| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| gil |
sage flower or leaf wine recipe ?in throes of late spring winemaking (what can I make into wine next ?)...anyone tried doing sage flower or leaf wine ? how much of the herb / flower to use ? oak leaVES are only just out up here (SW Scotland) cheers G |
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| cab |
I've never done it, but I've heard of it done. Haven't got a recipe that I can vouch for.
What is nice is soaking a few sage leaves in red wine for a few hours with a little bit of lemon rind. |
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| Treacodactyl |
I've never tried it, but I do love sage and have plenty of flowering sage plants. Might be one for next year.
Would you make it dry or sweet? COuld you not follow the watermint wine recipe and use a pint and a half of flowers/leaves? |
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| cab |
My gut feeling is that a pint and a half of sage flowers will be awfully sagey. But I can't see any reason why it oughtn't work. I've also got a gut feeling that it'll want to be made dry and strong, and it'll want to be given a good six months in bulk and another four in the bottle. Really strong herby flavours benefit from such treatment. Lemon balm, for example, recently turned out to be amongst my most popular at a party where a good dozen or more kinds of wine were partaken of (a party that somehow managed to transform fifteen bottles of homebrew and another three bought bottles into two crates of beer left behind... Wierd) | ||||
| Bugs |
Why do we never get invited to parties like that?  
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| cab |
Because you live too far away, we have THAT party once a year, and there were already 37 guests when we were expecting around 25. Actually, I ought to post about the party... |
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| Treacodactyl |
So, a pint then? Maybe 2.5 lb of sugar? Thinking about it I may give this one a go this weekend. If it's too strong I could always use the wine to add to a chicken casserole, should go quite well. 
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| cab |
I'm in two minds... My gut feeling is that this wine will come out intensely sagey, but I could be wrong. What I do when playing with a flavour that I'm not sure about is I give myself a chance of blending it with something to dilute it down a bit if it's too intense. How about setting it going with 1 1/2 pints, but at the same time setting a batch of plain mead going? Blend when you bottle, giving you something in the region of 4 bottles of mead, 4 bottles of sage mead blend, and 4 bottles of full 'strength' sage? |
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| gil |
thanx for all your replies. I like the idea of the combination of strengths [mead, mead and sage, sage]. I was thinking you'd need to be really careful how many flowers you used (perhaps even to the extent of 12 -18 per gallon).
However looks like I won't get to try it this year - flowers being used for eating instead. Oh well, better get up the hill for some late gorse instead. cheers g |
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| Treacodactyl |
Last weekend I made a gallon using my suggested amounts and Cabs herb wine method from his article. I picked just the flowers which were easily stripped from the spike. I added a little tea and a lemon and have just taken out the bag of flower heads from the fermenting liquid. Initial taste was very good. A good sage taste without the extreme taste of munching a mouthful of sage leaves. It's also a very strong pink which is a pleasant surprise and I think it will turn into a good wine. Or course you need to like sage. 
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| Bugs |
I don't mind sage but I find it rather strong. However TD gave me some to taste without saying what it was (good job I'm so trusting) and I didn't think "sage" when I tasted it, it was just a strange, but fairly pleasant taste. I really didn't expect to like it and am so far pleasantly surprised. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
A quick update. It's still a little fizzy and sweet but doesn't seem to be still working much at all. Time for racking and a good shake and possibly a campden tablet.
It's now a pale rose with a floral nose, but not instantly recognisable as sage. Taste is very good and rather, erm, pleasant and then you remember it's sage and it does taste of sage but it a nice way. i.e. not overwhelming. I love sage, Bugs isn't a big fan, but we both like the wine. The only downside is that it has a hint of bitterness on the finish. Not as nice as my raspberry but worth trying . |
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| Bugs |
In recent independent tests it came out very popular, I think 1/6 people didn't like it because they found it too sweet.
I'm rather partial to it myself and plan to have my brewer knock some more up next year
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| gil |
That's one I'll have to try making this year. Bugs - it must have turned out really really well if you want TD to make some more, but you don't like sage that much. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
It's very hard to describe, once you know the taste is sage it's obvious but not overpowering in the same way as eating a fresh sage leaf is. I think the results were more like 8 who liked it and 3 who didn't and one of the nos was due to it being too sweet. It's one for the list that I'd be happy if I bought a bottle and rather unique, thanks for asking the question last year! I'll definitely make at least two gallons this year, one a dryish version, and maybe even more as one of the uses I'd love to try is cooking a stew in a bottle of the wine. |
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| Penny |
As one of the recent testers, I can vouch for it. The sage flavour is definately not overpowering, very subtle and quite sweet, but not cloyingly (is that a word???)so.
I'm going to try some this summer - thanks TD & Bugs for sharing it 
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| pricey |
Well I thought it was FANTASTIC, the pallet was quite remarkable, you could smell the taste long after, 2 of the 3 who said no only drink red, so maybe they would like a dryer version ( you will have to bring some over).
As for only making 2 gallons, make 10, I will have 8 off of you in exchange for 8 of my red
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| Treacodactyl |
Discovered a slight problem with this batch. Part of the reason why it's good is that it's quite sweet, unfortunately it has now decided to undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottles and turn itself into a sparkling sage flower wine (it must have read my post on sparkling wine  ).
One bottle was very sparkly but tasted too dry while another had a good sparkle but was still reasonably sweet and was more than drinkable. I must make sure I add a campden tablet before bottling the next batch. |
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| Blue Peter |
Obviously depending upon what's causing the renewed fermentation (could it be malolactic?), but I believe that campden tablets only "stun" yeast. To stop them refermenting for sure, you need to also use potassium sorbate (if i remember correctly, but I'm sure that someone will chime in if I don't), Peter. |
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| gil |
I'm going to split this thread to start another about stopping fermentation. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
The sage flowers are out again, time to start another batch of sage flower wine made using Cab's herb wine method. Any one else fancy making a gallon? | ||||
| Fee |
Cool, we've got a load of sage in the garden, no flowers though (as yet).
I like the sound of the too dry sparkling sage flower wine
I'll definately have a go if we get any flowers...not sure we will, we only planted the sage last year. Some purple sage we've got is taking over! Not such a bad thing, I use quite a lot of sge in cooking, and the purple sage is a lovely addition to mixed leaf salads. |
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| Fee |
Ok, we have flowers, now to the recipe...
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| Treacodactyl |
I've just put on two gallons:
2 pints (when pushed right down) of open sage flowers Juice of two lemons Half a cup of tea 4lb of sugar, melted in water Following this method, well sort of: http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Processing_Food/Herb_and_Flower_Wines/ |
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| gil |
The sage down in Manc is in flower, but my mate's busy foraging elderflowers, so probably no sage flower wine this year either (and I've not got enough here to do owt with).
Looking forward to making an oakleaf and St John's Wort at midsummer, though. |
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| Treacodactyl |
Just a quick update on this. After the batch I made that, although delicious, was too sweet and re-fermented, the 2006 batch fermented to dryness and has happily stayed in its bottles. I was thinking about cooking with it, it goes well in risottos for example, but it's surprisingly tasty and tends to get drunk in a Floyd sort of way.  Well worth making if you like sage.
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