This afternoon we took our annual journey to Behlings Apple Orchard to pick apples. It’s a fall tradition only this year, it was about 82 degrees and sunny! This year’s apple crop wasn’t as good as previous years, probably because of the lack of rain in Central New York this past summer. Still, we managed to fill a couple of bags with Macintosh apples with which to eat, bake and make applesauce.
Our trip would not have been complete without a quick wine tasting. Behlings has wines from Ashley Lynn Winery on hand to try and buy. Most of the wines are not made with grapes but rather with other types of fruit that grow well in this region. We tried Elderberry Mist and Pomegranate Passion, a pomegranate/apple wine, and bought a bottle of each.
It made me wonder about the origin of fruit wine – wine made with fruits other than grapes, that is. According to Lisa Shea’s Wine Intro blog, fruit wines have been around for centuries. In the Far East, they used plums, for example.
For me, fruit wines are a bit too sweet, particularly those made with raspberries and strawberries and the like. The ones we chose were not as sweet but still tasted better made into wine slushies at home, which we enjoyed as a pre-dinner beverage.
In these waning days of summer, the fruity goodness of a wine slushie is a nice way to enjoy the gorgeous weather just one more time!