She is different from the empress in the history books

Chapter 94 Wine

What Cheng Fei wants to make most is of course wine.

Not to mention that later generations of wine are the most successful fruit wines, and their taste and brewing techniques have been recognized by time. Just say that now, wine can be brought back from the Western Regions, which is extremely expensive.

It is said that when the eunuchs in the previous dynasty were in power and sold their officials and nobles, someone exchanged several dendrobium wines from the Western Regions in exchange for the post of governor of a government, and he succeeded in exchanging them.

This was what Cheng Fei saw from unofficial history during the time when she was studying on the head. Therefore, no matter how stupid she was, she realized that wine was a hugely profitable industry even in ancient times.

As for grapes, Cheng Fei had only seen them twice in Beijing, both times at Pei Peng's place - which shows that they are expensive and scarce.

Later, she also bought a fruit from a vendor that looked and tasted somewhat similar to grapes. It was slightly astringent and extremely sour.

But Cheng Fei also knew that some fruits were surprisingly suitable for brewing wine even though they didn't taste good in the first place, so she didn't rule it out at the first time, but wrote down its name—蘡薁.

In addition, Pei Peng also provided her with the types of fruit wine she often drinks, namely Sanler wine, which was also transported back from foreign countries, and pomegranate wine, which has become quite popular in recent years.

Cheng Fei didn't know what the raw materials were for Sanle wine. When he asked businessmen who traveled to the Western Regions, they would only say that it was three kinds of fruits named "Le" from a small country.

The place of production is not in the country, and the popularity of this wine is not very high, so Cheng Fei naturally gave up.

The raw materials of pomegranate wine are relatively easy to obtain, and it has become more popular among ladies in recent years.

But Pei Peng thought about it, and this market has been almost occupied by people, and Chengyang County, which she can control, or even the whole prefecture of Taizhou, which she can control in the future, is not suitable for planting pomegranates. Holding it in her hand, how much money can she earn in a safe and secure way, taking the risk to snatch the territory?
If Cheng Fei didn't exist, she would be willing to bite the hard nut even if it was difficult, but since Cheng Fei has some unique recipes, there seems to be no need to fight to the death.

Cheng Fei lived up to Pei Peng's expectations. Although she was just talking on paper, she still gave several recipes, such as wine - temporarily substituted with gallbladder to try the effect, and another such as peach wine, pear wine, date wine, citrus wine, These are fruits that have been domesticated and grown locally in Taizhou or have wild varieties.

As for these fruits, the recipe given by Cheng Fei also has several different brewing methods, and there are more than a dozen kinds in total. Pei Peng provided support and asked Cheng Fei to take the winemakers to try. .

The ending is the three jars of fruit wine that are now in front of Pei Peng.

On the dark brown stoneware jars, there are also names labeled: 衡薁 wine, pear wine, and jujube wine.

There was also a brochure placed next to it. Yang Luo glanced at Cheng Fei and saw that she was not going to get up to introduce him, so he stood up and introduced Pei Peng one by one:

"Your Highness, please see that the brewing process of amaranth wine is the most complicated, but it produces seventy-eight out of ten of the charm of existing wines."

Pei Peng turned to the first volume and read it. It said: Take a bucket of juice, mix it with [-] liang of Qu, mix it well, put it in an urn and seal it. After one month, put the urn in ice, and keep the rest in ice. This is not ice, it is the semen of wine.

The control of all crafts and skills is definitely more complicated than what is recorded in the book, but these are recipes that need to be kept confidential, so naturally they cannot be recorded carelessly.

But when Pei Peng looked at it this way, he also saw that the brewing of this wine was indeed more complicated.

Her eyes fell on the jar of ginseng wine. The jar had been opened. The purple-red wine was even clearer in the dark jar, and a white porcelain spoon was floating on it.

Xu Shu also leaned forward to have a look curiously. She was farther away and couldn't smell the smell, but felt that the color was quite close to wine, and couldn't help but marvel:
"Is it possible that this wild fruit can really replace grapes? But I have also eaten it, and it is obviously very sour."

Yang Luo explained in time:

"According to the craftsmen, the aftertaste of this wine is more sour, but it has a different taste. As for why it can replace grapes, we need Ms. Cheng Sanniang to explain it to us."

Cheng Fei also attached great importance to her first result, but she did only participate in the beginning. The subsequent experiments and records were all conducted by Yang Luo, so she was too embarrassed to steal the limelight and just watched silently from below. .

