In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia

by C. J. Wills

The grapes brought from the immediate vicinity of the town, being cultivated by irrigation, are watery, and the wine made from them will not keep: it is made and drunk at once, and, being quite new, gives fearful headaches.

Of course we were to buy the Cholar grapes, and as many of the Shiraz grandees were wanting them for wine-making, the Hadji thought it better that we should send a trusty muleteer and his string of mules with one of my own men. It was arranged that the grapes already bought by the Hadji were, on nearing the town, to be escorted by all my servants, and so brought direct to my house, as otherwise they would be surely intercepted, and taken to the house of some big-wig, whose servants would simply carry them off, thus securing the real “Cholar” grape, and then sending me the value, with a polite message, saying that he thought that the grapes were his own.

I sent my head-man off, and we began our preparations. A large dry room was carefully swept out to receive the jars or kumrahs. These jars had been carefully selected by the Hadji, and were all old ones that wine had been previously made in; good wine cannot be made in new jars. Several were rejected as having held vinegar; these, had they been used, would have spoiled the wine. Each jar was scrubbed inside and out, and then put in the strong sun for several days to air and thoroughly dry it; then they were carefully dusted, and the insides painted with hot tallow; this rendered the porous jars thoroughly water-tight. They were now taken into the room which had been made ready, and placed in rows, but clear of each other, and a cloth placed over the mouth of each, and on this a lid an inch thick of woven rushes. Each jar was about four feet high; the shape was that of two cones standing base to base; the size round the middle was seven feet, and the mouths were three feet in circumference—each jar held about one hundred and forty quarts or bottles. I had thirty jars, and as each jar would make on an average half the wine it would hold, I might reckon on two thousand one hundred bottles! Of these the Hadji was to have one-third, and the rest I was to lay down for my future use.

The Hadji warned me that a good deal of trouble was incurred in wine-making, and that it was impossible to trust to servants in the matter. “You or I will have to be actually present to see the various processes carried out, and the rest of the time the wine must be under lock and key.”

On the night of the 7th of October I got a note from my servant that he had bought his grapes, and should enter the town an hour after midnight, and he besought me earnestly to send a sufficient escort, or, better, to go myself.

Off I started with all my servants, except my door-keeper; the Hadji accompanied me, to act as a disinterested witness in case there was any row. It was quite as well I went, for I found my man with his thirty-five mule-loads of grapes being marched off to the house of a Persian grandee. Fortunately, the streets were clear, and as my servants outnumbered the two blusterers who had terrified the muleteers by threats, I succeeded in arriving at my own door with the entire thirty-five loads in good order.

Here I was met by two men from the custom-house, who insisted on the whole consignment going at once to the custom-house, and suggested backshish. This offer I declined, and, at the Hadji’s suggestion, I gave them an acknowledgment that I had thirty-five loads of grapes, and that if any duty was leviable I would pay it. With this they had to be contented, and walked off grumbling.

After some hours’ work the seventy “lodahs” (or hampers) of grapes were got into the courtyard; then they had to be weighed, a lengthy process; there were exactly twelve hundred maunds Tabriz, or eight thousand four hundred pounds nett of grapes. They were quite ripe, and unbruised, and were carefully packed in the lodahs with leaves and covered with brushwood.

And now commenced the wine-making. Basket after basket was emptied into hasseens, or flat earthen pans. In these the grapes were trodden thoroughly out, and the juice, stalks, and husks were shot into the jars. As each jar was filled within an eighth of the top the cloth was spread over the mouth of it, and the lid placed on it. It then was left to ferment.