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 A
Different Wine
By Glenn Robert Uhlmann
Early in our marriage, my wife Betty and I decided to try our
hand at making homemade wine. Grapes suitable for making wine are
known as “vinifera.” Their scarcity led us to trying to make wine
from other fruits that were easier to obtain. Unfortunately, the
flavors from these fruits were poor and did not inspire us to
continue. As a last resort, we tried some of the wonderful berries
that were available locally.
Loganberries and raspberries gave us some enjoyable results, but
because they were expensive we tried less costly berries, such as
the Himalaya blackberries that grow wild so extensively across the
countryside. These were plentiful and easy to pick. Although they
are not as tasty as commercial berries, we found they made an
acceptable wine. Further experiments led us to try some of the
family-legend recipes, such as “Aunt Fanny’s elderberry wine” or
“Cousin Mabel’s dandelion wine.” I think that the recipe for the
latter got distorted in history, and we should have used the flowers
instead of the leaves. Anyway, our experiment soon went down the
drain—literally.
Exploration & Discovery
After a couple of years of experimenting with various fruits, we
thought we had tried most of our options. We had lost interest in
further exploring and thought that this would be the end of our
experimenting. However, we had overlooked one other grape: the Wild
Oregon grape, which produces berries instead of grapes. The Wild
Oregon was brought to mind by the appearance of their yellow flowers
in the wooded area on our own property, which was shaded by several
alder and maple trees. The low undergrowth in this shaded space was
made up of low-growing plants, including various ferns, and seemed
to be ideal for the Oregon grape plants that also grew there. We
remembered that the Native Americans had dried these Oregon grape
berries for winter use and mixed them with dried meat for pemmican.
Also, our own ancestors had probably used them for jams or jellies.
That was the extent of our knowledge of Oregon grapes, but we had
yet to try them for wine.
We checked with our local botanist, who told us that we were
dealing with a Low Oregon grape that carried the Latin name of
berberis nervosa. It has a relative that grows to three or
four feet high, or taller if it has more sunshine. Our Low Oregon
grape plants were doing well in the shaded space in our own wooded
area. This year, we patiently waited for our Low Oregon grape
flowers to appear. They did not disappoint us when March arrived and
we knew that the plumes of flowers would grow to plump, blue-black
berries in the fall.
Each spring, they announced their presence with plumes of
light-creamy, yellow-colored blossoms at the tops of two-foot-high
plants. We had ignored these lovely blossoms in the past and
accepted them as part of the natural beauty that arrived with other
wild flowers every spring. But this year they reminded us that here
was an untried fruit for making wine. The plants themselves are
attractive, with pointed shiny leaves similar to holly leaves. They
are attached in pairs on each side of the plant stems, and are
sometimes used by florists in flower displays.
An Adventure Begins
Our interest in Oregon grapes led us to search our local
neighborhood for more low plants like ours, in the hopes that we
might increase the amount of fruit we would have for our wine. We
were disappointed to find that they were few and far between. Also,
surprisingly, if we did find Oregon grape plants in large areas,
they were apt to be barren of flowers or berries—just fields of
shiny, pointed leaves. Therefore, it became obvious to us that our
own personal forested area would have to provide the only fruit we
would have for our Oregon grape wine experiment. That fact made us
decide that, when August arrived, we would wait until the day that
our crop had reached maximum juiciness in the berries before we
picked. We checked daily; when the berries looked to be in their
ripest condition, we picked.
We treated the berries as we had our other efforts in home
winemaking: After first crushing, we added sodium bisulfate to stop
the action of wild yeasts. Then we added our own yeast, the usual
montrachet. We added water in about half the amount of our juice. We
also added sugar, to achieve a moderate balance in taste that would
be neither tart nor sweet. Fermentation took place, and the rest of
the process went normally. We eventually bottled what was to become
our wine, and waited for it to age a bit and mature. We sampled
during the next two months only sparingly, because our supply was
meager. Great was our surprise and pleasure when we found our
samplings to be so encouraging! If judged by professional standards,
we had not created anything that would compete in the world of wine
judging, but we had something that would please our guests when they
came for dinner and a glass of Oregon grape wine.
Wine drinkers welcome the new wines that arrive on the market
every year. Some of these will be regarded as special vintages that
will require proper treatment in their future; they will be set
aside for aging, to join bottlings of previous years that might have
already been resting for several years or decades. These select
bottles are among the most expensive to be found in the world, and
will probably be tasted only by the rich and those who possess
trained and talented tasting ability. When we look at simple
homemade wine, such as our Oregon grape wine, we wonder if the
expensive wines offer more to enjoy than our own simple vintage.
Happy Times
Our experience with Oregon grape wine gave us many enjoyable times.
The wine itself was unique in flavor and had a hint of something
wild in its taste that was hard to forget. It became a mark of the
house, as our relatives and certain lucky friends praised this
unusual wine we had made to forget about.
Even though we no longer make wine because age has left us with
less energy and because of the labor involved, we still think back
and have fond memories of those winemaking days. We remember the
careful pulling of the cork of a treasured bottle, so as not to
disturb the lees that had attached to the inside of the bottle.
Having removed the cork, we slowly decanted the wine into a carafe
until the entire bottle was emptied without disturbance to the lees.
Then came the joyful sips and tastes that brought praise and
compliments. Today, in our memories, we can relive those happy times
and reaffirm our love for the Wild Oregon grape.
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