kscans

Chapter 137 - What was Born from a Barrel 1. Wine

Before the row of wine barrels, Yuri wore an indescribable grin. It was an expression ill-suited for a twelve-year-old boy, but considering that he was, in reality, a thirty-seven (plus five) year old man, that expression became understandable. Though understandable, it was no less unfitting, or rather, it was downright eerie.

In fact, the Yuuri Isarai of his past life was originally quite a capable drinker. Despite this, his long hospital stay had forced him into an unwilling life of sobriety. Since his reincarnation in this world, such restrictions were gone, but this body was still that of a child, and he understood well enough that excessive drinking was not good for his health or development. Or rather, before that, he was in a situation where he couldn't hope to buy and drink alcohol as easily as in his past life in Japan. There were foods that could be used as ingredients for alcohol, such as barley and plua, which was something like a small, wild apple, but their use as a food source took priority, and there was no surplus to divert to alcohol production. Later, he found something like wild grapes, but their yield was also not what you would call large. He had managed to cultivate them, but the fruit was small and the number of fruits per plant was also low. As for the plua, he had sown the seeds of what looked like good ones and was raising them, with growth promotion from wood magic, but they too were still only bearing enough fruit for a taste test. So, whenever he found a suitable young tree, he would use wood magic to promote its growth, or transplant one or two of them, since transplanting all of them would be a problem for the other animals, into the village, and had been working to increase the yield accordingly. That effort had finally borne fruit, and it was only last year that he had been able to divert a portion of the fruit to the brewing of apple wine. Incidentally, as soon as he had a prospect for securing the ingredients, he had made sure to secure several types of yeast without fail.

Due to these circumstances, being able to purchase alcohol such as wine in Laurenzen was nothing short of a gospel for Yuri. However, there was a little trouble when it came to the purchase.

Let's rewind time a bit and take a look at the circumstances surrounding that.


Sweet, that was the first impression he had when he drank the wine at Adon's mansion, and the next thing he felt was that it was younger than he had expected. There was a good reason for this.

First, the climate of this country, while not cool enough to be called chilly, was considerably cooler than his past life's Japan. Therefore, even if you made wine after harvesting the grapes, the temperature suitable for fermentation did not last long. As a result of the yeast's activity being suppressed by the low temperature, the sugar in the fruit juice remained without being consumed by the yeast, resulting in a low-alcohol, sweet wine. This type of wine was also easy to use as a sweetener, so in this country, most of the wine was of this type. Incidentally, because glass bottles were still relatively expensive, bottle aging was unknown. Therefore, to Yuri's senses, all the wine had a young feel to it.

Because it was treated more like a condiment than an alcoholic beverage, no one was suspicious when Yuri said he was going to buy wine, but...

"Hey Yuri-kun, isn't five large barrels a bit too much?" "Huh? But where I live, I can't get wine that easily... and they didn't sell it at the post town in Han, right?" "Well, that place is mostly small retail for travelers..." "I don't know when I'll be able to get it next, so I thought I'd buy a lot while I can." "I understand that, but still, isn't five barrels a lot?"

Even if it was half a condiment substitute, alcohol was still alcohol. He understood that Dona was worried, but for Yuri, who was an old man on the inside, not buying the wine he had finally gotten his hands on was not an option. He wanted to distill one or two barrels to make brandy, and he also wanted to transfer some to glass bottles for long-term aging. Considering this and that, he really wanted to secure about five barrels, but he couldn't very well confess such things honestly...

"Uh, um... I do want to secure some sweetness..."

Normally, that might have been enough to convince them, but unfortunately, both Dona and Old Man Audel knew that Yuri made his own maple syrup, or as they would say in this country, wood honey. The excuse of not having a sweetener wouldn't work. So, should he say that his maple syrup production was low and he couldn't use it freely? But if he said something like that so carelessly, he might make Dona worry. She had been treated to his maple syrup several times and it was clear that she secretly looked forward to it. In reality, he had secured enough for daily use, and he was also secretly refining non-caloric stevia. He shouldn't do something so unrefined as to take away the simple pleasure of a naive child (Dona). And so, Yuri, whose thoughts had raced swiftly, said...

"...If it's just wood honey, I'll get tired of it after all. Oh, and also, since it's going to get cold from now on, I'd like some hot wine too."

This way, he wouldn't make Dona worry. Inwardly, Yuri gave himself a thumbs-up and a "good job," but unfortunately, his plan was a little half-baked.

"...Yuri-kun, what do you mean, you'll get tired of wood honey?"

Adon, who had happened to be accompanying them because they were going to the liquor store, latched onto his words, and he ended up having a hard time explaining himself.

Incidentally, at that time, Yuri had purchased empty barrels in addition to the alcohol. He explained that it was because he couldn't make them himself, but it was a secret that he actually intended to use them for aging brandy. He had already built an underground cellar for aging, though it wasn't exactly a wine cellar, but simply a place to store food. If you just threw everything into Storage, fermentation and aging would stop, so this kind of storage room was necessary.