Wine is Sacred

Wine is Sacred
Description
Region(s)	Beauclair Sansretour Valley Gorgon Foothills
Location(s)	Beauclair Palace Castel Ravello Fort Astre Ruins Ducal Guard Post
Suggested Level	42
Reward(s)	2,550
Previous Quest	Where Children Toil, Toys Waste Away
Next Quest	The Man from Cintra
Additional Information
Type	Main quest
Enemies	Panthers Bandits Hornitz

Wine is Sacred is a main quest in the Blood and Wine expansion.

Walkthrough

Head to Beauclair Palace to talk with Anna Henrietta, with Damien de la Tour in attendance. Choose whichever options you wish during the conversation and eventually the duchess will agree it's best to try and free the hostage woman. Geralt then shows her the wine-stained letter and the ducal sommelier is called to inspect it. He quickly determines that the stain is from a 1269 Sangreal - wine made exclusively for the ducal family and only made at one location, Castel Ravello Vineyard. No matter what you say, the duchess will make up her mind to personally visit the vineyard and you are to escort her together with Damien. You can choose to head out now or wait.

Upon telling Damien that you're ready you'll start riding to Castel Ravello. After a short while, you'll see a wagon is under attack by a few panthers. You can dispose of them (450) or just keep going. Note that it's also possible to cancel the panther attack by falling behind Anna and Damien right before they reach the wagon, and then catch up with them after they pass it.

Note: If you run away from the panthers (or the escort altogether), the objective will eventually fail and you'll have to meet the captain and Anarietta at the vineyard, where they will criticize you about abandoning them, but then the rest proceeds as normal.

The ride then continues and you arrive to talk with Fabricio, the vineyard's owner. Regardless of what you say, he's a bit snobby at first, but soon you're free to question him. You'll only be able to ask him two of the three questions, but it doesn't matter which ones as Anarietta gets fed up and decides to just personally inspect the barrels herself.

Investigate the barrels

Follow the duchess to the cellars and, when prompted, read the nearby ledger. However, as it appears it's all in order, it's time to check the barrels directly. You can read the signs on the bottom floor, but the one you want is upstairs, on the far end from the stairs. Initially, you have to knock on each one to see if one's hollow, but all of them sound full so tasting is necessary. If you haven't already looted them, go back downstairs and grab a wooden hammer and barrel tap (they're everywhere), and return. You'll need to tap any two barrels for Annarietta before she tastes one that's clearly not Sangreal. You then go back to talk to Fabricio and learn he's sold some of the wine to a Cintrian aristocrat, and even has another barrel prepared for him. Geralt and Damien then decide to prepare an ambush for the buyer's intermediates at Fort Astre Ruins and you can choose to go there immediately or delay if you wish.

The ambush

When you go to Fort Astre, there's another cinematic and a large battle ensues, during which you have the support of the ducal guards against a lot of bandits. You're not going to be instantly hit when it starts, but be prepared regardless, and note that there are some exploding barrels around the place.

Once they're all cut down, go with any of the answers during the small conversations between Damien, Anarietta and the survivor, but ultimately the only thing you learn is that the buyer is simply known as "The Cintrian". You then have to go to a Ducal Guard Post, and you can choose to do that immediately or meet the duchess there while Damien tries to find information on the mysterious man. If you choose to stay and meet up with her later, you can loot the bodies of the thugs as well as pick up 500 florens from the cart.

At the post, Geralt and the duchess discuss the situation while waiting for Damien. The captain is late, but finally appears and shares what he's learned. You have your picks on what to say during all of this, but it makes no difference. Eventually it's decided that you and Annarietta will sneak into the next Mandragora party to seek the Cintrian, ending the quest.

Journal entry

Following what can only be described as a surprising turn of events, the witcher had no choice but to report to the duchess. He needed to inform her that the hunt for the Beast would be no ordinary monster hunt. Fully aware of the fiery temperament of Anarietta, Toussaint's gracious ruler, Geralt was justified in thinking the meeting would not be among the most pleasant he had ever had...

