Homemade Wine from the Countryside: From Flowers, Fruits, Leaves and Plants

There are many recipes that suggest you use a whole large variety of ingredients and special yeasts, but the secret of successful wine making, at least until you are more experienced, is to keep it simple.

Excellent wines can be produced by following a few very simple rules:

1. Always pick fruit when it is ripe

2. Pick flowers when they are out but not overblown

3. Gather leaves when they are young

4. Gather the above in dry weather preferably when the sun is shining

5. Wash ingredients to be used in water and then dry

6. Remove unwanted leaves and stalks

7. Use fruit or plants at once

To counteract the release of pectin which can occur in fruits such as apples and plums when boiling water is poured on them add a teaspoon of pectic enzyme to each gallon of liquid at the early stage.

As fresh air oxidises wine and ruins the taste it is important to exclude as much as possible so always keep the liquid covered or corked.

If you choose to use citrus fruits for your wine making never allow any of the white pith of the skin to get into the wine as it will give the wine a bitter taste.

Commonly used plants for wine making

Bilberries

Blackberries

Blackthorn berries (Sloe)

Cowslip flowers

Dandelion flowers

Elder flowers

Fennel

Hawthorn berries

Hawthorn blossom

Nettles

Primrose flowers

Liqueurs can also be made at home quite simply by soaking fruit in spirits such as gin or brandy. This method is just about foolproof as the alcohol inhibits fermentation and the fruit cannot go bad.

To make a home made liqueur half fill a large preserving jar with the fruit or blossom, add 1/2lb white sugar and enough spirit to fill the jar to the lid. Shake the jar and its contents before placing on a shelf. Reverse the jar at least twice a week and then after 2 months the liquid can be bottled. The left over fruit can be used in a jelly, top with cream and you have a wonderfully tasty desert.

The cheapest way to stock a wine cellar

Ingredients

3-4 lb. berries or fruit or

3-4 pints blossoms or leaves

2 ½-3 lb. sugar

½ oz dried baker's yeast

Juice and rind of 1 lemon

1 cupful cold tea

1 gallon water

½ teaspoon yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme

Equipment

Two 1 gallon glass jars

1 ½ inch cork

1 ½ inch cork with a hole in it

Fermentation lock

Polythene bucket with lid

Plastic funnel

Plastic strainer

Plastic or wooden spoon

Wooden mallet

4 Pint saucepan

4 ft rubber or polythene tubing

Six wine bottles and corks

Plastic caps

Cork flogger

Hydrometer

Filter bag

Campden tablets

Making a 'Must'

1. Put fruit or flowers into the bucket and pour in 4 pints of boiling water to make a 'must'. Add 1 teaspoon of pectic enzyme if required. Stir, mash well with a mallet, and cover with the lid.

2. Next day, stir and mash again. Cover; leave for a day.

Straining the liquid

3. On the third day, pour through a strainer into a 1 gallon glass jar. If the fruit is very mushy, use a filter or jelly bag. Add 1 cup of cold tea and the fruit juice and grated rind.

4. Put the sugar into a saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to boil and stir until dissolved. Allow to cool and add to the jar. Add boiled water to bring the level of the must to within 3 inches from the top of the jar.

5. Float the wine hydrometer in the must and take a reading according to the manufacturer's instructions. If the wine is still not sweet enough, dissolve some more sugar in water and add to the ajr.

6. When the jar feels just warm to the hand, pour off ½ cup of must and stir the yeast and yeast nutrient into it. After about half an hour add the yeast mixture to the jar.

7. Plug the jar lightly with a wad of cotton wool. Leave to stand in a normally heated room for at least 2 days.

Corking the jar

8. When the fermentation has become less fierce (about the third day), remove the cotton wool and fit a cork and fermentation lock.

Topping up

9. After 2 more days, top up to within 11/2 inches of the cork with boiled water. Leave to stand until fermentation has stopped and no bubbles are rising.

Racking

10. It is now time to rack the wine to separate it from the sediment. Place the jar on a table and position a second jar at a lower level near by. Insert a siphon tube in the top jar and suck gently. When the wine starts to flow, place the free end of the tube in the lower jar. Allow all the wine to run into the second jar, but take care not to disturb or suck up the sediment in the first jar.

11. Cork the new jar tightly and store it in a cool place with an even temperature for two months.

Second racking

12. After 2 months repeat the siphoning. Re-cork and leave for about 3 months.

Bottling

13. Check the condition of the wine occasionally. When it is completely clear, prepare to bottle it.

14. Soak the corks for the bottles in hot water for an hour.

15. Make sure that the bottles are clean and siphon the wine into them. Do not disturb any remaining sediment.

16. Push a cork into the flogger. Hold a bottle firmly and place the flogger on top of it. Press the plunger, or hammer with a wooden mallet, until the cork is fully home.

17. Store the bottles on their sides for as long as possible, but for at least 4 months before drinking the wine.

18. Labels and plastic caps from chemists complete the appearance of the bottles and provide a record of the contents.