Last year I hoovered up a billion dandelions on a hot spring morning to make a dandelion wine and a year later I have finally cracked open a bottle to give it a whirl. The taste is similar to the leaf wines I have made from oak and walnut trees rather than my elder flower wine that gets made every year. Like the leaf wines it has a similar herbal tannic base but with a ginger and cardamom like top. Unlike an elderflower wine that has a heady floral aroma this is less in your face and more like the smell of a gin or a liqeuer.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FORAGED DANDELION WINE RECIPE

I fermented to dryness but dissolving a little sugar in the glass to made it semi sweet took away the edge of the tannin. This brought out the floral side of the wine so I would certainly recommend that the wine is stabilised and back sweetened to be at least semi-sweet. Perhaps I would prefer it with a little more acidity to give it some bite too. In a odd way it reminds me of the herbal qualities of the Seville orange wine which used a lot of zest to create a more complex wine than just using the juice. To be honest I preferred the Seville orange wine to this. It is not that the dandelion wine is bad just that the Seville orange wine was a delight and a real surprise. All in all this was a fun wine to make and one I will happily drink but there a less labour intensive and more rewarding ones that are similar in profile.