Sparkling Gooseberry Wine Recipe

Oh we could get carried away here, check this out; another recipe courtesy of Nick Truman is his sparkling gooseberry wine... its just coming up to gooseberry season, I think we need to do some serious planning here to make the most of all these goodies coming our way!

Ingredients

• 5 Ib. green gooseberries, not quite ripe
• 2 3/4 Ib sugar
• 6 oz, sultanas
• 1 gallon water
• Nutrient
• Pectozyme
• Campden tablet
• Champagne yeast

Method
Top, tail and wash the gooseberries, pour boiling water over them and when cool crush the berries with your hands without breaking the pips. Add the Campden tablet, one teaspoonful of pectozyme and the chopped sultanas. After twenty-four hours add an actively fermenting yeast and nutrient, and each day press down the cap of crushed gooseberries After four days strain and press dry, then continue fermentation. After maturation treat as recommended above. Any wine can be made to sparkle by this recommended method, but experiment has shown that apple, pear and gooseberry give the best results.

Edit: 22/6/09

We bought some gooseberries at Cheltenham which actually turned out to be half the required amount for the recipe so we've decided to be a bit inventive and substitute half the gooseberry for a bit of elderflower instead after the yummy supping of the elder and gooseberry cordial yesterday. Recipe as follows:

Ingredients

• 2.5 Ib. green gooseberries, not quite ripe
• 6 heads of elderflower (1.2 oz)
• 2 3/4 Ib sugar
• 6 oz, sultanas
• 1 gallon water
• Nutrient
• Pectozyme
• Campden tablet
• Champagne yeast

We're doing it in 2 demi johns so will split the ingredients 50:50