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One part of the water could go directly into brewing wine, since, in this era, there was no tea, and no one would drink plain hot water.
"Your old wine can be kept in the cellar for now, and it won’t hurt to drink it in moderation," Hedy explained the meaning ofdifferent diagrams. "Once this is set up, it would be best to use clean water that hasn’t come into contact with lead for the new wine."
"Old wine?" Lorenzo raised an eyebrow. "The Medici never drink old wine."
Hedy paused, suddenly feeling that something was off.
In modern times, the wealthy love to compare their collection of aged wine, often decades or even over a hundred years old—
In a city like this, where everyone drinks wine instead of water, surely there must be some treasured bottles stored in the wine cellar?
Lorenzo noticed her surprised expression and glanced at Cosimo.
"Doesn’t wine spoil and turn sour over time? Couldn't it be turned into vinegar?" Cosimo quickly stepped in to smooth things over. "Miss Kiesler has probably been working hard lately."
"Wait a minute," Hedy looked at Cosimo, "When wine turns sour, isn't that a sealing issue?"
As long as the seal is proper, the wine shouldn’t turn sour or unpleasant, right?
She suddenly remembered how, at various banquets, the maids would carry wine jars to serve, and the only covering seemed to be a layer of burlap.
She had previously thought it was just a temporary cover, without giving it much thought.
But now, an overlooked issue had surfaced.
In this era, they probably didn’t even have proper cork seals.
Compared to setting up a boiler room and ensuring the supply of lead-free, parasite-free clean water, designing a cork seal seemed far simpler.
Hedy directly asked Cosimo to take her to see the winemaking place.
As expected, it was completely different from modern setups.
The winemaking equipment was massive, like a fortress-sized wooden barrel, about a meter or two tall.
Huge barrels of grapes were poured in, and the women climbed ladders to use tools for crushing and stirring the grapes.
At the bottom of the wooden vat, there was a switchable opening that allowed the wine liquid to flow into the barrel for further storage.
"These barrels used for storing wine—what kind of wood are they made from?"
"Wood?" Cosimo thought the question was a bit odd. "Oak, pine—what’s the difference?"
Hedy rubbed her forehead, unsure of how to explain it to him.
She had grown up in the 20th century, in a world rich in wine culture, having tasted everything from whiskey to tequila.
By that time, people were accustomed to the existence of distilleries and high-end wineries, and drinking Eastern teas was also a common indulgence.
But in this era... people didn’t even know about oak barrels.
Cosimo assumed that Hedy had simply been isolated and out of touch with the local customs, so he explained the local practices.
"New wine is ten times more expensive than old wine, and the nobility drinks only the new wine. Only the poor rely on that sour, bitter wine to get by."
"Probably a few hundred years from now, this won’t change," he shrugged. "That’s why the lord had such a strange expression when you asked about it."
No, it would change.
