Country Wines
20/September/2007 Filed in:
JottingsRecently we were taken to task by a devout reader for our brewing and wine-making activities (not, I am happy to say, for our visitors' consumption and apparent enjoyment thereof). It is hard to think of our kitchen as a den of iniquity. "Noah" bubbles away in one corner, producing a few gallons of fragrant orange wine; "Naboth" sits in another, with huge quantities of damsons in his great maw, quietly turning them into a wine that will be "deliciously plummy"; an experimental gallon of elderflower undergoes a malolactic fermentation (oh bliss, oh joy, oh rapture) beside the sink; and thoughts are already turning to brewing some beer for the parish's Christmas festivities. True, we are a long way from Dom Perignon here (though Hendred does have a "proper" commercial vineyard to its credit). I hope we are equally far from Newman's description of a nun's anger as being "like raspberry vinegar, sweet acid."