The process of making wine is not a particularly difficult craft.
Whether you search on Baidu in China or Google abroad, you can easily find the steps to making wine.
It's not complicated. The process is mainly divided into eight steps. The first step is removing the stems, which is what Jiang Hai and his team are doing now.
They pluck the grapes from their stems and toss them into wooden barrels. The second step is crushing—the grapes are mashed inside the barrel. The third step is fermentation. Yeast is added to the crushed grapes, and this is when the skill of the winemaker, Dulles Gerard, is truly tested. The red color of the wine comes from the fermentation of the skins.
The bitterness comes from the seeds—the flavor released by the seeds of the grapes.
After the fermentation process is nearly complete, a juicer is used to extract the fermented wine, which is then filtered to remove the remaining skins and seeds. It is then left to ferment further. This stage plays a crucial role in determining the wine's taste, as the length of fermentation impacts the flavor.
Of course, the most important factor is the sugar content. If most of the sugar is fermented, the result is dry wine.
If the sugar content is between 4–12 grams per liter, it's called semi-dry wine.
Wine with 12–50 grams of sugar per liter is considered semi-sweet, and anything above 50 grams per liter is sweet wine.
After fermentation, the wine must be filtered to remove any remaining solid matter before it is aged. The wine must be stored in oak barrels for about two years.
However, modern society moves quickly, and few are willing to wait two years for their wine.
As a result, 99.5% of wines on the market today are produced quickly.
New wines are mixed with a bit of older wine, aged for a few months, and then bottled and sold.
The ancient winemaking method used by Dulles-Gerald follows the same steps as these, but with more manual labor rather than machines. Of course, for tasks like juicing and filtering, machines are necessary—manual labor alone isn't enough.
But for the critical steps of fermentation, barreling, and crushing, he insists on manual labor.
According to him, the most authentic French wine requires a particular method for crushing the grapes: young women—specifically, those who have not had relationships with men. After they wash thoroughly, they step into the barrels to crush the grapes.
In medieval Europe, nobles would often keep such women to make wine for them.
But as you can imagine, in today's world, there are very few girls who have not had a relationship by the time they're 14 or 15, especially in places like the U.S. and Europe. However, Jiang Hai has a number of such girls. Originally, they were Darlene, Marianne, Bernice, and Xiaoya.
Some of them were arranged by Jiang Hai, and from a medical standpoint, they have not "fought with men."
However, Dina and the others are unwilling to step on the grapes, as they feel it might taint the fruit.
The four of them—Darlene, Marianne, Bernice, and Xiaoya—are the main ones doing the crushing. Azarina could have joined, but she's too lazy.
After tossing the grapes into the barrels, one barrel was filled, so Dulles asked Darlene and the others to start crushing.
Whether it was Darlene, Marianne, Bernice, or Xiaoya, they all seemed excited about the process.
Jiang Hai, on the other hand, felt a bit nauseous watching the purple juice splashing around. He had no particular taste for this kind of activity. He'd been curious about making wine, but after seeing this, he wasn't eager to try it himself. The visual impact was overwhelming.
Jiang Hai didn't have a penchant for drinking what could be called "foot-washing water," even if the girls were all beautiful.
But if the wine could be sold for a profit, he wouldn't mind.
Once they had stomped enough grapes, Dulles sprinkled yeast powder into the mixture.
After that, they sealed the barrels, and once the grape crushing was done, they resumed their work in the afternoon.
Even though the winery in this manor hadn't produced wine in ten years, the original owner had gone bankrupt, leaving behind many barrels and wooden basins. Combined with the ones Jiang Hai had recently purchased, there was more than enough equipment to handle the grapes.
In the afternoon, they worked even faster than in the morning, and they harvested much more.
By evening, Edward Anderson and Robbins Garcia arrived to help, putting the grapes into barrels as the four girls continued to stomp them. They worked until after 10 p.m., marking the end of the day's efforts.
Jiang Hai, thinking about the next five days of similar work, felt a little weary.
"Okay, thank you for your trouble. When the wine is brewed, you can drink as much as you want. Now, go back!" Jiang Hai clapped his hands, stood up, and addressed the group.
Everyone laughed in response, and after helping Dulles carry the equipment, they headed back.
Since they were just helping out, Jiang Hai didn't plan to pay them, and Edward Anderson and Robbins Garcia didn't expect any wages. For them, the wine they would drink in the future was reward enough.
Although they didn't exactly know how they would drink wine made from grapes that had been stomped on by the girls, Jiang Hai wouldn't mind if they wanted to try it.
With Jiang Hai's signal, the crowd in front of the villa slowly dispersed. Jiang Hai and his friends, feeling slightly tired, made their way to their rooms. After gathering their bathing items, they headed toward the hot spring.
Women always have their share of troubles. Unlike Jiang Hai, who simply entered the men's bath, undressed, and soaked in the hot spring, enjoying its soothing warmth. The moment he submerged himself, his body instantly felt lighter. Despite his inhuman physical condition, he couldn't help but hum in comfort. Burying his neck under the water, he reached for the remote control beside him and pressed a button. A beam of light shot out, and a 3D TV screen appeared before him.
He had purchased the TV recently—otherwise, soaking in the hot spring would be rather dull.
The TV played a random channel, and as Jiang Hai was casually browsing, he suddenly heard laughter and the sound of water splashing from the next bathroom. He knew instantly that Darlene and the others had entered the water.
Since the hot spring was installed, Darlene, Marianne, Bernice, Azarina, and Afra would usually come to bathe daily unless it was raining or windy.
Recently, Xiaoya had also joined. It seemed that after bathing in the hot spring, the girls' skin had become noticeably smoother and more radiant. Thinking about their glowing skin, Jiang Hai couldn't help but imagine...
Lost in thought, he unconsciously touched something he shouldn't. This, of course, was the difference between men and women.
When women are in the mood for something, they tend to think it through; it's why most women can handle loneliness.
When men are in the mood for something, they almost always end up making accidental touches...
Jiang Hai, aware of his actions, quickly looked around. He grabbed the remote control, lowered the volume, and switched to a pay channel. Flicking through a few channels, he stumbled upon a Japanese romantic action drama, starring Natsumi Kirishima, a woman he quite admired despite her heavy makeup.
Some people said she looked like a ghost without her makeup, but Jiang Hai dismissed them with a remark from Pra Walton: "What does it matter if she looks like a ghost or not? It's admiration, not marriage. Are you going to marry her and have babies?"
So, he figured, no need to take things too seriously. Just enjoy the show.
As Jiang Hai focused on the TV, he suddenly heard Afra's voice from the next room. "I have a stomachache... I need to use the bathroom."
She stepped out of the bath but was back in less than a minute, appearing quietly behind him.
"Hey." Afra softly tapped Jiang Hai on the shoulder.
"Huh? Oh, it's you..." Jiang Hai, startled, turned around but was quickly silenced when Afra covered his mouth and pointed toward the bathroom.
"Why are you here?" he whispered, sinking lower into the water.
"I came to find you," Afra replied with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Seems like you're up to no good. Instead of getting hit by the water, why don't you let me take care of it?"
Before Jiang Hai could respond, Afra pounced on him...