CRAB APPLE WINE BY BEN HARDY
In October 2011 issue of Home Farmer Ben Hardy turns his hand to making another classic forager’s wine, which he forages from within his own garden, and drinks as soon as it has been bottled.
October is an odd month. It can’t quite make up its mind whether it has finally said a hearty farewell to summer, or whether, instead, it should welcome winter with open arms. Last year, I was walking barefoot along a beach in Pembrokeshire eating ice cream at the beginning of the month, and by its end I was huddled in front of the fireplace, our heating having broken. However, there are definite highlights for the winemaker in October. Crab apple wine, this month’s subject, is one. The other is my annual wine tasting party.
Crab apples produce a wine which, unsurprisingly, has much in common with cider. Again, unsurprisingly, there is an unmistakable taste of apples, but I find the taste lighter and more refined than even a bottle of good quality cider. It is also more alcoholic, which in my opinion is not a bad thing. My wine is dark white (which is, I appreciate, an oxymoron) in colour, and it always clears, so it is an attractive brew. Its colour will depend on the apple variety, of course.
The apples I use for crab apple wine are small and red, and come from my back garden. This is one of the reasons I love this wine. All I need to do is to step out the back door (in Yorkshire, we only use the front door for special occasions) with a plastic bag or bowl, walk thirty paces to the crab apple tree, and start picking.
Originally, we bought the tree for its blossom, which is a delightful white-with-a-hint-of-pink, and at its loveliest in late April. I have heard that you can make apple blossom wine, but I worry about what effect that might have on the autumn’s fruit, so I have never tried it. I did not appreciate at the time quite how good its October wine would be.
Though our tree is small, it produces over 30lb of fruit a year, and even for a triple batch of wine I need fewer than half of these. The rest I will give away to friends and strangers, or they will be used by my wife to make jelly. Crab apple jelly is fantastic. It has a glorious red colour, and is pointed enough to cut through even the fattiest of pork. Last year my wife experimented by putting in a (relatively mild) red chilli, and this was a revelation. The resulting jelly was both sharp and hot, and I foresee that this will become a regular way to use up any spare crab apples.
When picking fruit, I look for the ripest, reddest apples, and often these can be identified by the stem’s colour – the browner the stem, the riper the apple. I avoid those that have been nibbled by birds or insects, or those that have become overripe. One year I left this wine until November, and many of the crab apples I picked exploded into brown goo as I pulled them off the tree. Therefore, this is definitely an October wine.
Click here to read the rest of this article and get much much more in the October 2011 issue
Tags: Ben Hardy, Home Farmer, Home Farmer Ben Hardy
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