Vintner Hall

MasterVintner Yedrik

Colors: Wine-Red and white.
Emblem: Dark red wineskin on white background.

Main Crafthall Location: Malay Hold.

The Vintners run wineries, breweries and distilleries across the Southern Continent. They create all the alcohol in the south -- wine, beer, ale, bubbly, spirits of every kind, along with many non-alcoholic beverages. Vintners give advice, as well as construct barrels and kegs, char and smoke the containers, make wooden stoppers and vegetable lipid seals, and harvest specially grown grapes, fruits, herbs and other ingredients. Southern vintners have great pride in their work, so be warned! Hailing the virtues of any Northern ware is guaranteed to rub them the wrong way.

On SouCon, the WineCraft is based in the Unified Crafthall and is under the direct auspice of the Craft Wizard. To become an Apprentice, Journeyman or Master please read through NEWS CRAFT JOINING. Characters may also request a posting to any open Hold or Weyr.

Generally, the WineCraft Halls reek of centuries worth of yeast and spoiled grape juice, although the new Hall in the Southern Continent was founded in the Tenth Interval and has yet to develop that characteristic aroma. Within the Hall racks upon racks of crocks and bottles lie in shadowed corners, out of the way of clumsy feet. The air is always cool and moist, circulating through ventilation shafts in the North and open windows high in the walls in the South.

The winepresses in which the grapes are squeezes are stone tuns some fifteen inches thick, often cut from the rock of the Hold itself. In the South these are often replaced with the traditional wooden stomping vats now that hardwood is once more viable.

The harvest season is generally supervised by the MasterVintner, who determines when the grapes will be picked and begins by picking and encouraging others to do so. Apprentices hurry everywhere with large withy baskets of grapes held high over their heads, which are taken back to the Hall. Here apprentices press out the juice in the traditional manner -- bare feet and lots of stomping! The atmosphere during these times is heady and rich with the smell of yeast, and many WineCrafters wear cloth masks over their noses and mouths to keep them from inhaling too much yeast and sneezing constantly.

The Journeymen oversee the rows of Apprentices who sit at stone tables sorting through the grapes and discarding the unsuitable ones into the overflowing, stinking bins that are hauled outside and washed by wrinkle-nosed Apprentices (usually as punishment). Other Journeymen follow the MasterVintner as he walks from vat to vat, trying when invited and listening carefully as he explains and illustrates Craft secrets.

The MasterVintner's keep close track of what they do to each vintage so that they can duplicate the results at a later date. They generally taste wine with a crystal cup or glass as they do not pick up any flavor from the wines, nor will they add to it.

There are one and two liter glass bottles and ceramic gallon crocks everywhere, each sealed with wooden stoppers and covered with lead foils or solid seals made of vegetable lipids as Pern has no beeswax or cork trees. Enormous wooden barrels and knee high kegs line other rooms where the wines are left to mature, sometimes for hundreds of Turns. Within the Hall's confines there is plenty of storage room. The WineCraft releases vintage wines for the accession of Lord Holders, celebrations, hatchings, the birth of heir and other important occasions. The wines themselves are indicated by the name of the MasterVintner and the number of the Turn in his career that it was pressed.

The barrels themselves are made on strakes that are manufactured from ancient patterns. These contraptions force the wood into the right shape and then shave the lengths to bend them in the correct direction. As the hardwood supplies become more common they are gradually replacing the ceramic and glass barrels that that Craft has had to use for so long.

The secrets of the Benden wines are the glass-lined pressurized air seal tanks, the perfect hermetic seal ensuring that the maturing wine never loses the "angel-hair" of a quality vintage and they can be siphoned without effort. Benden produces the whole range of wine from the finest white, fruit wines and even ice wines. The Tillek wines have improved greatly over the Interval, although they are still considered 'foxy'. The harsh aftertaste is no longer present the lime having sweetened the soil in which the grapes grow. Tillek has vastly improved all components of their process from finest wood casks, to the supreme woven cloth for straining.

