For someone who doesn't drink very much (I get a wee bit arsey when drunk and I have absurdly bad hangovers) I have a large amount of the stuff floating around. Campbell left behind a large wine collection (extensive in quantity, rather than quality ... he lost his sense of smell well before his taste for alcohol). This year's crop of berries was outstanding so, after jams and pies, I've got a couple of bottles of cherry gin and a bottle of redcurrant gin. Then there's the birch sap wine (polished off at the festival), dandelion wine and redcurrant wine. The redcurrant wine was made using export-strength gin and it's a bit too strong and the dandelion wine is a bit nondescript in flavour as well as a rather uninspiring cloudy yellow colour.
Inspired by a lovely wee radio
programme on aperitifs, I decided to have a go at mixing my own
vin maison. Using the key ideas of 'not too strong and not too sweet' I've come up with two rather nice wee drinks ... a dandelion + orange peel and a dandelion + redcurrant. The orange still needs a bit more gin added to stop the fermentation but it tastes lovely and the redcurrant and dandelion is a beautiful pale, rose pink.
I'm now headed down to Durham for a party and I've brought some of my
vin du rose as a gift for my hosts. Weight issues mean that I've had to bring it in a plastic water bottle so we will see if the taste can transcend the packaging.
The wild cherry gin (made with Sainsbury's cheapest gin) is quite delicious and needed no further mixing. I used it to make some scrumptious chocolate truffles with some leftover butter. Well worth the tiny risk of cyanide poisoning.
gean truffles
50g unsalted butter
100g plain chocolate
2 tablespoons wild cherry gin
Melt the ingredients together in the microwave, stirring very gently to melt the last of the chocolate. Place in the fridge to set, ideally overnight. When set, scoop into rough balls and roll in cocoa. Keep in the fridge before serving
