hadn’t told people any nonsense. She was a competent gardener and thus perfectly capable of taking care of more common plants such as grapevines, but there were certain things that still eluded her regardless!

“Frost can still be a threat to outdoor plants in early spring, so we need to pay attention to that as well, don’t we?” Devin asked, both because he was concerned that his precious grapevines might freeze and be damaged and because he wanted to show off his knowledge of all matters gardening a little bit. He was not clueless anymore. Over the course of the past couple of seasons, he had actually learned something!

“Normally, frost would definitely be a threat”, Miranda agreed and inclined her head, her whiskers twitching slightly. “On Faldrass it’s warmer than it's on the rest of the island though, and thus I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It would be good not to totally ignore the matter of frost and be prepared in case the temperatures drop unexpectedly though”, she added and furrowed her brow a little bit.

“When will we start harvesting the grapes?” another trainee wanted to know. “We are also supposed to learn how to make the wine, so I’m quite interested in that, I have to admit.”

“In fall”, Devin replied in a confident tone of voice. “Mrs. Adams is our resident wine-making expert though, so it would be better if you asked her any questions related to that”, he told them. Normally, he didn’t like admitting that another person might know more than he did. He really, really wanted this project to go well though, and thus he decided to swallow his pride. He could in fact be downright humble and reasonable if he wanted to!

“This may be slightly off-topic, but can I have more wine sabayon, please?” yet another trainee wanted to know. Their bowl was refilled, and they started eating again with obvious gusto. Before long, everybody had finished their dessert though, and the conversation slowly drew to a close.

One of the servants that worked in the kitchen collected their empty bowls, and their spoons, and when Devin asked the trainees if they wanted to check out the vineyard and start working now, they rose from their chairs and followed Miranda and him quite eagerly. They were really looking forward to finding out what had happened since their last visit!

Of course, Devin didn’t head to the vineyard without changing his outfit beforehand. When you worked in the vineyard, you risked getting dirty. He didn’t mind getting dirty as much as he had used to, but he didn’t think that brown and green stains (from all the grass on the ground) would look good on his deep red suit. He changed into a somewhat sturdy brown suit. If there were stains on it, he would just be able to pretend he was wearing fancy camouflage, and besides, brown matched the theme of that trial’s activities just as well as red.

The stalks were brown!

[Devin]

Taking care of the grapevines and removing unwanted shoots was not the only thing that needed to be done in a vineyard in spring. The trellises needed to be checked and repaired, if necessary. And what more, the next cycle already needed to be considered as summer set the stage for the harvest. To that end, a mechanical press, barrels as well as whatever was necessary for the fermentation process were already waiting in a storage room.

At Devin’s insistence that it would be better to take care of the next steps now, before people all over Scalvoris were in a hurry to get ready for the harvest, Mrs. Adams had arranged for the necessary equipment to be delivered to the Barony. Devin had left it up to her to decide what was needed as he was definitely not an expert when it came to making wine (He was an expert when it came to drinking it though which should count for something!).

When Miranda and he approached the vineyard, the trainees in tow, he could see that Mrs. Adams and Marvin were already there. The head engineer was in fact already busy inspecting the trellises and making a few small repairs, with the help of two assistants that towered over him.

Devin walked over to him in order to watch him for a few moments, before he remarked, arms clasped behind his back and a radiant smile on his face, “This looks really good. Thank you so much for helping us again to-trial”, he added, because a good leader never took his people’s work for granted in his opinion but thanked them appropriately – and he wanted to be the best and most awesome leader that Scalvoris had ever seen.

He wanted people to follow him because they loved him and not just because he happened to be the man in charge!

“I’m glad that I can be of help. Maybe, one of the trainees would like to work with us?” Marvin asked, his whiskers twitching slightly, and looked at the small group of humans behind Devin. The nice green-eyed man volunteered, much to Devin’s disappointment and was soon kneeling on the ground and watching Marvin closely as he fixed one of the trellises.

Devin furrowed his brow for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders, turned back to Miranda and the remaining four trainees and said, “The rest of you follow me, please. I believe that Miranda will tell us what we are supposed to do, is that right?” he asked Miranda who happened to be Marvin’s sister. The maid nodded, and before long, everybody was standing in front of the first row of trellises, Mrs. Adams included because she wanted to know more about what happened before the wine was made.

Devin was just about to kneel down on the ground and see where the unwanted shoots might be located when the mouse cadouri abruptly pointed at two wooden boxes that were standing in front of the first row of trellises.

The normally soft-spoken young woman proclaimed in a stern tone of voice, “I’d like everybody who comes in contact with the actual vines to take a pair of safety glasses and gloves and put them on first. The risk of injuries is comparatively small, but it’s better to be careful, nevertheless. The twigs as well as the tools that we use can be sharp”, she explained and put on a pair cadouri-sized gloves and glasses.