Southern produces a vast range of beverages -- wine, beer, ale, bubbly, spirits of every kind and much more, along with many non-alcoholic beverages, including cognac, Chablis, rose, firestone red, pear cider, red cider, brandy, plum cider, Southern stout, Harper red, blue bubbly, wheat beer, apple cider, whiskey and of course the Southern reds and whites. Southern vintners have great pride in their work, so be warned! Hailing the virtues of any Northern ware is guaranteed to rub them the wrong way.

SubCrafts

Brewer:	While nearly every Hall, Hold, or Weyr of any size can boast a brewer or two, they are by no means the specialists in the art that those of this SubCraft are. They deal with finding the hops, barley, malt, and other ingredients, and with experimentation, discovering new recipes for lagers, ales, and other varieties of beer. While making beer isn't so difficult, making really good beer is both a science and an art. Brewers bring both to their SubCraft.

Coopers:	Those in the Cooper SubCraft work closely with the Woodcraft to create barrels and kegs to store and age various beverages. Some barrels must be charred or smoked, usually to very exacting specifications, to achieve a certain recipe's effect. The Coopers also produce wooden stoppers and vegetable lipid seals, to seal the alcohol into the bottles that are becoming far more common.

Liquor/Distillery:	The creation of spirits, from the hardest of whiskey to the smoothest of brandies is the focus of this specialty. As metallurgy and heaters improved through the Tenth Interval, the distilleries of the Vintner craft have improved as well, though the essential technique for creation libations has remained constant through the Turns. Although certain recipes are similarly static, each Journeyman is required to invent his own recipe, usually named something outlandish before his Mastery can be awarded.

Tasters:	In this post-Nemar's era, no Vintner can afford to specialize solely in the realm of tasting. But some do pursue this SubCraft in addition to other duties. With highly trained noses and tongues, they have the job of judging a beer or wine in progress. Able to detect the various subtle underlying scents and flavors, they can tell when best when wine should be removed from its barrels, or if something else should be added to the beer.

Vineyards:	Highly specialized gardeners, these men and women maintain the soil where the vines grow, cultivate the vines and oversee the harvesting of grapes with special, curved blades. They decide what vine variety will work in what soil, and when the harvest and planting will begin. Should inclement weather threaten a crop, they will make the call to try to save the grapes or abandon them to the elements.

Wine:	Crush the grapes! From picking the right grape variety, to crushing them, storing the juice in the proper barrels, to tasting the results after aging, this most common of specialties is also the one in which the greatest names are made for Master Vintners.

CrossCrafts

The Vintners and the Farmers share a good relationship, and Crafters crossing these two Crafts are not an unusual sight. Grapes, hops, and barley after all must be grown, and learning techniques to improve their cultivation is useful all around. Some Vintners also find themselves drawn to the Bakers art, using wines and beers to cook with. Others still find themselves with the Woodsmiths, as coopers.

MasterVintner Yedrik:

Yedrik is one of the few Craftmasters to survive the disease, a fact he attributes to a lifetime of drinking. Nearing his seventh decade, Yedrik was always considered extremely talented in the production of liquors, as well as certain wines. Even today, some of his earliest pressings are considered masterpieces and are highly prized. A very even-tempered and patient man, Yedrik prides himself on his hands-on approach to being the MasterVintner, including his continuing to teach apprentices. The son of dragonriders, he has a great appreciation of the Weyrs, and has never balked at tithes due to the dragonriders. Or as he put it, 'Why should I antagonize my best customers, not to mention all my relatives?' Although he has never married, Yedrik had several children in addition to his half dozen half-siblings, and their children. Only his daughter and a nephew remain, to the best of his knowledge, and he has used his position as Craftmaster to make sure they have in comfortable positions in their respective fields.

Relevant Links:

Harper's Tale Vintner Craft

Medieval/Renaissance Brewing Homepage