Sour Cherry

Last weekend I went on a lovely autumn trip with good people to the winery that makes Frederiksdal Cherry Wine.

We visited after the harvest but there were still quite a few, lovely, almost black and very ripe cherries on the trees. And we had time to pick some before tasting the wines and picnicking on the grounds.

So last Sunday I made some Maraschino Cocktail Cherries adapting this recipe with a bit of bourbon.

Today the cherries we ready to meet a cocktail and I started setting up for a rye based sour with a cherry wine float that I envisioned would be great.

I got a glass of the cherries from the fridge and put it on my kitchen counter and next time I picked it up to twist of the cap the bottom fell out of the glass and the lovely boozy syrup poured down my cupboard.

I suppose I should be grateful it didn't happen in the fridge but it's annoying in a first world kind of way.

On the other hand now I get to eat the cherries as I don't have any syrup to cover them with, and they turned out great with a real deep and lovely taste.

And why not put three of these rare cherries on a single drink:

• 6 cl rye - I used Old Overholt
• 3 cl honey syrup
• 3 cl fresh lemon juice
• 1 cl cherry wine

 Shake the first three ingredients with plenty of ice, strain into a rocks glass over ice and float cherry wine on top - garnish with Maraschino cherries.

Here's hoping the rest of the glasses won't break too.