Devin briefly considered grumbling, because he thought she was overly cautious, and the glasses were ugly on top of it, but ultimately decided against it. If a twig ended up in his face against all odds, he might get an ugly scar, and he didn't want to give the trainees the impression that he was questioning her authority after he had put her in charge either.

Miranda was awesome!

“I’d like those that have some gardening experience to help His Grace and me with pruning the grapevines”, Miranda continued once everybody had put on their safety equipment. “The rest of you can either watch us or check if there are dead leaves and weeds and remove them. We don’t want those to get in the way of our grapevines!”

The trainees nodded. Two of them, including the woman with the hazel eyes, stayed there in order to help Devin and Miranda while the other two started pulling weeds and collecting dead leaves that were still left over from the previous arc. It was a somewhat mundane task and far less exciting than working with the grapevines was, but it was important nevertheless, as Devin assured them, in case they were disappointed.

Without their work, the grapevines would likely not thrive as much, he insisted, although they seemed to be doing well in general so far. The volcanic soil of Faldrass was definitely excellent for growing plants!

[Devin]

“We’ll remove certain shoots because they can pull water from the developing fruit”, Miranda explained once she had shown everybody how those unwanted shoots should be removed. “This also has a secondary effect”, she added, knowing that that particular matter was of great importance to Devin. “It makes the vineyard look prettier!”

Devin grinned at her because he really liked pretty things, before he focused all of his attention on his grapevine, examining it very carefully before he trimmed it – and checked it again because he really wanted his project to be successful. He ended up removing a shoot too many here and there regardless though, without being aware of it.

As far as he was concerned, his grapevine looked awesome, so he moved on to the next one. As he did so, something suddenly occurred to him, and he briefly turned to face Miranda, a questioning look on his face, and remarked, “You said that it would be good not to totally ignore the matter of frost. What can you do to keep the grapevines from freezing to death though? Do you think we can just dump orange sand on the grapevines?”

“There are various tools that can be used to modify the temperatures in the vineyard. Surrounding the grapevines with orange sand might help as well though”, Miranda replied, momentarily sounding somewhat unsure, before she quickly pulled a small book out of the pocket of her dress in order to check something. Upon noticing that her answer had been correct, albeit lacking detail, she breathed a sigh of relief.

She wasn’t just relieved though. She also came to the conclusion that Devin and she made a pretty good team. Devin had strange and unconventional ideas while she preferred a more traditional approach that was born from experience (Even though they were both decent gardeners now, she had started gardening much sooner than he had.).

Devin and his helpers ended up spending the better part of the trial outside, in the vineyard, only taking breaks in order to eat or drink something or head to the bathroom in order to take care of a certain business, for example. After a while, a few more people joined them. They stayed in the vineyard until dusk regardless though. Generally, grapes were an easy crop to grow, but desuckering was an activity that definitely shouldn’t be rushed. Occasionally, mistakes were made, and there was over-pruning occasionally despite everybody's best efforts.

It ended up being time-consuming!

In the end, everybody was a little exhausted (But in a pleasant way; they had been productive!) and gladly got rid of their safety equipment. The woman with the hazel eyes actually tossed her gloves and glasses on the ground because she couldn’t stand them anymore.

(A few helpers chuckled when they saw that; Miranda on the other hand looked a bit stern.)

In order to help them regain their energy and reward them for a job well done, Devin invited his helpers to join him on one of the balconies and eat dinner with him once they had put their equipment away. They followed him gladly, and what more, Mrs. Adams finally told them a bit about making wine before everybody retreated to their rooms in order to head to bed.

That was not the end though. The following trial, Devin and his helpers were back in the vineyard in order to do the rest of the work because they hadn’t managed to take care of the entire vineyard on a single trial. Devin’s ultimate goal was to run the best vineyard in all of Scalvoris because only the best was good enough for a priest of Delroth!

[Jackalope]

Experience: +10 xp

Knowledge:

Knowledge:

Gardening: Desuckering involves removing unwanted shoots
Gardening: Frost can still be a threat in spring
Gardening: Grapevines are usually harvested in fall
Gardening: Wearing safety equipment when pruning grapevines is important
Leadership: Don’t take your people’s work for granted!
Logistics: Managing a vineyard in spring


Skillplay: Appropriate to level.

Loot: None.
Injuries/Overstepping: None.
Renown: None.
Wealth Points:
Collaboration: no
Magic Experience?: No.

Comments:

I learned about viticulture today! I didn’t even know that “desuckering” was a word before I read this. I also learned what a sabayon is. It sounds tasty.

Devin is a gracious host, as always, in this thread, and he manages to stay on task and not hit on the green eyed man. I can picture Saoire being happy with him for staying on task.

You struck a good balance between letting the expert run the activity in this thread while still having Devin be the leader and main character of the thread. That can be tricky; it’s easy to let the PC disappear, yet you didn’t let that happen. Well done!

Enjoy your rewards!