My all time favourite wine is Elderberryport. It is hideously expensive and difficult to find. So you can imagine that I was quite thrilled when I found a recipe for it - thirteen years ago!
If I had read the whole recipe before I started to make my first batch I would have abandoned the enterprise immediately. But I didn't. I made not one, but three, demijohns full of the stuff. Ditto the following years. After three years I figured the wine should be drinkable, and read the last bit of the recipe to find out about decanting etc.
Sniff & Cry!!!!! You were supposed to wait for ten TEN out-of-sight years before you could drink the wine. Ten years. I was shattered. I popped my by now seven demijohns first into the cupboard-underneath-the-stairs, and later, when I needed the space, into the Mouseleum-cum-Lean-To under the table and forgot about them.
Occasionally I remembered they were there, but I never had any bottles handy to decant the stuff into, and anyway I figured it had probably all turned into vinegar by now.
But last week an accommodating colleague gave me three large closable bottles, and I decided to brave the results of my 13-year-long wait.
What can I say. The stuff is seriously good. It has reached the giddy heights of perfect goodness It defines GOODNESS for me from now on. Words fail me. Yes, it is that good.
My neighbour was in the garden. She has been ill recently, so I offered to give her a small bottle. She wrinkled her nose. 'I don't really like port', she opined. So I gave her a tiny sip. Her eyes began to sparkle, her skin glowed, and she said she'd love a bottle! 'Much better than port', she said.
I shall hand this stuff out very sparingly. After all, who knows what the other batches will be like. You never know with wine. I will bring a small bottle to work, so everyone can get a taste. And the colleague who donated the bottles will also get a full one back, of course. Aside from that, oh well ....
I waited for thirteen years, and it was so worth it!
