Veni Vidi Vinska

While we were in the Grad Bled (Castle Bled) I found a place to put Kristi to work.  The wine cellar.  A friendly Monk greeted us and invited us inside.

Random cool dragon made of iron on the castle grounds

The cellar was the bottom left door of the courtyard.

A tradition of the castle (at least the pretend monk said it was a tradition for modern tourist times) is to work to make your own wine.  I knew Kristi would be up for the challenge.  I gathered all the crew and told Kristi to start "slovening" away.

First she had to fill the bottle from these large casks.  A funny pumping noise sounded when she opened the valve.  The monk said it was just the ghosts of the castle and to pay no attention to the sound...because the casks were "full of wine."  Kristi had some trouble stopping the flow in time and made a small mess.  The monk was prepared for her mistake and had some glasses at the ready.  Can't let any of it go to waste.

Next up was the cork.  Kristi had to select the best cork of the bunch (they were all the same the monk told us later, but he said she was gullible so we all played along).  Then she used an ancient wooden machine to secure the cork.

In the old tradition, she put a wax seal on top over the cork.  The monk had a nice bubbling pot of wax for the task.  Next she tied a label around the neck of the bottle.

Then the monk assisted with securing the label with a wax stamp marking the finished product.  

The monk required her to sign an important certificate documenting her work.

The monk said the paper was for the memories...the wine was for drinking.

Sadly the wine was not included in the entry fee for the tour of the castle.  But I was happy to pay for the fun!  Kristi enjoyed the wine she "unfortunately" spilled when filling the bottle.

I came,  I saw, I made wine!