Mulch Wine - Barleywine made with Oak Leaves

[frailn]

Don't ask me how I discovered this, but somehow in my googling adventures, I came across a recipe for wine made from oak leaves. Normally, I would have just chuckled and moved along, but my interest was caught because of an old Avalon Hill board game I love to play called Merchant of Venus. In the game, there is a product you can buy and sell called Mulch Wine.

So, in order to celebrate my love of the game, I want to come up with a a barleywine that has oak leaves in the recipe. And make up some cool labels with the "mulch wine" theme. Any tips, advice, thoughts, are welcomed. You can tell me I'm crazy! But, I'm going to attempt this no matter what.

Here is the original wine recipe I found. Looks nasty with all that sugar as the main fermentable.

1 gallon of Oak Leaves
1 gallon Water
2.2lb of sugar
3 oranges
Yeast
Pectinol

Pick the oak leaves when they are very young and fresh; 
normally this will be the last week of May or the beginning 
of June. Boil the water and Pour it onto the oak leaves, 
leaving over night. Strain out the leaves and boil the liquid 
for 20 minutes, then add the sugar and orange juice and 
the grated rind. When the liquid has cooled to blood heat 
add the yeast, leave to ferment in an open bucket for five 
days and transfer to a fermentaion jar. Fit an airlock and 
leave to ferment until it stops working and the sediment 
settles. At this point rack off into a clean jar, add pectinol 
to remove the haze, leave for 24 hours and then filter the 
wine off into sterlized bottles and cork down with corks 
that have been boiledfor 10 mins.

Instead of sugar, I will use malt (all grain) as the main fermentable sugar. I will make the "oak leaf tea" as suggested above, but use it in the mash. I do BIAB, so I will just dunk my bag in the oak leaf tea.

Will probably use some earthy-flavored hops (any recommendations are appreciated).

Before I jump into a brew, I will probably try steeping some leaves and tasting the "tea" to see what it's like.

I read that young oak leaves in the Spring are best. Older leaves have too much tannin and astringency. But, there are some old leaves still on the trees around here, so I may try a test steep this weekend to see what it's like.