Traveling through 70's wine

After buying a train ticket back to Pingjing, Wen Qing got on the train carrying a large bag in one hand.

After a day and a night, she arrived in Pingjing. Looking at the familiar train station, she seemed to have returned to two years ago. At that time, she was also alone. It was her first time to come to this place that was both familiar and unfamiliar. She felt indescribably confused.

Now, she is no longer worried, but more hopeful.

After returning to Erxia Village, she put down her things and went to the winery in the backyard first.

I saw Wang Jianguo turning over the lees and putting the mixed lees and rice husks into the wine cellar.

Each wine cellar can hold a thousand kilograms of distiller's grains. Since the steamer is not very big, the dregs they steam every day can only fill two wine cellars or four earthen jars. It will take ten days to fill ten mud cellars or twenty earthen jars.

The temperature is high in the summer, and the temperature in the backyard winery is about 30 degrees Celsius. Wen Qing installed fans to cool the ground tanks and wine cellars to ensure stable fermentation.

But how to do it specifically depends on the fermentation conditions in the wine cellar. Wang Jianguo is very interested in this. He measures and checks the fermentation conditions in the wine cellar every day and records them one by one. Sometimes he also analyzes and summarizes the winemaking process with Wen Qing.

When Wang Jianguo saw Wen Qing coming in, he stopped what he was doing and asked with a smile, "Sister Wen is back?"

Wen Qing nodded and said, "I just got home. How is the wine shop?"

Wang Jianguo said: "All the grain you left has been turned into distiller's grains and put into the pond for fermentation."

Pointing to five or six vats on one side, he said, "These vats have been fermenting for more than 20 days. I plan to start distilling wine tomorrow. Four of them are already in the second fermentation. The starch has been converted almost completely, so we won't need the distilled lees next time."

He pointed to three wine cellars on one side and said, "I added grain dregs to these three cellars and steamed more than 2000 kilograms of wine. I just sealed them with mud yesterday and turned over one of the wine cellars today."

Pointing to the several wine cellars on the other side, he said, "These are still fermenting, the temperature is relatively high, I think we should wait a few more days before digging them out."

Wen Qing said, "Okay, tomorrow we will take out the fermented mash and steam it together." She rolled up her sleeves and began to help Wang Jianguo put on the sealing mud.

After sealing the cellar, the two men cleaned and dried the steamers, pottery jars, grain soaking barrels, and drying mats before turning off the lights and locking the door.

The two returned to the front yard together. When Liu Quan heard that she had returned home, he rushed over to report to her the sales situation over the past ten days. "I delivered goods to 42 grocery stores and 36 department stores, a total of 300 boxes of wine, and received a payment of 1.35 yuan."

Wen Qing looked at the balance in the passbook and checked the inventory account, and found no problems.

Wen Qing told him about her experience of selling wine in Jiangnan, and said, "This time when I went to Jiangnan, I sold 1400 bottles of liquor and 300 bottles of fruit wine. This is a newly signed contract, you keep it.

You should call them every two weeks to check their sales progress so that they can deliver the goods in time."

He added: "Although our wine cannot yet compete with the old famous wines, everyone says that the taste is still good. Next, we will further improve the quality of the wine and make it famous."

Liuquan asked: "How do you become famous?"

Wen Qing said: "It's mainly about doing more publicity. Even good wine needs to be marketed."

Liu Quan said: "Being famous is a good thing, but good things are expensive. If we sell them at a high price, many people will not buy them, which will affect sales."

Wen Qing asked: "Good things don't have to be expensive, they have to be cheap and good quality. How many kinds of liquor do we have?"

Liu Quan said: "Both the light-aroma and strong-aroma types have two types, 42% and 53%; I asked some wine lovers to taste our wine and they felt that the cellar aroma was a little lacking and the taste could not catch up with high-end liquor."

Wen Qing nodded: "Well, our winery has only been open for a short time, and it is indeed far behind the centuries-old brands."

