I have made dandelion wine before but it was a disaster. The flowers were damp and the taste once I eventually opened a bottle was a bit like licking a carpet. It has taken a few years for me to pluck up the courage to return to it. Having started this new batch I have a bit more understanding in wine making and a bit more of a willingness to experiment with the recipe.

The dandelions seem to be more of an undertone to the wine providing a gingerish base that is quite subtle and certainly less pronounced than an elderflower wine. Nettle, birch sap and rhubarb are also meant to be similarly subtle. To add a bit more depth lemon and/or orange zest and juice are added and some even add an inch of ginger for a kick. Body can be added with tea, raisins or white grape concentrate and I have an old recipe that threw in whole plants so the bitter roots would create a more beer like taste.

As the recipe is more of a guide I went with equal measures of lemon and some Seville orange juice and zest I had frozen. 500G of raisins added body and I relied on calyx rather than tea or tannin extract for the tannin content. As I plan to make this into a sparkling wine in 6 months I added enough sugar to get to SG 1.08 so that the extra EC1118 yeast and sugar ferments when added just before bottling. This is the first wine where I have added demerara sugar as a quarter of the ratio rather than just plain white table sugar and I imagine it will compliment the dandelion flavour.

Dandelions are the most well dressed of flowers with their mop top of yellow petals that turn into an wig of doom when the seeds blow off to disperse the seeds. Because their seeds are an indiscriminate carpet bomb that can take over a garden or allotment my neighbours were more than happy to let me pick all the fresh dandelion heads I could get my hands on. I try to stay away from parks that might have sprayed with weed killers or worse dog pee.

Try to hunt them out in a warm spring morning when the pollen is at its highest to get as much flavour as possible. Bees love dandelions as they are one of the first flowers to blossom so try not to take them until a range of flowers are in season. If you see any that are not perfectly round give them a miss as slugs will have nibbled them. An equal volume of loose petals to the demijohn you will ferment in are needed though you can get by will a few less or a few more.

Once the flowers are picked the petals need to be saved and the green calyx thrown away. A few bits of calyx will inevitably be picked and these add a little tannin but try to remove as much as possible. There is a knack to efficient separation and this needs a firm squeeze of the base of the flower to pop the petals off as you feather them away. This is long hard work so get some good music playing or practice your Zen And The Art Of Wine Making mantras. I sadly had the neighbours kids arguing for a solid hour. At the end you will have stained fingers like a chain smoking tramp – probably best not to do this on an unprotected work surface.

As the taste is light and subtle I wanted to keep as much as possible for the bottle. Some choose to boil the dandelions twice once at the start and again at he end of the steep but I chose to simply blanche them with the boiled water and let them steep. I also fermented in a stainless steel pan (don’t use aluminium as the acid in the must will oxidise the metal!) to dissipate the heat and slow the fermentation so that aroma does not “boil off.” Once in the demijohn I am placing it in the cupboard under the stairs which is the coldest part of the house to keep a long slow and cool ferment. In six months I will turn it into a sparking wine and hopefully next spring it will ready to drink.

DANDELION WINE – 4.5L

Light floral white wine suitable to turn into a sparkling wine. EC1118, CY17 or any white wine yeast is suitable. Alternatives: Divide the lemon content between lemon and oranges. Ginger can be added for a kick, tannin or tea for more body and sugar can be divided between light demerara and white table sugar.

RECIPE

The petals from enough complete dandelion flowers to loosely fill a gallon container

4.5 litres of boiling water

1kg-ish sugar to 1.09SG

Zest and juice of 4 lemons

500g chopped raisins

Yeast

Yeast nutrient

Pectic enzyme

METHOD

Pick enough flowers that would loosely fill a demijohn.

Remove petals. Some green is good for taste but remove most.

Boil four litres of water and pour over the petals. Cover and leave for 2 days for flavour to seep. When the water is cold pectic enzyme can be added to destroy pectin and reduce haze.

Boil another half litre of water and add the lemon/orange juice, zests and chopped raisins.

Sieve out the petals then combine them

Stir in the sugar until 1.090SG.

Once cool add the yeast and yeast nutrient and cover in primary. Stir twice a day.

Rack into secondary when fermentation slows and rack again when it has totally stopped at about five weeks.

Rack again if sediment builds and bottle after 6 months

Drink after about a year after pitching the yeast