Sparkling Wine

[Rikki]

Hi All,

I have made Elderflower Wine and have been told it makes a very good Sparkling wine, how do I go about doing this.

Thanks

 

[stesmi]

Hi All,

I have made Elderflower Wine and have been told it makes a very good Sparkling wine, how do I go about doing this.

Thanks

The best and easiest way is to add some sugar when bottling. A teaspoon in a 750ml bottle should be enough to get a slightly sparkling wine. Once you've primed the bottles with sugar, leave it a room temp for a couple of weeks to allow carbonation, then chill and consume. If however you've let it clear for a few months prior to bottling then you may need to reintroduce yeast at bottling. It's the yeast eating sugar that'll produce co2. It's pretty much the same as bottling beer, so this vid may help? Also remember if you're carbonating wine you'll need to make sure the corks can handle the pressure :electric: by using champagne bottles and corks, or better still beer bottles. I wouldn't use normal wine bottles as they have a tendency to break under pressure :-/
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNnKFUkFJ5M[/ame]
There are other ways of doing it like just diluting it with sparkling water when drinking and bottling under pressure, but I think the above way is easiest. Others may have other solutions?