Stay and Eat
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Wine, 2002
Wild Yeasts:
It would be nice to have a big old stoneware crock to make blackberry wine in, but I don’t, so I use a white plastic five-gallon bucket. The mornings and evenings of blackberries are poured in, and sealed against gnats and vinegar flies with a tied down pillow-case.
In a couple of days
the deep purpleblack mess will be bubbling and softened. Now reach in
and sqush. There will be a randy ripe smell of future drunkeness, which
you should breathe in in a deep gout, to know it’s there. Strain the
juice out through a double-cheesecloth and return the juice to the bucket.
Add enough spring water to restore the former volume, and stir in a couple
of pounds of white cane sugar.
There will be a rush of foaming as the wild yeasts, who have waited on
the dusky glaze of the blackberry skins like lust on a satyr, rush in
to devour your offering of pure power. Put the pillowcase on and back
away from the bucket.
Your curiousity will not let you leave it unattended, so go back as often as you like; but at least once a day pour in some more sugar and watch closely. Your aim is to feed the yeasts just until they expire in the effluvia of their own desire. When the last yeast mouth suspires, cease your oblation. It is wine.
It is wine, but it is rough and raw. It needs time to mellow. Bottle it, but do not seal it. Wild yeasts thought to be on their death-bed have been known to rise and blow a cork before them. Put on a cloth against winged pestilence and secure it with a rubber band.
Now you should wait a month, then drink it all within three more. The wine will be dry, a deep ruby red, gradually becoming more tannic until it is harsh at three months, more or less. If you wish to keep it longer you must sweeten it; sugar equals time. It is said to improve drastically after five years. I do not know.
It is this tannic taste, originating, I suspect, in the tiny woody seeds of the blackberry, which lends a most sophisticated quality to that which contains it, a palatable bitterness; difficult to manage, but beloved of the subtle tongue.
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