FOOD Making your own wine

You don’t have to live in France or Italy to make your own wine.

DIY wine, in your own time


Food matters
Chris Brown

Making wine is a cunning way to store fruit and vegetables; a clever plan that helps to keep something nice for later! Delicious fruits, such as blackcurrant, blackberry, plum or apple, can be stored in a bottle ready to be called upon when a fortifying drink is needed; Drinking wine has been keeping the human race in good cheer down through the ages, a bottle of tasty wine is good company and making your own wine is a rewarding pastime. Everybody knows that too much alcohol isn’t good for you and causes health and social problems, but too much of anything isn’t any good.
Raftery, the blind poet and songster born in 1779 at Killeadan, near Kiltimagh, enthused about the abundant crops to be found around  his home place. He wrote :

To Killeadan then, to the place where everything grows that is best;
There are raspberries there, and strawberries there, and all that is good for men;
and were I only there, among my folk, my heart would rest
for age itself would leave me there, and I’d be young again!

I think of these words, which are just lovely, and I wonder if some of those raspberries and strawberries of which he spoke were made into wine to be served up at a later time when food was thin on the ground. Bottles were scarce back then (often the belly parts of an animal were used to hold drink), which is in stark contrast to now, the age of environmental mis-management, where perfectly usable, finest quality bottles, made of plastic or glass, are thrown away on a daily basis.
Hang on to some of them because you’ll need them if you are going to brew some wine; and my suggestion is that you should.  
Yeast: What’s going on?
The principles of wine-making are refreshingly simple. You have to create a fruity mash (you can also use vegetables) that contains sugar, and then you send in Mr Yeast to go about his work, and he’ll turn the sugar into alcohol. Nice.
Yeast is a curious substance and a legend, as any baker or brewer will tell you, because it activates the ingredients around it in a special way. How does it work? Well, I don’t know. It is probably a secret, but what I can say is that it turns sugar into two things, one is gas, the other is alcohol.
This interesting process will only take place if the temperature suits the yeast; it likes to be kept warm; at the sort of warmth you’d keep a winter’s armchair. Too cold and yeast stays asleep, too hot and he stops work and may well die all together. It makes good sense to find a place you can brew before you start because warm cozy spots are always sought after and not too easy to find.
Whilst this process (fermenting) is taking place you have to allow the gas that forms (carbon dioxide) to escape. This is easily achieved by using an air-lock which is a plastic gizmo that holds a small amount of water that allows the gas to escape upwards and prevents air from getting in. Air mustn’t be allowed in because it carries fruit flies, attracted by the luscious smell, and other bacterial pests that can turn the wine sour, and spoil the party by cruel deed, turning good wine into vinegar.
There doesn’t seem to be too much tradition of wine-making in the West of Ireland to date, I’m not sure why, but great traditions can start right now – and with the finest water at hand, the delicious fruit that Raftery spoke of in his beautiful song ‘Contae Mhuigheo’ all those years ago may make a return.

Next time: Brewing up

Chris Brown is a food producer in Louisburgh. He has a particular interest in food miles and buying local.