I was hoping to let the matter of Blackberry Wine die quietly away, but dear friend J, who reads this blog, came to lunch the other day and enquired after it. As a matter of fact I had just finished labelling the final bottle.
The labelling was fun, but putting on the foil caps even better. You just plunge them into boiling water for a second and they shrink-wrap on, looking most impressive.
The wine has been christened ‘Devil’s Wee’ after the country tradition http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/brim_ble.htm that the Devil urinates on blackberries after a certain date, rendering them inedible. It’s also coincidentally no bad description of the contents; the labels are rather better than the actual wine.
I poured J a glass. Devil’s Wee has a pleasant, blackberry bouquet and an interestingly cloudy appearance. I detected faint hints of strawberry: J detected hints of methyl alcohol.
Methyl alcohol, J explained, is ‘bad’ alcohol as opposed to ‘good’ ethyl alcohol. Methyl or ‘wood’ alcohol is the stuff that makes you go blind.
J, who is a real countrywoman as well as a talented artist, knows a lot about home made wine. I sipped manfully at my glass of Devil’s Wee as she described the wines her sister makes, a marvellous delicate elderflower and a rich port-like elderberry. Her mother, apparently, also made a whole range of the most exquisite wines.
Ah, but blackberry wine is notoriously tricky, I pointed out weakly.
But no - J’s mother made excellent blackberry wine. In fact, virtually everyone J has ever come across seems to be an accomplished winemaker. Except, obviously, me.
J cautiously left her glass of methyl alcohol alone, sticking firmly to mineral water throughout lunch.
After she left, I checked up on methyl alcohol from a number of sites including the excellent http://www.drinksplanet.com/ (which I wish I’d found earlier) and I think I’m safe. The unanimous view is that you can’t get methyl alcohol poisoning from home-made wine. Some say it can’t be produced by grain or grape fermentation, others that all wines (and even jams) contain insignificant traces.
So that’s okay. I shall go on drinking Devil’s Wee.
Better stop blogging now; the room is going strangely dark and hazy…
The labelling was fun, but putting on the foil caps even better. You just plunge them into boiling water for a second and they shrink-wrap on, looking most impressive.
The wine has been christened ‘Devil’s Wee’ after the country tradition http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/brim_ble.htm that the Devil urinates on blackberries after a certain date, rendering them inedible. It’s also coincidentally no bad description of the contents; the labels are rather better than the actual wine.
I poured J a glass. Devil’s Wee has a pleasant, blackberry bouquet and an interestingly cloudy appearance. I detected faint hints of strawberry: J detected hints of methyl alcohol.
Methyl alcohol, J explained, is ‘bad’ alcohol as opposed to ‘good’ ethyl alcohol. Methyl or ‘wood’ alcohol is the stuff that makes you go blind.
J, who is a real countrywoman as well as a talented artist, knows a lot about home made wine. I sipped manfully at my glass of Devil’s Wee as she described the wines her sister makes, a marvellous delicate elderflower and a rich port-like elderberry. Her mother, apparently, also made a whole range of the most exquisite wines.
Ah, but blackberry wine is notoriously tricky, I pointed out weakly.
But no - J’s mother made excellent blackberry wine. In fact, virtually everyone J has ever come across seems to be an accomplished winemaker. Except, obviously, me.
J cautiously left her glass of methyl alcohol alone, sticking firmly to mineral water throughout lunch.
After she left, I checked up on methyl alcohol from a number of sites including the excellent http://www.drinksplanet.com/ (which I wish I’d found earlier) and I think I’m safe. The unanimous view is that you can’t get methyl alcohol poisoning from home-made wine. Some say it can’t be produced by grain or grape fermentation, others that all wines (and even jams) contain insignificant traces.
So that’s okay. I shall go on drinking Devil’s Wee.
Better stop blogging now; the room is going strangely dark and hazy…
Alison, I really like your blogs. They make charming reading. I love your description. Unhurried, so full of imagery. Very evocative. Your conversation with the Turkey is wonderful, as is your pocketing of the magelworzle. (ps According to wiki, The 1840 book "The Practice of Cookery" includes a recipe for a beer made with mangel wurzel. I add this in case you want to give up on the blackberry wine and try to make the mangel wurzel into something interestingly alcoholic...)!!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you treat your piece on the Devil's Wee and your inclusion of friend J in your lunch event. Your conversation with J mixed with reported speech and narrative of the lunch is fantastic. In fact, you never mention what you had for lunch, but you conjure up the event so well, that somehow you seem to describe it - without describing it - all the while sticking very firmly to your subject of the wine. Really good writing. I think you said you are a Guardian reader. Your style is similar to Tim Dowling in the weekend mag. Check him out, if you haven't already. He writes with this brilliant undercurrent of humour.
Sally
Sally - thank you so much for your comment. Please don't feel you have to comment in depth on every piece of drivel I turn out! I Know I am spending an unnatural amount of time blogging at present (No 1 son says I am 'obsessed', which is rich coming from a PS3 fanatic) and don't like to think of you spending almost as much time reading and commenting on all this stuff.
ReplyDeleteEntranced by the mangel-wurzel wine idea. I'd need a few more mangolds obviously, but as they're grown for cattle fodder (though Wiki says they're delicious) they should be cheap - Mangelhurling.com puts them at 15p each for a good one but there should be discount for bulk. Will look at the idea next year.
J will I know be reading this blog and be mortified that I failed to mention the wonderful home-made soup (winter vegetable - how does she do it?) she brought along for lunch.
Sipping away at Devils Wee as I write this - now, mysteriously, sparkling. Seems to be metamorphosing, like something out of 'Alien'....
Don't read Guardian but will start and will check out Tim Dowling.