The Grapetenders

Vintners of an exclusive order, the constituents of The Grapetenders have made their fame by the merit of their product. A Grapetender is a member of a consortium of other winemakers and vintners who see themselves as an economical brotherhood, who are passionate about their chosen lives and view wine as an artistic medium and societal necessity. They are known to host boisterous parties and festivals when a harvest is taken in or when a particularly good vintage of wine has been appropriately aged and opened. In reality, in addition to their parties and goings-on, The Grapetenders also function as a sort of cabal of alcohol, and during their weekly luncheon meeting, they engage in price-fixing and seek to collectively gain a monopoly over the wine markets from Austberg to Barrowton and beyond. They are known at times to employ smugglers and thugs to intimidate rival vintners into moving their product out of the market, or into selling distribution rights to the Grapetenders. Small sects of Grapetenders can be found essentially in any wine-producing region, though the do sometimes all come together under the guise of events similar to trade shows that take place in a larger city approximately once a year to engage in tastings and large-scale market fixing, and to compare profits and marketing tactics. Apart from this, most Grapetenders only interact with 3 or 4 other members on a regular basis, but this does serve their purposes to achieve small market monopolies and all be beholden to the group at large.