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Write your articlMaking home made wine is fun and relatively simple to do. You can make wine from almost any non-poisonous flower, fruit, leaf or root plant.

There are many recipes that suggest you use a whole large variety of ingredients and special yeasts but the secret of successful wine making, at least until you are more experienced, is to keep it simple.

Excellent wines can be produced by following a few very simple rules:

1. Always pick fruit when it is ripe
2. Pick flowers when they are out but not overblown
3. Gather leaves when they are young
4. Gather the above in dry weather preferably when the sun is shining
5. Wash ingredients to be used in water and then dry
6. Remove unwanted leaves and stalks
7. Use fruit or plants at once

To counteract the release of pectin which can occur in fruits such as apples and plums when boiling water is poured on them add a teaspoon of pectic enzyme to each gallon of liquid at the early stage.

As fresh air oxidises wine and ruins the taste it is important to exclude as much as possible so always keep the liquid covered or corked.

If you choose to use citrus fruits for your wine making never allow any of the white pith of the skin to get into the wine as it will give the wine a bitter taste.

Commonly used plants for wine making

Bilberries
Blackberries
Bl ackthorn berries (Sloe)
Cowslip flowers
Dandelion flowers
Elder flowers
Fennel
Hawthorn berries
Hawthorn blossom
Nettles
Primrose flowers

Liqueurs can also be made at home quite simply by soaking fruit in spirits such as gin or brandy. This method is just about foolproof as the alcohol inhibits fermentation and the fruit cannot go bad.

To make a home made liqueur half fill a large preserving jar with the fruit or blossom, add 1/2lb white sugar and enough spirit to fill the jar to the lid. Shake the jar and its contents before placing on a shelf. Reverse the jar at least twice a week and then after 2 months the liquid can be bottled. The left over fruit can be used in a jelly, top with cream and you have a wonderfully tasty desert.

The cheapest way to stock a wine cellar

Ingredients

3-4 lb. berries or fruit or
3-4 pints blossoms or leaves
2 -3 lb. sugar
oz dried baker's yeast
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
1 cupful cold tea
1 gallon water
teaspoon yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme

Equipment
Two 1 gallon glass jars
1 inch cork
1 inch cork with a hole in it
Fermentation lock
Polythene bucket with lid
Plastic funnel
Plastic strainer
Plastic or wooden spoon
Wooden mallet
4 Pint saucepan
4 ft rubber or polythene tubing
Six

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