Hearing that Yang Luo pointed to her, she began to play, and told how she found out that this kind of fruit belonged to the same category as grapes, and how she discussed with the craftsman to remove the astringent taste from the fruit.

Even for adjusting the acidity of the wine, Cheng Fei actually provided several ideas. One is to pickle the fruits with sugar first, the other is to add sugar to the fruit juice, and the third is to add sugar to the wine, trying to use the least amount of sugar. Fruit wine that reduces the most acidity.

Here, Cheng Fei was also cautious and did not explain the detailed proportions or final decision.

Originally, no one knew about Cheng Fei's contribution in this matter, and some even thought that she gave people a try with a recipe that they didn't know was true or false. The actual brewing was all due to Yang Luo and the others.

But after hearing what Cheng Fei said, they had to admit that Cheng Fei had indeed done a lot of work in the early stage, and it was a key procedure.

Pei Peng was also very happy to hear this, for a woman raised in a deep boudoir to take over such a matter from the very beginning, even if it was not an official business, and the money was spent in Pei Peng's own private treasury, there would still be people who suspected that Pei Peng wanted to give Kissing his cousin to give money to his cousin regardless of the facts.

She smiled and nodded at the wine jars on the table, and said:
"Then share it with everyone to taste, and see how the self-brewed wine of our Princess Mansion is, whether it is enough to compare with the wine from the Western Regions."

Yang Luo gently pulled up the cuff with his left hand at the right time, and picked up the porcelain spoon with his right hand, and the maids also handed over the wine cup in time.

Yang Luo filled a glass first and handed it to Pei Peng with a lowered eyebrow. Then he poured wine for Xu Qing, Xu Shu, Mr. Wu, Xu Zhao and others in turn, and then the maids carried them over.

Pei Peng took it from Yang Luo, lowered his head and smelled the aroma of the wine, thought about it again, and whispered to the maid to get the new wine offered by the merchant this year from the warehouse.

Pei Peng didn't wait for the wine to be served, he picked up the wine cup, signaled to everyone, then covered it with his wide sleeve, and drank it in one gulp.

The capacity of the wine cup was not much, just one mouthful. Everyone picked up the wine cup and gestured to Pei Peng, then turned sideways and drank.

Pei Peng was a little amazed. This kind of amazement does not mean that the taste of this wine is outstanding, but that the wine is brewed with unremarkable fruits that are so ordinary that they have never been served on her table. The smell of wine.

Even if Yang Luo explained this in advance, Pei Peng had to be surprised by the taste of this bite.

Of course, Yang Luo rarely drank wine often, and the quality was not top-notch, so he naturally felt that this wine already had seven or eight points of charm.

In Pei Peng's opinion, this wine was probably only one-fifth as good as the wine stored in her cellar.

Objectively speaking, Pei Peng feels that if this wine is newly brewed, if it is stored well for a period of time, the taste will improve by one or two points.If you can improve your skills...

If you don't sell the best wine, you can sell it at mid-to-high-end prices.

You must know that the biggest cost of this wine is the cost of distiller's koji and sugar, as well as the cost of freezing and refining, which is not low, but it is also much lower than the cost and loss of transporting from the Western Regions.

In other words, selling this wine is indeed a huge profit.

Xu Shu is not as familiar with wine as Pei Peng. She doesn't like to drink, and she doesn't often drink wine, that is, pomegranate wine, which is sweeter. She drinks some when she meets friends.

Therefore, after taking a sip, she realized that she could not provide any advice, so she put down the wine cup resignedly.

This was the first time for Cheng Fei to officially taste her product. Even though the wine was not that strange to her, she still savored it carefully.

She doesn't understand wine, and she doesn't like drinking very much. It's just that she drank it a few times at friends and family gatherings in her previous life. She doesn't know anything about pre- and post-flavors, but it may be the addition of filters. Lovely, she somehow thinks it's the best wine she's ever had.

The attitude of the people next to this wine is more enthusiastic. Some of them have drank wine once or twice, such as Xu Zhao and Mr. Wu, and some have never drunk it at all, but those who have drank it feel that this wine is enough to restore. Those who have drank it also feel that this wine has a unique fragrance.

They also felt that this business could be done, and they all looked at Pei Peng, wanting to see how she planned to arrange this business, and who would be responsible for it. Although there will definitely be a caravan running errands, the overall arrangement naturally requires the princess Of the people of the government.

