A homemade liqueur where cut green walnuts macerate in red wine, eau-de-vie, and sugar with a few spices, before being filtered and bottled. A dark, sweet, and pleasantly bitter homemade aperitif.

Why this dish? In the Burgundian country houses like Sido's, people made their own aperitifs from what the garden gave. Green walnuts picked at Midsummer (June 24), still tender, yielded this dark, bitter wine left to age in the cellar — exactly the kind of terroir gesture Colette cherished.

You must pick the green walnuts around Midsummer, when the husk is so tender that a pin still goes through it; afterwards it's too late, the wood sets in. You cut them into four — your fingers stay black for a week, too bad — and drown them in wine with sugar, a finger of eau-de-vie, a cinnamon stick. Then you forget the jar in the back of the cellar, in the cool shade, all summer and all autumn. When winter comes, you draw this ink-colored brew, bitter and warm at once, and you think of the June sun you bottled up in it.

How it was made : Walnut wine was a peasant liqueur throughout rural France, made by families on a fixed date — often Midsummer, the only time the walnut is still green and tender. Each house had its own recipe, adjusting sugar, spices, and eau-de-vie according to taste and cellar.

The contemporary twist : Serve over a large ice cube with a fresh orange zest, as a 'vintage' aperitif in the style of guinguettes.

Colette · Charactorium