Whilst chatting to my friend last week, the subject of elderberry wine came up – I’d heard of it, and fancied trying my hand at making some.
Returning from a late night ‘do’ on Saturday night, we entered the house to find two massive baskets of elderberries in our hall. She’d apparently enlisted the help of her two daughters and others to harvest me some. How kind!
So today I tackled the onerous task of getting the little berries off the stalks. No mean feat. According to the tinterweb, the dark ones are good, you can’t consume the green, red and stalks – they are the official berries of death. History says that small boys have made whistles from the wood, and it was curtains for them. So on with the sorting through berries slightly larger than mouse poo, being mindful not to lick my fingers…
Anyway, all done and the final weigh in revealed 3lb of berry deliciousness that was going to make me a wine reminiscent of tawny port. To be honest I’d be happy with wine that didn’t strip the coating from my tongue and that gave me a nice warm glow in my belly, so I don’t think I will be disappointed!
So, off to the shops I trotted, to get an airlock, some campden tablets and yeast. There must have been a rush on, as Wilko’s had none of these things, so back home I went. The winemaking venture is now on hold, the berries are in the freezer, and I’ve just opened a bottle of rose that was lurking in the fridge.
It will be interesting to see how this wine making venture takes off. The instructions say it will be ready in a year… I am not known for my patience, so we will see about that….
Maybe I will just chuck some in some vodka and make a nice liquour just in time for Christmas…