Wang Jianguo said: "I have been reading a book on winemaking recently and researched how to make koji. I want to make a batch of koji to see if my method works."

Some of the koji they are using now were made by Wen Qing in the space, and some were bought from an old winery in Nankun and the suburbs of Beijing. They are quite mixed. Wang Jianguo's words reminded her to get some good koji when she goes out in the future.

Wen Qing said, "Liuquan, if you have time, you can go to the Erguotou factory, or even some famous wineries to learn and visit, to see what their process is like. Jianguo, just do whatever you want to do, tell me what materials you need, and I'll find them. Also, you can go and find out if there are any old masters from the winery who you can invite back."

The two nodded in agreement.

After returning home, Wen Qing had more time, so she invited Zhu Hongying's family to have dinner in the courtyard.

After ten o'clock in the morning, Zhu Hongying and her family arrived. Wen Qing said happily: "Hongying is here? Where is Xiao Mingli?"

Zhu Hongying pulled Mingli over and said, "Here, Mingli, call me Auntie Wen."

"Hello, Aunt Wen." Mingli knew Wen Qing and was very familiar with her, so she greeted her openly.

"Wen Qing, this is my lover Yang Shaojun."

Yang Shaojun looks to be in his thirties, but he is actually only twenty-seven. He studies electronic technology at Nanning University and was admitted in the first year after the college entrance examination was resumed.

Wen Qing poured them tea, placed melon seeds, peanuts and candies on the table under the eaves, and went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Zhu Hongying followed her in, and the two chatted while cooking.

It turned out that Yang Shaojun and Zhu Hongying both got admitted to university and wanted to leave their daughter at home to be taken care of.

But his mother died early, and his father remarried and his stepmother gave birth to two more children. Now his half-brother is also married and has a son and a daughter; his step-sister is also married and gave birth to a daughter last year. Yang Shaojun's father lives with his youngest son to help him take care of the children, and his stepmother lives with her daughter to take care of their granddaughter, so the old couple has no way to take care of Mingli.

Zhu Hongying lost both her parents and was an orphan. She grew up with her uncle and went to the countryside after finishing high school. There has been no contact with her uncle in the past few years.

Since the couple had no elders to rely on, Zhu Hongying had to bring her child to college. Fortunately, the school allowed her to live in the dormitory with her child.

Yang Shaojun worked part-time to earn money and sent money to Zhu Hongying every month. The two of them did not return to their hometown during the holidays.

Last year during the holidays, Zhu Hongying took the children to Nanning, and this year Yang Shaojun came.

Zhu Hongying looked at the small courtyard with some envy and asked, "Wen Qing, do you think I can buy a house in Pingjing?"

"Of course, but where do you want to buy a house?"

“Of course it’s best to be near a school.”

"There are many educated youth returning to the city now, and housing prices have risen a bit. If you want to buy a house, you should act quickly."

“How much does a house cost now?”

"It's hard to say, it depends on what kind of house you buy."

Zhu Hongying looked at her in confusion, and Wen Qing had to explain: "For example, should I buy a building or a bungalow? In the countryside or in the city? The prices are all different."

Zhu Hongying asked: "Which house do you think is better to buy?"

“No matter what kind of house you buy, the property rights must be clear and there should be no disputes.”

"We have saved 3000 yuan in the past two years. What kind of house can we buy?"

"I know someone at the housing authority next to our school. I'll go ask for you."

Zhu Hongying thanked her happily. They were busy for more than an hour and made braised carp, pork ribs and lotus root soup, fried meatballs, steamed pork with rice flour, steamed egg custard, stir-fried water spinach, and mashed potatoes. Although they were not precious ingredients, they were still a rich meal on the table.

Little Mingli's mouth was greasy as she ate the fried meatballs. She had grown a lot taller in the past two years. She was no longer the skinny and petite girl that Wen Qing first saw her, and her personality had also become more cheerful.