On the way back from my Saturday dog walk I called in at the local market to peruse their fruit and veg. It’s one of those temporary trellis tables rammed with goods rescued from the veg trade that are either surplus to requirements or too close to rotten for general sale. You don’t turn up there with a a shopping list, but simply snaffle whatever looks like the best bargain. This weekend’s haul included five (for a pound) of the fattest, ripest grapefruit you could wish to see and a bag full of plate-sized mushrooms. One of these purchases was screaming ‘ferment me’.
Fortunately, for the rest of my family, the mushrooms went in the frying pan.
Grapefruit wine is much more popular in America than back in the UK (I guess they have the advantage of being able to grow the things) and it even features in a Steely Dan song*. So it must be good. Most published recipes make it with six grapefruit, but as most published recipes of most wines are the same recipe regurgitated, I gambling that my five extra ripe specimens will be just fine.
I’m hoping for a sharp, dry white wine. To be served with fried mushrooms.
*Probably. The song is ‘FM’ and most folk reckon the opening lines run like this: ‘Worry the bottle, mama, it’s grapefruit wine; Kick off your high heal sneakers, it’s party time’.
I’ve not done pure grapefruit wine, but have done ‘citrus’ wine on many occasions. For that, each time I make it I reduce the number of grapefruit used – because grapefruit tends to dominate the others (oranges, lemons and limes). I will try pure grapefruit one of these years.
I’ve read all about your citrus wine! It was one of the inspirations for me to look into citrus fruit options. I’ll post some grapefruit tasting notes next year. So far it has broken a couple of Thirsty Gardener records – the quickest clearing wine yet, and the largest layer of sediment.