Vinum Murteum (Myrtle Wine)

Ingredients:

sprigs of myrtle with berries (your will need 600ml berries for a 5l batch)
11kg ripe white grapes
1 Campden tablet (or 0.33g potassium metabisulfite powder)
Tartaric acid (if necessary)
refined sugar (if necessary)
1 packet wine yeast (eg Champagne or Montrachet)

Method:

When the myrtle fruit are ripe, pick sprays of myrtle with the fruit on. Place these on a plastic sheet and every day set in the sun until the myrtle berries and black and shrivelled. Remove the seeds and set aside in a sealed jar until it's time for you to make your wine.

As always, wine-making begins with the fruit. Start by ensuring they are ripe by crushing two good handfuls to extract the juice. Strain and measure the sugar level with a hydrometer. Optimal sugar levels should equal 1.0982 specific gravity and the fruit themselves should should taste sweet and slightly tart (don't worry if your specific gravity is a little off as you can adjust with sugar). Also ensure that the grapes are not rotten or discoloured (discard any that are) then remove all stems as these will make the wine bitter.

Also, like any brewing technique the true secret of winemaking is maintaining a sterile environment. Wash all of your equipment thoroughly with hot water, boiling what you can. It's also wise to arm yourself with a strong sulfite solution to rinse any equipment that comes in contact with your wine. This is made by mixing 3 tbsp sulfite powder (potassium metabisulfite) to 3.5l of water.

Once you have sterilized your equipment and your grapes are prepared and cleaned place them in the nylon straining bag and put the bag in the bottom of your bucket. Using clean hands or a sterilized potato masher or meat tenderizer crush the grapes inside the bag. Once you are done crush a Campden tablet and sprinkle over the must in the nylon bag. Cover the bucket with cheesecloth and allow to sit for one hour.

Lift the nylon straining bag out of the bucket and wring the bag to extract as much juice as possible from it. Now take a sample of the juice in your bucket and measure the acid with your titration kit. If it's lower than 6.5–7.5g per litre then adjust with tartaric acid. For example, if your acid level is 5.5g/l and you need to bring it to 6.5g/l then you need to add 1g/l tartaric acid. As you're making 5l in total then you will need 5*1 = 5g tartaric acid.

After adjusting the acidity it's now time to check the specific gravity of the must. Remove a sample and place in a hydrometer. You're looking for a specific gravity of 1.0982. If it's too low add a little sugar dissolved in sterile (boiled and cooled) water. If it's too high then just add some sterile water.

Now check the temperature of your must (mashed grapes). It should be between 12 and 18°C. If it's too warm then allow to cool naturally if it's too cold, take out a sample, warm in the microwave and place back in the must to warm it.

Now you can prepare your yeast by dissolving in 500ml sterile water that's been warmed to between 26 and 32°C. Leave this to stand until it begins to become frothy (about 10 minutes) then pour directly over the must and stir with a sterile spoon to ensure that the yeast has mixed in evenly. Now add 600ml of myrtle berries and cover the bucket with a cheesecloth and allow to stand in a warm place (between 12 and 18°C). Leave for 24 hours and check that the fermentation process has begun (you should see bubbles on the surface).

You should monitor the temperature daily and check the fermentation progress by measuring the specific gravity. Once this has reached 0.998 then the win is said to be of the appropriate 'dryness'. You can now rack the wine into a sterilized 5l jar. 'Racking' is the process of transferring the wine away from any sediment. To do this you insert a clear 1.5m plastic tube into the fermenter and siphon the clear wine into a sterilized 5l jar. Always set the original jar on a shelf above the new jar so that gravity does the work for you. Also be careful and delicate when doing this as you don't want to stir-up any sediment, but neither do you want to lose your siphon's suction.

Once the transfer is complete top-off with sterile water to entirely fill the container. Then fit with a sterilized bung and fermentation lock. Allow to ferment for 10 days (and top-off with grape juice if the liquid levels fall) then rack the wine into your second 5l fermentation jar. Top-up with grape juice and add a sterile bung and fermentation lock.

After three months siphon the clarified, settled, wine off any remaining sediment into clean, sterilized, bottles. Before you are ready to bottle soak your corks for 24—48 hours in cool, sterile, water. Then transfer the corks to a sulfite solution (30g in 1.5l of water) and ensure that they are all submerged for between 10 and 30 minutes). This sterilizes the corks ready for corking. Measure the length of your cork. When you are racking your wine into your bottles you will need to leave a 'head space' (unfilled region) below the rim of the bottle that's twice the length of your cork (ie if your cork is 3cm long then the head space needs to be 6cm long).

Cork with the pre-prepared corks and store in a cool, dark, place for at least three months before drinking.

Enjoy!