An Abridged Story of Wine

An Abridged Story of Wine The bottom of the nave used to be a lake’s bed, but one night, when moon was white as search light and the sky maroon, the lake vanished. Dead fish and toenail clippings at the bottom, but the soil was rich, and the people who used to fish for a living, planted vine which bore healthy grapes, but grapes fermented and wine was discovered. A drink that made them merry, they sang, slapped flat stones together and made music. But if drinking too much they ended fighting and used stones as missiles, and given to arguing about the quality of snow that fell the year before. In clay pots they sold red wine and became rich, till Moslems came, forbad the making of wine, they planted pale yellow orange trees instead. But the juice of sweet blue grapes has an unstoppable allure it fills heart with music, the production was moved to hidden dells in Alentejo. When Arabs, defeated by Christian hordes, fled; Iberia had abundance of red wine but also sugary orange juice.