My year's production is now complete. Arranged around the window-sill in the sun-lounge (albeit somewhat cold today) are 11 demi-johns of next year's bottles of wine. A twelfth bottle is on the warming pad, and that is elderflower which I have racked this week-end. The last of 13 shares the warming pad, and that is my final wine of the year. It is my first attempt at PARSNIP WINE.
I made it on Sunday eight days ago, using four large parsnips. The method is a little different from most, because the books warn that parsnip wine is difficult to clear if you rush it. Having softened the parsnips in boiling water, you must not rush the straining. You have to resist the temptation to squeeze your muslin bag to get every last drop of parsnip juice : you must merely hang it over your bucket and let it drain in its own time. It is interesting how much colour has been retained even by this restrained method.
To the parsnip juice I have added sugar, yeast and citric acid, plus an enzyme to aid clearing, notwithstanding the care with which I followed the recipe. Now the gases of fermentation are escaping slowly through the air-lock on the demi-john. Ask me in six or nine months time whether I have got it right, and leave it until this time next year before you ask me how it tastes.
All being well this production will give us 72 bottles of wine next year. Hmmm, so I'm thinking I need to design a new series of labels for 2008. Better get the 2007 Christmas cards done first.
