Tuesday 4 October 2011

Why the stress with the Wine??

And actually, for once, I don't mean drinking too much of it!!



I think it's safe to say that I am a bit of a worrier. However I'm a bit of a paradox (I think that's the best description) because if you were to ask my mum, best friend or boyfriend they would say that 'Stress' and 'Anxiety' both figure quite highly in my life. Another friend who I have known for a very long time but who probably doesn't know me quite so well said of me the other day 'you never let anything bother you, you're the most laid back person I know!'

Now this made me laugh - in some ways she is absolutely correct, and in some ways she couldn't be further from the truth. Two of the things you are most likely to hear me say are:

"I've got sooooo much to do!!! Arrrrrrrrghh!! Not enough time!"

and....

"It'll all be fine - we'll play it by ear.........."

So I confuse myself sometimes, as you can imagine.

Anyway, I'm digressing a bit, but the point is that I've been making my own wine recently; some of my favourites so far:

Strawberry & Apple
Rose Petal
Elderberry
Elderflower

and some on the go at the moment; natty little vintages of:

Plum and Damson
Greengage and Plum

This is where the anomalies come in. I find it incredibly satisfying to see the end result of something which I have made quite literally from start to finish. I picked the elderberries, I nurtured the fermenting process, I carefully racked and finished and bottled everything. (And then it sits looking pretty on the shelf because, in reality, it doesn't taste all that great but hey, that's beside the point....)

But this time, it's different. Why? Because I'm making wine from grapes, which have been nurtured by a friend who has entrusted me to make lovely wine from them. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!! Suddenly all this pressure!!

So this is how it goes - you basically put fruit in water with sugar and yeast. It ferments (bubbles) in a tub for a week or so. Then you strain out all of the stalks/peel etc (my kitchen looked like I had massacred a few people in it after I did the elderberries) filter the liquid into a demijohn (big glass bottle) with an airlock. Now the most satisfying part of the process is when over the next few weeks the wine continues to ferment, causing a relaxing rythmic'bloop bloop' as the air is pushed through the airlock. Lovely.

So what caused the panic this week? Well after the bubbling tub was transferred to the demi johns and it bubbled fiercely for a few hours.... nothing. Bubbles stopped! Nothing! Flat unfermented wine!

Now ordinarily I would think - what the hey - it's only a bit of fruit I've picked from the hedgerows along with some water and sugar. If it doesn't work, what have I lost? Nothing! This time with the newly introduced element of the 'friend' or 'client' sitting on my shoulder (in my mind) shouting 'MAKE THE WINE FERMENT!!! COME ON!!! DO SOMETHING!! DON'T SLEEP AT NIGHT! OH NO, WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND WORRY THAT THE WINE ISN'T BUBBLING!! GO ON!!'

hmmmmm. In reality what I did was take some bubbling wine just about to go into a demi john, introduced it to the flat stuff, which is now bubbling away nicely. What I don't understand is the TOTALLY DISPROPORTIONATE panic I felt, the sinking feeling, the wringing hands when I first checked and saw a distinct lack of bubbles.

It's all bubbling away nicely now, you'll no doubt be glad to hear. But I still sneak up into the bedroom every so often and check it out..............