Wine, according to the dictionary is "the fermented juice of the grape, used as a beverage." In wider use, we are told, usually with a qualifying word: a fermented liquor made from the juice of other fruits or from grain, flowers, the sap of various trees, etc. But leaves? Have you heard of wine from leaves? For a young friend arrived from a visit to Scotland bearing the gift of a bottle of white wine made from leaves - oak leaves at that. It came in a clear bottle on the white wine principle, with a heavily Celtic decorative label. Two birds at the top. Were they pheasants? Peacocks? Capercallie? Never mind. The legend ran: "Cairn O'Mohr; Old Gold Autumn Oak Leaf Wine; Medium Dry. Rich green leaves hand-picked from the Ancient Oaks that fringe the magnificent River Tay. Fantastic." And on the back of the bottle we learn that in addition to the autumn leaves there is another white wine made from Spring Oak Leaf. They also produce wine from Raspberries, Bramble and Strawberries and Elder.
Mrs Beeton lists very many wines that the home cook can produce, too, without mentioning oak. Apple wine, apricot wine, black cherry wine, cowslip wine, damson wine, elder wine (berry or flower?) then ginger, gooseberry, lemon wine, and, you'll hardly believe it, turnip wine. She goes into rhubarb and orange wines. Well, those were do-it-yourself-days. In this age we can buy all sorts of drinkables - even to oak leaf, both spring and autumn crops. Advice: don't try to make it. Leave it to the experts. This oak leaf wine was tasted and pronounced delicious. Good on the Scots. But someone is going to write in and say his or her family have been making wine from beech or some other noble tree. You learn something new every day.
The wine business has changed out of all recognition as far as the ordinary diner out or diner in is concerned. Once wine-drinking was for what we might call clubmen. One read of claret vintages, if you looked in that part of your newspaper. Now such new areas as the vast area of Languedoc-Roussilion - and other parts of the world - have opened up whole new vistas of enjoyable wine at a reasonable price. We weren't told - and couldn't ask what our oak leaf wine cost. But it's an experience anyway. And very good on the palate, etc., etc. Slightly sweet but fresh. Pedunculate? or Sessile? Y