EAST OF ALLEN

You know those Earthside wild grapes I’ve posted about? Well, they’re on their way to becoming wine. Here’s the story:

In early September we went back to Earthside to sample the grapes. Since many had already turned to raisins and others were on their way to waste, I decided it would be OK if we picked a bag or two of ripe grapes. We ate and picked. Don’t know why, but “foraged food” always tastes especially good.

By the way, these are Wild Grapes, Vitis Girdiana also called Wild Desert Grapes or southern California Wild Grapes. They are native to southern California and grow in chapparal woodlands, streamside, or canyon bottoms. The grapes were used by the Cahuilla of southern California for wine and raisins.

Here’s our bounty all washed and ready to be crushed, which I did by hand.

Straining the grape juice. Cleaning the buckets and straining the juice, you do that repeatedly.

After adding yeast, it was less than a day before the juice started to ferment. Then its just a matter of time, mixing the juice up, straining and re-straining the juice.

Here’s the finished product — Earthside Wild Grape Wine, Vintage 2009.The whole process was fun and we learned a lot. There are certainly things we’ll do different next time. Mainly, the recipe we used called for added water, which we won’t do again. Meanwhile, figure we’ll open the first bottle sometime early next summer.