Yipin Tang

Chapter 24: A Wine Tasting Workshop

Before reaching the lobby, Li Zhen couldn't help sniffing, the rich aroma of the hot pot had already wafted out.

"Young slave!"

Li Zhi was about to put a large slice of hot mutton into his mouth, when he heard a loud roar, the slice of meat fell to the table and almost stuffed his chopsticks into his nostrils.

"Sounds like myna's voice?"

Li Chengqian just finished eating a piece of rinsed fungus, took a deep breath, wiped his red mouth, took a mouthful of Sprite, and said: "It sounds like the voice of the eighth brother, why is he here?"

As soon as the words were finished, Li Zhen had already rushed in. When she saw Li Zhi and Li Chengqian, she said pleasantly, "Brother Prince and Ninth Brother are indeed here!"

Compared to Li Zhi, who is well-behaved and polite, Li Zhen was a mischievous ghost since she was a child, her words and deeds were perverted, and she ran to the hot pot on the table after speaking, "Young slave, how do you eat this thing?"

Li Zhi picked up a piece of mutton to demonstrate, and Li Zhen unceremoniously rinsed it up, which was a bit more skillful than Li Chengqian.

Seeing Wang Xiang coming in behind, Li Chengqian asked, "What's going on outside? How did the eighth brother get here?"

Wang Xiang smiled wryly and told the outside story, Li Chengqian said to Li Zhenxun, "Eighth Brother, why are you still so reckless?"

Li Zhen replied casually while chewing the sliced ​​meat: "Isn't it all right, I have asked Helan Facao to take someone back."

Looking at Li Zhen who didn't care, Li Chengqian shook his head helplessly. His eighth brother, even his father, couldn't control him, so he was allowed to live in the Yue Palace early and let him make trouble.

"Wang Jiancheng, my eighth brother has always been mischievous, even the emperor can't control him, what happened today..."

Wang Xiang laughed quickly and said, "It's okay, His Royal Highness Yue Wang is still willful." Wang Xiang didn't want to offend this unprincipled kid, and it was necessary to have a good relationship with every prince living in the Tang Dynasty.

The little kid is the easiest to coax, especially the foodie kid. When the kid can't wait, Wang Xiang is very attentive to help him cook the meat slices. After a meal, the host and guest enjoy themselves. Attitude has made a 180-degree turn.

The following days will be much more leisurely, the potatoes have been planted, and the people from Sinong Temple are in charge of looking after them, Wang Xiang only needs to go to check them every day.Maybe it's because Li Zhen went to Linchuanhou's mansion to have dinner twice in three days, and He Lanyueshi didn't bother him again.

Li Chengqian, Li Zhi and Li Zhen replaced Cheng Chuliang as the regular visitors of Lin Chuanhou's mansion, and the leisurely days passed day by day...

Steward Wang has already negotiated with Yang Shi about the matter of welcoming the bride, and the date is set to be ten days later, which happens to be a good day for getting married and getting married.Naturally, the dowry cannot be casual. After all, one is the young master of the Hou’s mansion and the other is the young lady of the Duke’s mansion. Lin Chuanhou’s mansion is now a strong outsider but a middle-ranking man. However, Wang Xiang has a warehouse. Let the steward Wang bring a few catties of fungus, a bottle of Erguotou and more. I went out for some other things, and when I came back, the betrothal gift was done and there was still a lot of money left.Li Zhi showed special concern for Wang Xiang's marriage, and sent people to send a lot of gold and jewelry. Even though he knew that he had other purposes, Wang Xiang still liked this kid greatly. I have never seen them send anything over while eating and drinking.

"Young master, the shopkeeper Huang of Baiweilou asked me today if we can supply large quantities of cloud ear and wine."

Wang Xiang said: "There is no way to supply large quantities of cloud ear for the time being, but there is no problem with drinking water. Hasn't our brewery started brewing wine?"

Steward Wang said with a wry smile: "Young master, Baiweilou values ​​our first-class wine, and the wine brewed by the winery is not valued by others."

Yipinjiu is the new name of Erguotou in the Tang Dynasty. When Wang Xiang boasted to Cheng Chuliang that day, he just said it casually. Later, Li Shimin got some Erguotou from nowhere, and once after drinking, he said: "This wine deserves a first-class wine." After the word spread, the name of Yitajiu spread among the nobles in Chang'an City.

"It's been a while since I saw Cheng Chuliang. A while ago, didn't he go to the brewery every day?"

Hearing Wang Xiang's emotion, Steward Wang returned: "I heard that there was a war in the west, and the lieutenant-in-law went out with the army. He was in a hurry when he went. A few days ago, he sent a family member to the house to say that I gave forget."

"He went to war?" Wang Xiang was stunned and felt a sense of loss. The dandy who used to eat, drink and fight with him has grown into a man who can protect his family and country, but he is still doing nothing every day as before.

Steward Wang laughed and said, "When the captain-in-law left, he complained that he didn't see any wine brewed by our winery."

Wang Xiang patted his head. During this time, he was only busy with potatoes and getting married, but he forgot to teach Laifu the method of distillation.

"Where is Laifu?"

"He's still in the brewery."

Wang Xiang smiled heartily and waved: "Let's go to the winemaking workshop. We will start brewing a tasting wine from today."

