Elderflower sparkling rose

[Nicks90]

Thought I'd post an experiment I did earlier in the year.
Last year noone liked my elderflower wine, they all thought it tasted like perfume and generally unpleasant. I tended to agree with them. Kept it though as it works great in a big alcoholic punch!
But as I have a massive elder tree in the garden and I love my elderberry wine, it seemed ride not to have a go at another elderflower concoction.

This time round I thought I'd do a sparkling rose.
Pint pot of elderflowers
2l red grape juice
Citric acid
Strong tea
1kg sugar
Yeast nutrient
Topped up to 4l
Young's wine yeast

Brewed it out and then racked it off to a fresh DJ and let it clear for a month
Racked again and bottled a month later with 1tsp sugar in each bottle. Thinking this would give it a bit of fizz but not too much.

5 months in I try a bottle...



Blurghhhhhh
Not only did I lose 1/4 bottle to massive over fizz, but it tasted horrible. It wasn't vinegar or infected, but the elderflower really over powered the grape juice. The wine after taste was too acidic and it was generally unpleasant.
Never mind, was worth an experiment. Lesson learned and I'll just stick to the elderberry wine in future

 

[cushyno]

Worth a go to see what happens though. I mean, it's possible to imagine that subtle elderflower within a rose. What happened? I can't imagine a single pint of elderflowers being too strong for the red grape juice?

 

[tonyhibbett]

Never tried a rose version. The quantity of flowers used is ok but elderflowers need to be picked with care, selecting only the delicately scented ones and removing any green parts of the spray. A standard recipe for 1 gallon uses 1 litre of white grape juice (or 250 g minced sultanas) and 1 kilo of sugar, so you have somewhat overdone the sugar, given the total volume of just 4 litres, which is why you lost so much when opening the bottle.
Maturation is important. I recently opened a 2 year old bottle of elderflower champagne and it was superb and the flavour subtle. Acidity is important. I use tartaric acid because citric acid tends to fade during fermentation and can encourage bacteria.