Leps
// look, it's not wine. nobody said it was wine. it's Leps.
You take the Trester — what's left after the wine's done with the grapes — pour water over it, and wait. It ferments. Gets you to about 3–4%. That's Leps. It was never trying to be anything else and it knew it.
Wasn't meant to be good. Was meant to exist. In Koltern, that was the whole point.
Thin, pale, faintly sour. Ghost of the grape, none of the dignity. Spoiled Leps — which is what happens when you leave it too long — is basically vinegar that hasn't made up its mind yet. Sharp. Warm on the way down.
That's the version the clerk had too much of.
Early 1700s. Clerk's got a document, a candle, and more spoiled Leps in him than anyone should have before filing anything. He writes Kaltern. It gets stamped, copied, stamped again by people with no reason to question it.
Three hundred years later the maps still say Kaltern. The Leps has a lot to answer for.
Officially, nobody makes it anymore. Modern viticulture moved on, the old conditions are gone, etc. That's the official line. Unofficially — ask around. Don't ask Tankmax directly though. He won't confirm anything and he'll remember you asked.
Where it actually goes is a separate matter, and not one written down here.