You can't eat them but you can make a lovely wine out of elderberries though, if you know how. You certainly would not fancy eating a raw English elderberry, sloe, quintz or indeed many of the other multifarious ingredients English wine makers transform into their "wine". To be quite honest nor would I, but many people do drink the wine.

Not even 20% of home made wines in England are even "just about drinkable" to someone who has grown up in the lands of the grapevines; some, around 10% don't give you a massive chemical hangover; some are quite nice but too new; but around 5% are really very pleasantly wine-like. The Romans used to do the same.

Many people nowadays get a taste for the chemicals (if they drink a lot of home-made wine) and so don't notice them, whilst if one is not used to the taste it's horrid. Some, but very few, wine-makers at home never use chemicals or clearing mediums. They just wait until it's ready. The Romans used to do the same.

The chemical user will go to the supermarket and get his Pack of "home made wine", with all the instructions as to how to carry out this chemical process in the least possible time and to gain the maximum alcohol advantage out of the finished item (I hesitate to call it wine). It will taste disgusting but will certainly pack a punch. Many Romans used to do similar.

Romans far from home in England had to improvise their wine. No grapes? We will have to make some wine out of local fruit, and at the same time plant some vineyards. So the noble art of wine-making was taken to England. Well, actually, that's entirely wrong. The locals had been making wine for a few thousand years, although they, as today, were considered a Nation of beer drinkers, "wine" was made from berries.

When you put a bit of honey or sugar into a pot of fruit it will ferment from the natural yeast in the fruit. If the fruit has a high sugar (fructose) content then it will ferment itself, but if like elderberries the fruit is bitter and with a low fructose content it will need a bit of a helping hand from sugar and yeast. The Romans, when they invaded Britain, brought with them the ability to make much better wine than the English.

However, even the best Roman wine made without grapes was not as good as the "real thing", so English vineyards were started and the Romans taught the English how to make wine properly. Decent grapes really don't need sugar or yeast, as these are in the fruit itself.

Of course English wine, even 2000years ago, was not as good as Italian wine, but it certainly cheered up many a Roman soldier consigned to the freezing wastes of Hadrian's Wall. However, when they returned to Rome after a few years service they didn't bother to take any elderberry wine with them. They were going home to the real thing.

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How to make your own homemade wine - Fun, Simple and Easy!


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I think it quite safe to say that more has been written about the cultivation of grapes than has - or ever will be - written about any other fruit. This is not surprising, considering that the grape is probably the oldest of known fruits.

Surprisingly, grapes do not need loads of manures and fertilizers; they grow well on quite poor soils and need little after-attention. The roots will search out and find what they want; all we have to concern ourselves with is where to put the top-growth - the vine itself.

If one wall of your house faces south, south-west or even west, that problem is solved very easily. If you cannot plant the vine under that particular wall, plant it round the corner and train the vine round to the sunny side of the house. Grapes may be grown in the open garden in similar fashion to loganberries, or they may be trained over sheds, garages, out-houses and such-like.

Vines are not expensive, and if two are planted, the yield may be regarded as fantastic when considering the value of the wine that may be made for many years.

Planting is best carried out in autumn and in any case before Christmas. If planting against a wall, take out a hole about two feet each way and plant so that the stem of the vine is about fifteen inches away from the wall itself. Dig deeply and work in any compost that may be available and some builders' rubble if you can get some. A dusting of lime forked in will be helpful. Spread out the roots well and plant as recommended for fruit trees.

Having planted the vine, spread a little manure above the roots: this will not be necessary in subsequent seasons, but the vine will benefit from a mulch each spring if you can give it one.

Vines must not be allowed to fruit the first season; therefore they must be cut back to about four buds.

Having planted the vine and cut it back, we must decide how to train it to cover the wall. The best plan is to use special wall nails, run wires to and from these and train the vine to the wires.

The four long growths that come from the four buds you left when cutting back are stopped at the bud nearest the growing point. These four leaders are the basis from which the vine will be built up to cover the wall. If flower buds form during the first season, they should be nipped off so that the vine uses its energy producing wood for subsequent fruiting. First-season fruiting often permanently weakens a vine.

When pruning, remember that next year's fruit will be borne on the wood made this year. But we do not want masses of long, straggling growths hanging about all over the place, so during the summer it is best to cut some of them out. Those left to bear next year's fruit should be cut back to five or six buds in autumn or early winter. Only new growth should be cut during the summer; never cut old wood during summer - indeed old wood must never be cut after Christmas, as this can cause profuse bleeding which may be quite impossible to stop. By all means cut away some of the old growth to make way for new wood, but if this has not been done before Christmas leave it until the next winter.

Many varieties ripen in September - or earlier if the summer has been good. This is especially advantageous because the weather is still warm enough for a satisfactory ferment when you come to make the wine. This is not so important to those who carry out their fermentation in the house, but where it has to be carried on in a shed or outhouse the warm weather is a great help.

About the Author

Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on home wine making have appeared in print and on many websites. You can find more of these at: www.makinggreatwine.com

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