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Many people assume that wine can only be made from grapes under Mediterranean-like sun. Most people are wrong!

Making beer at home has been a popular hobby for many years and now more and more people are experimenting and making their own various alcoholic beverages.

Lavender Flowers

Image Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clownfish/504045944/

Wine making is a fascinating hobby as no two batches taste exactly the same due to the use of natural ingredients. Experimenting with different herb plants to product new flavour combinations is half the fun for wine makers, particularly when they grow their own herb plants for use in the recipe.

This delicate but popular elderflower and lavender wine recipe is just one example of how herb plants and lavender products can be introduced in the winemaking process to produce a clear and crisp wine. Lavender in particular is used in many varieties of wine, such as the well-known Fetzer California Riesling (2009) due to its very specific but delicate flavour which complements the majority of other ingredients commonly found in wine recipes.

Elderflower

Image Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markpeate/3337952491/

Elderflower and Lavender Wine

Ingredients:

•             600g of elderflower petals (a pint is basically the amount of pressed down elderflowers to fill a pint jug)

•             250g of culinary lavender products such as dried flowers or fresh ones from the garden

•             1.4 kg of white granulated sugar

•             2 Lemons or two teaspoons of citric acid if preferred

•             250g tin of white grape concentrate

•             4.5 litres of water

•             1 tablespoon of wine tannin

•             2 campden Tablets

•             White wine yeast

•             Yeast Nutrient

*Wine making ingredients can be sourced online or locally, just look up wine making.

Basic method:

•             When gathering the elderflowers for this recipe, separate the flowers from the stalls with fingers or even a fork. Be careful not to include stalk as this will make the wine bitter-tasting.

•             Collect 1 pint (600ml) of elder flower petals by pressing them down lightly.

•             As with the elderflowers, collect the required amount of fresh lavender flowers by pressing them down lightly into a jug or by measuring out the same amount of dried lavender products.

•             Grate the rind from 2 lemons (being careful to not include any white pith).

•             Add the lemon rind (or citric acid) to the elderflower and lavender petals in a clean / sterilised plastic bucket and pour in 8 pints of boiling water.

•             Allow this to cool and then add 1 Campden tablet.

•             The bucket can now be covered with a clean cloth and allowed to stand undisturbed for three days apart from occasional stirring.

•             After three days add the granulated white sugar, white grape concentrate, the juice from the two lemons, and 1 teaspoon of wine tannin and stir well. After the sugar has completely dissolved it is time to add in the sachet of yeast and the yeast nutrient.

•             Recover the bucket loosely again and leave it undisturbed in a warm place for a minimum of four days.

•             After the four days have passed, strain the mixture through a very fine bag or muslin into a demijohn that will take a minimum of a gallon, of 5 litres.

•             Fit an air lock onto the demijohn and leave it in a safe place which has a temperature of 20-22 degrees for a further five days.

•             After leaving it for five days siphon the liquid into another demijohn and leave until the bubble no longer manage to pass through the air lock, at which point fermentation is finished.

•             The wine will gradually clear and after approximately eight weeks another Campden tablet can be added.

•             Twenty four hours after adding the second Campden tablet siphon the wine into sterilised bottles.

•             It is recommended that this elderflower and lavender wine is left for a minimum of six months from this point before drinking.

This is a guest post by Alan Horton on behalf of Lavender World. This is a website and tourist attraction which sells a range of lavender products, herb plants, craft and gift ideas for the whole family.

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The place where every glass is handmade.

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