When he came to the brewery, Wang Xiang was first shocked by a plaque hanging on the eaves of the brewery. The four golden characters of "Yipin Winery" are vigorous and powerful, with extraordinary momentum.

"This is?"

Steward Wang said with a smile, "This is a plaque made by the captain-in-law and everyone in Chang'an City."

"This Cheng Chuliang..." Wang Xiang muttered, but he was quite satisfied in his heart, and he also missed that dude friend who was thick-skinned, a little thick-skinned, a little rude, and righteous, "I will give you a good drink when you come back from the battlefield triumphantly!"

"You, seal and store all the brewed original wine, it will be useful in the future."

"You, it's you. Didn't I say that you must wash your hands before making wine and then catch the grain? If you commit the crime again, you will be deducted from wages. The young master said that food and drink must be hygienic. Do you know what hygiene means?"

"The first-tasting wine is not what we boasted. It was sealed by His Majesty himself. Have you ever heard that Baiweilou sells a small cup of first-tasting wine for ten taels of silver? That's what our young master sold to them. From now on, our wine tasting workshop will be A place to make a wine tasting."

As soon as he entered the door, he heard Laifu instructing everyone to make wine, and he would brag triumphantly from time to time.

Butler Wang coughed softly, Laifu looked back and smiled quickly: "Young Master, Butler Wang, why are you here?"

Wang Xiang laughed and said, "Come here and see how the manager of Laifu University directs people to make wine."

Lai Fu blushed and said embarrassedly: "I, I just yelled nonsense, and I did everything according to the young master's orders."

"I've brewed a lot of wine recently."

Laifu nodded and said: "It's not a lot, the distillery can't put down the brewed original wine, and they are all sealed up according to the young master's order."

"So much wine?" Wang Xiang was a little surprised.

Lai Fu replied: "That's not true, the soaked grain is almost finished. That's two thousand shi of grain."

As Laifu walked around the winery, the winery was almost filled with the big vats of original wine, and Laifu asked, "Master, when will you start brewing a tasting wine?"

"I came here today to teach you how to make a wine tasting. Where did you put the tools you prepared last time?"

Hearing Wang Xiang's words, Lai Fu's eyes lit up, and he said happily, "It's all inside, and there is a small workshop for storing tools."

"Take me to see."

Inside the small workshop is exactly the distillation tool that Wang Xiang asked Laifu to find someone to build. The blueprint was burned by Laifu as early as after the construction was completed. This is the only set of distillation tools in Datang. If there is anything that is not satisfactory That is, this set of tools is not made of glass but made of iron sheet and wood. The effect may be worse, but there should be no big problem. Just make another set when glass can be made in the future.

When assembling the distillation tools, Wang Xiang did not ask others to help, but only asked Laifu and Wang Butler to help, and asked them not to disclose the distillation method.

After assembling, Wang Xiang asked Laifu to seal the entire set of distillation tools with several layers of cloth, leaving only the raw material port and the wine outlet.

After all this work, Wang Xiang asked Laifu to fetch some raw wine. After all, everything was done step by step according to the method in the book. He hadn't actually operated it before, and Wang Xiang was not sure about distilling wine for the first time.

Laifu and Steward Wang were even more curious about how to use this strange tool to turn ordinary drinks into first-class wines.

For the first distillation, a barrel of raw wine turned into a small half barrel. Wang Xiang tasted it and it was still a little light, but the color was much clearer.

In the second distillation, there is only about a bowl of wine left in the small half-barrel, and the rich aroma of the wine is already wafting around.

"It smells so strong!"

Someone outside the small workshop exclaimed, and then everyone turned their eyes to the small workshop, their eyes were full of scorching heat, and the smell of wine came from there.

Looking at the crystal clear wine in the bowl, Wang Xiang knew that this time it should be a success. Under the expectant eyes of Wang Steward and Laifu, Wang Xiang took a sip.

The entrance is smooth and smooth, with a rich aroma. It is a little lighter than Erguotou, but it is also a little less spicy than Erguotou, but the taste is better. I am very satisfied after tasting it carefully.

Seeing Steward Wang and Lai Fu staring at him eagerly, Wang Xiang smiled and said, "You guys should try it too."

Steward Wang frowned and said worriedly, "Isn't it too bad to make such a bowl of first-tasting wine from a large barrel of original wine?"

Lai Fumei took a sip of the wine and said casually: "It's not a loss, it's not a loss at all. In Chang'an, there are countless wineries that sell original wine. A jar of original wine only costs ten yuan. In Baiweilou, a small glass of wine sells for ten yuan." Two silver coins, and this wine tasting can only be brewed by our first tasting workshop. If you want me to say that we don’t need to brew the original wine ourselves, we can just go to those wineries to buy the original wine. When we come back, we can make a lot of money by turning the purchased original wine into a first-tasting wine. .”

Damn, Laifu is a talent, if it weren't for Wang Steward's reluctance to part with the spoiled two thousand shi grains, Wang Xiang really planned to directly buy raw wine and distill it.

After Jing Laifu explained it like this, Steward Wang also figured out the reason, and asked impatiently: "Then the matter that the shopkeeper Huang of Baiweilou mentioned?"

Wang Xiang smiled and nodded: "Tomorrow, you can bring Laifu and go to shopkeeper Huang of Baiweilou to talk about wine tasting."

(End of this chapter)