Wines and SpiritsTry Some Garlic Wine With Dinner
"Garlic wine?" you might ask with just a hint of incredulment. "Who would ever make wine out of garlic?"
One of the fun and interesting things about home winemaking is the fact that you can make wine out of just about any organic plant material as long as it"s not poisonous. And garlic wine is certainly something that you can make.
As far as drinking it for pleasure, that"s another matter. But, garlic wine makes an excellent addition to foods and salads. I wouldn"t advise pouring it into a glass and serving it to guests if you want your guests to return, but using it in a variety of dishes including beef, chicken and seafood will impress the tastebuds.
We"ve all heard about the health benefits of red wine. When the fermentation process starts, there are many chemical reactions going on with new compounds being created, while other compounds become more potent and concentrated. For example, the compound that may provide many health benefits, reservatrol, can increase when red grape juice is fermented. Red Spanish grape juice typically contains 1.14 - 8.69 mg/l while Spanish red wine contains between 1.92 and 12.59 mg/l. This increase may be explained by the fact that reservatrol is produced when the grape is under attack by bacteria or yeast.
There are no known studies that I am aware of regarding any compounds specific to garlic wine, however garlic has been known by itself to have many health benefits for those that consume it regularly. It has been said that the ancient Roman physician, Galen, used garlic wine to treat sick and injured gladiators successfully.
Whether or not there are health benefits to garlic wine, it does make for an interesting additive to gourmet meals. Making it yourself is quite simple if you have the right home winemaking equipment. You do of course need to bare in mind the important factors in making any kind of wine, the biggest being that of ensuring your work area and equipment are sanitized.
If you do plan on making garlic wine, I would not recommend anything more than a gallon at a time. Filling a five gallon carboy with garlic wine leave you with a predicament of what to do with it all as amounts needed in cooking are small. You could of course, bottle it and give it away as gifts to your dining friends. Just be sure they know it"s not a sipping wine!
You can find recipes for garlic wine as well as others wines that have interesting ingredients such as parsnip, ginger, blackcurrants and other fruit at this home winemaking site.