Grow Your Own Magazine

I love the spring oak leaf wine as made by the Scottish company Cairn O'Mohr. Anyone out there know if you can make this at home? - the leaves on the oak trees at the moment look oh-so-invitingly green and wonderful. Unlike the mysterious lava lamp effect going on in the demi-john of last summer's meadowsweet wine... No idea where that came from. Am hoping I can siphon past it; the rest of it is super clear (because the sediment is bobbing around at the top of the jar like a pickled alien, mmmm).

i have seen this made on a episode of hugh fearnley-whittingstall either river cottage,or cook on the wild side and it looked relatively easy!

Hi Nelly

I think I have couple of recipes for oak leaf wine and I've found one of them in my trusty copy of CJJ Berry's First Steps in Winemaking.

It's been a few years since I made it (time constraints) but it's very nice. (mine turned out rather like sherry). Any way, here goes;

Oak (or Walnut) Leaf Wine (sweet)

one gallon of oak (or walnut) leaves
3lb sugar
2 teaspoons citric acid
1 gallon water
Yeast and nutrient

Pick young leaves (older ones are quite bitter with tannin). Boil 4-6 pints of water and dissolve the sugar whilst boiling. Once dissolved, pour the boiling water over the leaves and leave to infuse overnight.

Next day, strain into a fermenting jar, then add the citric acid, yeast and nutrient and shake well. top up to bottom of neck with cold water, then ferment out in a warm place.

Rack when it clears and the rack again 2 months later.

I think I bottled it at that stage and left it at least 3 months before I sampled it, yum!

Blessings
Gill

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Hi! Nelly, I really would rack that meadowsweet wine if it is behaving like a lava lamp. Have a sip during the process as it might be worth stopping it with a campden tablet.

['Scuse late response; I don't have constant access to the Internet and I'm still on prehistoric dial-up as my rural abode is at the end of the line as far as broadband is concerned]. I will get on and rack that meadowsweet today or tomorrow. The pickled alien, at closer inspection, appears to be a giant blob of something furry so the thought of taking a sip (usually a good one!) is not entirely appealing. Probably necessary though. I'm relying on the fact that the wine is otherwise beautifully clear to hope that all is not lost (though I also realise that it may equally have had it and be contaminated beyond redemption). Is this what they call the learning curve? It's not technically moving any more (unless it bobs about when I leave the room) so I'm guessing that fermentation has finished (I made it last August so I'd hope so). If it tastes unredeemingly vile I'll feed it to the compost heap and get started on some elderflower instead.

I've made a batch of oak leaf wine, hoping it's not too late in the year as far as the tannin content goes. Worth a try and it's under June with CJJ Berry, so I'm not arguing.