Wine

Kinilan is a land with a long tradition of winemaking, and there are hundreds of vineyards of varying sizes. The undisputed king of these, however, is the Andraste Winery: a series of holdings ruled by the noble house of Andraste that contains dozens of varieties of grapes and produces hundreds of wines. While most people can afford wine of some kind, only the wealthiest can afford an Andraste wine.

History & Usage

History

Wine was developed in the days of the First Empire, and became the drink of preference for the elite. The land now known as Kinilan was largely devoted to farming grapes, and after the First Empire fell, the wine trade gave the region the wealth it needed to support its independence. As time passed, it quickly became a staple drink in the country.
Several hundred years ago, in the height of the old monarchy, Kinilan nearly collapsed into civil war over the wine trade. There was a tradition of naming one noble house as the King's personal vintners, a position earned after a series of tastings of their finest wines. One of the houses sabotaged their strongest competitors by sneaking syrup of ipecac into their casks the night before the event. This attempt at rigging the event was instead taken as an attempt to assassinate the king, only nobody could figure out which of the houses competing for the title had done it. Tensions mounted until the houses started raiding each other's lands, sabotaging the wineries, stealing crops. It was then that Ealdwine Andraste, then the King's Spymaster, took matters into their own hands, having the lords and heirs of each family assassinated in a coordinated strike. The King used the ensuing chaos as authorization to seize control over each of the wineries, granting title to them to house Andraste for their service. Ever since, the house's vintners have been the very definition of fine wine in Kinilan.