Here's to cheap wines

When the Straits Times recently reported that drinkers are now turning to supermarkets to buy their booze, I couldn't help a moment of smugness. ("I'm so-o ahead of the curve!")

Just like many others, I've been buying my wine from supermarkets for years. Recently, however, I've started buying the cheapest wines on offer.

Drinking the cheapest wine is risky, and bringing such wines to a friend's for dinner is out - one does not sabo friends, and certainly not if one wants to get invited to dinner again. However, cheap wine is perfectly palatable, and acceptable as a bring-along for dinner if you dress it up a bit.

The idea came after a trip to a restaurant which had an all-you-can-eat tapas special. The tapas didn't impress me as much as the sangria we ordered. Very refreshing. I drank two glasses, which ate into the special savings, but which was ok if you consider it research for making your own at home and saving that way.

I Googled a few sangria recipes when I got home. Tons of recipes.

I chose one that included stuff I could get my hands on easily: cut a lemon and an orange into thin rounds and mash them into the bottom of a jug (or 2, unless your jug is big). Pour in a bottle of red wine, a tin of pineapple juice, half a litre of orange juice, half a cup of brown rum and refrigerate for a couple of hours. When you want to serve, add a tin or two of Sprite (I dont see the point of the recipe that said add soda water and sugar - Sprite is easier). If you want, chop up an apple and toss in the pieces, as the tapas restaurant did.

Since the drink involves fruit, fruit juices, soda water, red wine and other spirits, you don't need top quality (nor, indeed any quality) wine to make it. Great for things like barbeques, for example.

And if the cheapest wine wine on offer happens to be white? Well, here are a couple of ideas:

New Ginger Wine recipe
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon rind (zest of 1 lemon)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (750 ml) bottle white wine
1/3 cup honey or golden syrup, to taste
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup raisins, chopped roughly (can use mixture of regular and golden raisins)
1 ounce brandy, to taste

1 In a non-reactive saucepan over medium heat, combine the lemon zest and juice, wine, honey or golden syrup, ginger, and raisins.
2 Raise the heat to medium-high, stirring constantly until the honey or golden syrup is melted, which will take about 4 minutes, but do not allow to boil.
3 Add the brandy or Cognac and place into glass container.
4 Refrigerate at least one day (or two, to taste), then strain the wine and serve in small glasses; it will be slightly cloudy but very tasty and very good for helping digest those large dinners everybody had!
5 Note: honey and golden syrup have different tastes, and I like both. It's nice to have the both versions of the wine with made, for different folks' tastes!

After you strain the wine, you can boil the ground ginger and raisin mush with water, and strain again. Makes a pretty potent non-alcoholic ginger brew, because the ginger was never boiled before. Good stuff. Then if you really want to be fanatical about being green, as I often am, bury the mush in your garden (or a pot of earth) to compost it!

White Wine Jelly
3 leaves of gelatine
300ml dry white wine
150ml water
110g caster sugar

Put the water and sugar in a pan and heat. Stir until sugar melts. Put gelatine in water for 30 secs until it softens. Add to pan. stir a bit to help it melt. Throw in wine and turn off fire. Pour into moulds and refrigerate for a few hours.

These are not bad at all, and eminently presentable if you're going to someone's for dinner. Beats buying different cheap wines to find palatable ones. Or, rather, by doing this, you can actually find the palatable really cheap ones, and you'll make the lousy ones into something decent... and novel.