meatsschlager

http://www.dailylush.com/archives/the_undrinkable_cocktail.html


Army worm wine: In 2001, Ray Reigstad, an amateur wine maker in Northern Minnesota, decided to brew up 11-gallons of white wine. Northern Minnesota is not particularly known for its wine grapes, but that didn’t matter to Reigstad, as he wasn’t planning to use grapes anyway. Instead, he planned to use something that already grew in abundance in the Northland: the forest tent caterpillar, commonly called the army worm. Reigstad had heard about the recipe from a coworker who claimed his grandfather made it, and the winemaker saw a peculiar logic in using the insects as an ingredient for winemaking. “Army worms eat leaves,” he told the Duluth News Tribune. “So essentially they’re a combination of fruit and flowers.” Reigstad offered the wine to local connoisseurs without first telling them what they were drinking, and the results were unanimously positive. “If I was looking for a wine made from larvae, I’d choose this,” one later said. According to drinkers of the wine, it is sweet and unexpectedly similar to grape wine; Reigstad recommends drinking it with Walleye.