Some of our cool and rainy days this week weren't good for doing much in the garden but were perfect for wine making. We are getting ready to bottle our elderberry wine and have enjoyed a bit of it already. Its rich flavor went very nicely with grilled buffalo steaks. I'm hoping to be able to get some more elderberries this year for an elderberry grape wine. I just started a gallon batch of the wine that only I seem to be excited about. It is made with lilac flowers, elderberry flowers and dried pears. It is just starting to ferment and has a very delicate flavor that shows promise. Now if you just can't wait until next year to try your own batch of lilac wine, you might even be able to order it on-line. My husband and I have found a few fun North Dakota wineries in our travels. Maple River Winery has some good sounding wines including Lilac, Aronia, Pumpkin and Honeycomb Plum (I've only tried one of their wines so far but look forward to getting more on our next ND trip). They also have Dandelion Wine which is something I was sure I wouldn't like. My brother-in-law made a batch once that had a lovely delicate flavor which has left me wanting another sip of dandelion wine but not wanting to spend hours picking off the petals to make it.
All of our wines have been fun to try although I do have a tendency to prefer making the quirky ones. My husband prefers the plain fruit wines which is why I planted 25 raspberry bushes this year. I on the other hand am eyeing a recipe for Pea Pod Wine.
6 comments:
Yeah, pea pod wine is definitely quirky. :-)
All your wines sound interesting. What a fun hobby, but where do you store the wine when its fermenting? You must have extra room in your house or a shed.
Why is it that with 25 raspberry bushes you and your husband see wine and I see pie (warm w/ice cream, please)? ha-ha
I've only ever been to one winery and that was in MI and we had a wonderful time there.
Tainterturtles- when the wine is fermenting in buckets it sits on the kitchen floor (yes, very classy looking). It goes to the top of the refrigerator when it goes to the secondary and to the basement once bottled. We usually make very small batches so it is not like we have wine storing everywhere. We never really expected to get into this hobby but it has been fun to sip and give away our wines.
Donna- Pie sounds pretty good too. Actually I suspect that most of them won't even make it into the house. I can picture us munching on them right in the yard.
Hmmm, we aren't too into wine right now...but some of those sound interesting. It might be fun to make our own once. I know the dandelion flowers are much different compared to the greens.
We might have to visit some of those ND wineries. They are not too far from here, and we've seen them from the road before. I like the way most of them are designed.
ChrisND- I've never been much of a wine drinker but it has been interesting to try some unusual ones. They have also been fun to give away. We have enjoyed the small on farm wineries we find in ND when we travel through there a few times a year. Another one we like is Pointe of View near Minot. It is just an interesting place to visit.
Post a Comment