This is a fat job, and he has done it well. He can hold half of the money bag of the princess's house. What kind of credit is this!
Pei Peng naturally knows that the people below have different thoughts, but it is a good thing to have competition and want to do things. Even if it is more for personal gain, it is also a good thing. People who want something can be more useful to her.

So, she didn't say anything, but she decided to douse the heat wave - otherwise they all thought that this wine could be sold to nobles at a high price, which would be a detour.

And what she was going to bring to quench this heat wave was the wine from the Western Regions that had been stored for several years in a cellar that she had just asked her maid to fetch.

A new set of wine cups was put on, and the maids filled them and sent them over one after another.

Pei Peng said warmly:
"How about you guys try this jar of wine again?"

In order to avoid mixing the taste, a maid soon brought them tea cups to rinse their mouths with.

Everyone started a new round of wine tasting, and at this moment, some people's originally heated minds calmed down again.

Yes, the newly brewed wine is indeed delicious, not compared to the wine stored in Her Royal Highness the Princess.But when compared, probably apart from the cost advantage, nothing else is as good as it is.

And noble people like Her Royal Highness who can afford wine, would they really give up the good wine from the Western Regions and choose them because of the cheaper price?
Therefore, this wine really cannot be sold to the nobles in the capital at a high price at present. Once it is found out that the taste is not as good as others, it will be to destroy its own brand from the beginning.

This is what most people think.Those who are more flexible have already begun to think about who should sell this wine and what gimmick they should use to sell it.

Pei Peng looked around at everyone's expressions, knowing that they had already been reminded.

And they were able to calm down so quickly, their expressions were more thoughtful than Yu Se's, Pei Peng was quite satisfied.

However, this is a welcome feast, and Pei Peng didn't want to make them all distressed at this time, so he turned his head and looked at the waiter behind him, who clapped knowingly and focused everyone's attention, Pei Peng Only then did he speak again:
"It's normal to have gaps. We just started brewing, and the types of fruits are not exactly the same. How can we catch up with the quality in the Western Regions all of a sudden? But there are gaps, which doesn't mean we can't sell. How to sell, who to sell to, and who will coordinate , we will talk about it later.

During this period of time, all of you have helped the princess maintain the dignity of the princess mansion in the battle with the barbarians, happy event.We came back safely from the capital, happy event.My daughter has been sealed as a food town, happy event.Cheng Fei and Yang Luo worked together to brew good wine, a happy event.After so many happy events, isn't it worth giving up all our worries and getting drunk today?

Come, share the rest of these wines and let everyone taste the taste of different fruit wines. Since it is brewed in our house, it is natural for us to drink enough. "

Everyone felt relieved. Indeed, during these days, whether they followed Pei Peng back to Beijing or stayed behind in Chengyang County, everyone's nerves were tense. Until today, they were completely relaxed.

It is indeed worth getting drunk to reward yourself for your hard work during this period.

The pear wine is sweet and the jujube wine is mellow, both of which are different from the common grain wine in the past.

Even though the alcohol content is still not high, and even the blend of acidity and sweetness is not that appropriate, for the ancients who were used to drinking grain wine, this is still a taste worth remembering.

Moreover, fruit wine-making consumes no food, or consumes less food.Even if you grow fruits, you rely more on mountains and forests rather than cultivated land, and the impact on food production is close to zero.

In addition, planting fruit trees requires careful maintenance in the first few years. Once they bear fruit, the manpower and material resources consumed are far lower than those of farming.

Adding up these benefits, even if Mr. Wu doesn't like to be too busy, he thinks this is indeed an excellent deal.

He couldn't help but think highly of half of the students, the relatively stupid half of them—Cheng Fei.

It seems that this child is just a bit stupid when it comes to writing, but he is somewhat clever when doing other things.

A meal, the guest and host enjoy.

Pei Peng prefers jujube wine to the low wine version. It's not because it tastes so good, but because it feels very healthy, so she also drank a few more glasses.

And her newly opened wine, well, it's still delicious, she couldn't hold back and drank a few more glasses.

Although not drunk, but a little drunk, after saying goodbye to everyone, he was helped by the maid to leave.

Xu Shu hadn't seen her mother-in-law for a long time, and she still had a lot to say, but her mother-in-law had left and her father didn't care about anything, so he could only patiently appease everyone.

Let the servants go to help the older people to rest, and arrange for people to serve hangover soup for the drunk people, and pay attention to the inexplicably silent cousin, until everyone is arranged properly, then he is relieved, Let people disturb the leftovers, and then get up and chase after A Niang.

(End of this chapter)