May Wine Weekend

This is our official drink of spring around here--May Wine. It is a wine traditionally drunk for May Day celebrations in Germany (and also, an old pagan drink, I believe)...we just find excuses to drink it all spring at my house. It is all lightness and freshness and I like to set out a carafe of it pre-dinner when we have guests...it feels like we are celebrating spring's arrival every time.

Here is my own simplified recipe:

• 1 bottle of chilled german white wine (nothing expensive here, please--a riesling works well although I admit I have made it with about every variety of white wine, depending upon what we have lurking in the wine coffers)
• a small handful (about 8 sprigs) of fresh sweet woodruff (what is sweet woodruff you ask? a lovely little herb that has sweet teeny white flowers in the spring and likes to spread voraciously throughout the garden if left unchecked from year to year)
• 8-10 fresh strawberries, sliced

Put the sweet woodruff and strawberries in a carafe, pour in the wine, cover and allow to steep for anywhere from 2 hours to overnight...the longer it sits, the more the sweet, fresh flavor develops. Serve chilled.

I grow my own sweet woodruff, by the way. I used to grow it in a pot and it seemed to be relatively happy in a pot, but now I have it in my garden, in a partially shady area where it can spread itself around happily and flourish from year to year.

You can also purchase dried sweet woodruff and use that in lieu of the fresh--but I just like the look of the fresh in the carafe (also, many people put sugar in their may wine, but I like mine adulterated as little as possible so you can really taste the strawberries and woodruff).

Salut!