Wild Drinks: 'Drunk-On Botany'

Vin de Noix (2020)

This is a boozy tipple 'par excellence' and tastes even more satisfying when created with your very own, home brewed, wild wine/s. 

Vin de Noix, also known as 'Green Walnut Wine', originated in French (whodathunkit!) and is the cousin of the Italian drink, Nocino. I've made both of these international beverages and my preference definitely sways to the French creation. It's a wonderful mix of full-bodied red wine, brandy (to fortify) and a variety of wild and commercial, spices, herbs, flowers and of course, unripe, green walnuts. I've made 3 different variations since 2020 and will continue to experiment over the coming years.

As is often the case with me, I didn't 'weigh' the majority of wild ingredients, or the honey, preferring to go with a combo of my instincts and experience. I would advise to not over-do the wild herbs/flowers (not this helps those new to such ingredients).  

1.5L Blackberry & Elderberry Wine, 200ml Calvados, 10-15 Young Green Walnuts (halved), Meadowsweet Flowers (dried), Japanese Rose Petals (fresh), Pineapple Weed (fresh & crushed/twisted), 10 Young Walnut Leaves, Honey, 1 Cinammon Stick, 5 Cloves, Vanilla Extract (best quality). 

Place all ingredients in a suitably sized Kilner jar, close the lid and store somewhere cool for 3-6 months, giving the jar a shake from time to time. Once opened, strain and store in sealed bottles. Sup as an after dinner treat or bedtime tipple. 

Wild & Foraged Vermouth (2015)

My earliest encounter with 'Vermouth' was sneaking into the booze cabinet as a curious teenager: I was far from smitten! My next encounter with vermouth, was in the autumn of 2014, while visiting my friend Mark of Galloway Wild Foods - Mark is somewhat of an alchemical genius when it comes to boozy liquids. I was enjoying my habitual early morning coffee, alongside an herbal cigarette, post early-morning-herbal-snuff (the latter two are not usually part of my habitual morning routine!), when I was suddenly aware of some very delightful, enticing and unusual aromas, emanating from Mark's kitchen. On returning indoors and being the nosy kind of chap I am, I enquired as to the source of the pleasing aromas: 'vermouth, my friend', came the reply, 'homemade vermouth!'. That encounter set me to experimenting and the following recipe is a fine example of the wonderful drinks that can be made with homebrew wines and the wild arsenal of appealing, wild herbs, adorning our woodlands, hedgerows and meadows.

The following recipe adheres to no strict measurements, it's purely ad hoc and guided by intuition/experience of herbal flavours

Wild Foraged Vermouth:
1 Bottle Birch Sap Wine (other home-brewed whites or shop bought ones will suffice)
Molasses Syrup of Dandelion & Burdock Root

Dried Ground Ivy
Dried Yarrow
Tinctures of: Yarrow, Bog Myrtle, Angelica Seed (Green & Brown), Hogweed Seed (Green & Brown, Ground Ivy, Spignel and Wormwood.

Method:

Gently heat the wine to just below boiling point. Add the Yarrow & Ground Ivy, place lid on pan and leave 30 minutes to infuse. Strain and begin adding small amounts of the herbal tinctures and the dandelion/burdock root molasses syrup. Aim for a harmonious blend of bitter/sweet/aromatic flavouring.
The finished vermouth is excellent as an aperitif or cocktail mixer and works particularly well with the 'Scrump' Cocktail below.

THE SCRUMP (2015)           

25ml Botanist Gin
25ml Wild Vermouth
50ml Apple Verjus (naturally fermented apple juice)
Tonic Water (optional)
Ice
Slice of De-hydrated Apple
Foraged Angelica Straw (optional)

Newton would have been concussed silly by the amount of apples dropping to the floor this year! This tasty cocktail is a wonderful way to celebrate the joy and abundance of the annual, apple season. It's a great drink at the end of a blustery and fun day of apple scrumping - if you've never scrumped apples, you need to get outdoors more!

 
The addition of the slightly soured & fermented, Verjus, adds an extra dimension of taste satisfaction, and sitting beneath your favourite apple tree, adds a lovely ambience to the occasion - hard hats optional! 

For extra inspiration regarding wild drinks, check out the Botanist Gin website: http://www.thebotanist.com/


Autumn and Everything is Fungi-dory (2015)     

50ml Chanterelle Infused Botanist Gin                    25ml Four Fungi Brandy
Dash of Bog Myrtle Bitters
12.5ml Rowan Berry Verjus
Tonic Water (optional)
Ice (shake over ice)
Slice of Fresh Porcini or Porcini Crisp

Rich, deep & earthy notes of wild mushrooms, sit nicely alongside the herbal notes of gin spices with a distinctly vibrant tang of bitterness from the rowan verjus. Definitely one for the experimentalist and not tthe faint-tongued.