Wednesday 7 July 2010

Rhubarb Wine

Right. I don't want to shock anyone here but I'm going to come clean: I've not been updating this here weblog quite as often as I should have. I'm going to do something about this, I promise. In the meantime, here's a recipe for rhubarb wine.

Take 1 (one) truck full of rhubarb:

Decant into four wheelbarrows:

Chop:

Place chopped rhubarb in a suitable container: we used a spare water butt. If you don't have a spare water butt lying around why not pop round to your neighbours' property while he is away on holiday and see if he does? Scrub any algae from the inside with bleach but be sure to rinse carefully unless you want your rhubarb wine to taste like swimming pool.

Mash the 'barb with a half gallon sugar: we used brown sugar and hit it rhythmically with a forestry tool designed to remove bark from felled logs: I'm sure white sugar would be acceptable if you don't have brown.

Add a handfull of baker's yeast and cover with a mesh to keep the mosquitos out and a heavy log to keep anything else out. Leave until 1st September before decanting into jerry cans to store until next year.

And the taste? Well my notes from the vertical tasting reveal the following:

2008 vintage: strong rhubarb nose, sharp fruit notes, bone dry finish. Excellent afternoon refresher.
2009 vintage: tastes and smells like Danish Blue. Cloudy with a dense "island" of grey mold. Two may be related.