Geralt managed to sway the duchess' conviction - she agreed that he would, for now, forgo tracking the vampire and focus instead on locating whoever held the vampire in thrall. He had some leads already. These prompted him to go to the ducal vineyard of Castel Ravello. For it was the source of the famed Sangreal, a wine only ever served at the Ducal Palace to the noblest guests to come to court, including - not to boast - the undersigned. And I will be candid – I've had better. Yet it seemed at the time that whoever was blackmailing the vampire had acquired a taste for Sangreal specifically. Thus the witcher and the duchess set out to inspect the vineyard in the hope of finding another lead.

The witcher's suspicions had proved true – Sangreal seemed indeed to be the key to finding the blackmailer. The steward of Castel Ravello admitted he had sold a barrel of the wine to a Cintrian nobleman. The witcher and a unit of ducal guardsmen decided to wait in ambush for said connoisseur...

Alas, the Cintrian proved a notch too clever. When Geralt attempted to deliver the second barrel of wine, the nobleman was nowhere in sight. Some hired thugs found themselves caught in the ambush, and the witcher thrashed them heroically with the aid of his escort of guardsmen. The single captured rogue, when questioned, confirmed the bandits' leader was indeed the mysterious Cintrian, who was said to be hiding somewhere in Toussaint.

While investigating, the witcher had learned the Cintrian was not working alone. He stood at the head of a well-organized group of brigands. It was still not clear that the nobleman himself was Dettlaff's blackmailer. Yet even were he to prove merely an intermediary in the scheme, it was likely he would know where to find those directly responsible.

Objectives

• Report to the duchess about your hunt for the Beast.
• If you said you need more time:
  • Tell Anna Henrietta when you're ready to go.
• Escort Anna Henrietta to Castel Ravello.
• Save the peasants from the panthers. (450)
• If you abandoned Anna Henrietta and Damien after encountering the panthers:
  • Meet Anna Henrietta and Damien near Castel Ravello.
• Search the wine cellar with Anna Henrietta.
• Read the wine register.
• If you found the wine before reading the register:
  • Guide Anna Henrietta to the isle with barrels containing the right vintage of Sangreal.
• If you haven't found the wine yet:
  • Find Sangreal from the 1269 vintage.
• Knock on the barrels to see if they are full.
• If you don't have a tap yet:
  • Find barrel taps.
• If you don't have a tapping hammer yet:
  • Find a tapping hammer.
• Tap the barrels for Anna Henrietta. (600)
• If you said you need more time:
  • Tell Damien when you're ready for the ambush.
• Defeat the bandits. (1,500)
• If you decide to meet later:
  • Join Anna Henrietta at the guard post in the port district.

Notes

• All of the events after the palace are supposed to take place at night and each next section will skip time ahead to 9pm. Thus, more than two full days will have passed between the ride to the vineyard and the meeting at the guard post, even if you always chose to proceed immediately.
• Unlike the case with most quest items, it's not possible to loot more than one wooden hammer or barrel tap, even though there are many around the cellars. When one is looted, the rest of its kind disappear.
• Two unique books, The History of Est Est and A Short History of Pomino, can be found at Castel Ravello's cellar, and another at the Ducal Guard Post once the quest completes - Case: One-Armed Adalard. None is important for this or other quests though.
• During the opening scenes of the quest, Damien's "knowledge" on how to kill vampires comes from the book On the Slaying of Bloodslurpers, which however doesn't appear during gameplay.

Bugs

• When examining the wine signs, the player might teleport forward or a floor below.
• While examining the barrels, the label that allows interaction with them disappears when you use your witcher senses.
• If you find the 1269 Sangreal before reading the ledger, you're later given an objective to guide Anna Henrietta to the correct aisle, but regardless of what you do she just goes there by herself and simply waits for you.
• If you abandon the escort before Anna Henrietta and Damien reach the spot where the panthers are, then meditate/fast travel and generally try to fail the objective, it never fails. However, upon later rejoining them at that point, they are both invisible (but can be interacted with) and the panthers never appear. The quest is simply stuck at that point, until you go to Castel Ravello yourself.