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Mike Shepherd watched the truck as it trundled down the road with his first grape harvest secured in the back with an odd sense of satisfaction. Since he didn’t have the time or knowledge to make his own wine, Mike had sold his grapes to a local winery with one stipulation: that they would make one case of unblended wine. When Mike had signed the contract, he hadn’t been sure that his harvest would even yield enough for a bottle of wine, let alone a case or the minimum two tonnes of grapes. Today, however, the truck was leaving with a little over five and a half tonnes of premium merlot grapes.
When the truck was no longer visible, Mike turned back to the vineyard and watched Jared share a bro-hug with one of his many cousins that had come out to help get the harvest in that morning. As the cousin ambled off towards the ute that would no doubt stop at the Frog and Cheetah to spend their hard earned cash, Jared turned towards Mike. They raised their hands in simultaneous greeting as they started moving towards each other. When they met in the middle of vine row, they embraced without preamble. Jared’s arms wrapped around Mike’s waist as Mike’s one arm circled the younger man’s shoulders while his other hand came up to cup the back of his head. The embrace lasted for several moments before Mike sighed and Jared pulled slightly.
“I have a surprise for you,” Jared’s normally boisterous voice was slightly subdued, but still excited.
With a gentle scratch to the back of Jared’s head, Mike released him, “Lead on then.”
They started walking back towards the house, when Jared reached over and took Mike’s hand. Mike looked down at their joined hands and then back at Jared, who just raised an eyebrow and gave a cheeky grin. Mike smiled, but made no comment as they continued their path. When they neared the house, Mike noticed a large galvanized tub on the porch, a few bunches of grapes spilling over the sides.
“What’s this,” Mike asked, his free hand gesturing towards the tub.
Jared smiled, “Well, you might not have time to make a whole vineyard's worth of wine, but I thought we could make a small batch.”
“Excellent,” Mike squeezed Jared’s hand. “I assume you know how to do this?”
“I might have some experience,” Jared laughed as he let go of Mike’s hand and picked up the tub.
Mike hurried to open the sliding door and let Jared into the house. As Jared made his way into the kitchen, Mike followed.
Setting the tub on the counter, Jared turned to Mike, “First, we need to make juice before we can make wine. We’ll need about three large sauce pots.”
“Can do,” Mike pulled the pots out of the cabinets and set them on the opposite counter. “Now?”
Jared grabbed two handfuls of grapes and dropped them into one of the pots, “Now, we divide the grapes, soak them in water and get all the stems off.”
Mike nodded but before he began to get stuck in, he walked over to the stereo and turned on a CD of Country Love Songs. Moving back into the kitchen, Mike let his hand gently graze the small of Jared’s back before he started helping to remove the stems. They made fairly short work of cleaning and destemming the grapes, which was when Jared produced two potato mashers.
“Is that what I think that is for,” Mike asked, pointing to one of the mashers.
“Unless, you want to do it the old fashioned way,” Jared glanced down at Mike’s feet.
Mike grabbed one of the mashers, “Give it here.”
It took nearly as long to get the grapes mashed down enough to where Jared was satisfied that they could start simmering them over a medium heat for ten minutes. As they stirred the pots, they would occasionally remash some of the grapes. Jared also worked on preparing other pots with cheesecloth secured over them, so that when the grapes had been cooked down for ten minutes they could strain the mixture.
As the last of the grape mash had been scoped on to the cheesecloth, Mike turned to Jared, “Now what?”
“Now, this needs to strain for at least two hours and then we can begin the fermentation process.”
Mike looked at the pots and around his kitchen, “Don’t we need special equipment to make wine?”
“It won’t have the complexity of flavours that some oak aged or blended will have, but at least it should be drinkable,” Jared explained as he picked up a box that Mike hadn’t noticed before, “with just these.”
Mike looked through the box. There were sterilized bottles, a bag of sugar, packets of yeast and… Mike’s eyes shot up towards Jared, “Condoms?”
“I didn’t have time to get air locks, so the condom will act as one when we put it over the bottle and poke a couple of holes. The condom will also let us know when the yeast starts producing carbon dioxide and when the yeast dies and the wine is ready,” Jared explained before he tapped the package. “Do you really think I would use small, unlubricated condoms, brah?”
Mike arched an eyebrow, “Haven’t had the opportunity to learn, have I?”
Jared slid across the kitchen and placed his hands on Mike’s waist, “All you had to do was ask.”
“How long does the grape mash need to strain,” Mike asked as his hands also came up to Jared's waist.
Jared grinned, “At least two hours, but it is better if it sits overnight. Milks more of the juice.”
Mike’s grin matched Jared, “I can think of some other things that could use milking… maybe overnight.”
Their grins met in a passionate first kiss.