An excellent find!
It's been a bit of a nondescript day with lots of smaller jobs being done but nothing too exciting happening until...
One of the jobs I needed to do was bottling up my latest batch of kombucha. I went down to the cellar to find some home-made rhubarb cordial, because I often add this concentrated cordial to the kombucha at this stage. (About 20% cordial and 80% kombucha provides a good secondary fermentation, giving a tasty and fizzy product.)
Once down there I noticed an ancient plastic pop bottle behind some apple cordial. The exterior of the bottle was covered in dust, and the interior was discoloured with a thick layer of sediment at the bottom. There was no label. Earlier I'd used an very old apple cordial with my kombucha and it worked well. Wondering if this was another bottle of the same apple cordial I took it upstairs to try.
I slowly poured it into a large jug and out came a clear amber liquid - definitely not apple cordial. I tasted it a little nervously - but no worries, it was delicious! Jan came in and she tasted it too, agreeing that it was delicious and suggesting it was apple wine. We drank a few more sips and confirmed it was apple wine, but with something of a sherry taste too.
So, the last 1,5 litres of an apple wine I must have made many years ago. The thick sediment indicates it was probably the final bottle and it got pushed to the back because I'd siphoned up too much of the sediment. Hidden away for twenty years or more the lees had settled to the bottom and solidified leaving this wonderfully clear, strangely coloured, tasty wine.
Here it is, re-bottled into clear glass to show off the colour. The really small bottle has now been drunk and I don't suppose the other bottles will last long either, though it is a drink for small glasses.
Sometimes there IS treasure in those dusty dark corners.
Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.