Bottling the 2010 Dandelion Wine

Last May I set out to make dandelion wine again. I shared my initial experiment in 2009 and what I was doing in 2010 with my windfall of fresh VT dandelions in my post "For The Love of Dandelion Wine" early that month. This time I was making a full 6 gallon batch which would net me about 30 bottles. I knew from the first batch in 2009 that it would take some time to clear and patience was a virtue in letting it do so. So it is now almost 1 year later and it is as clear as it is going to be and ready to bottle.

Two weekends ago I cheated and took two bottles off the top of the resting carboy and served them at our charity wine tasting. It was a hit and something most of the guests had never had before.

If you have never had dandelion wine before, and it can be made in many variations, it is difficult to describe. It is part leafy greens and part citrus, and mine has just enough sweetness to blend the bitter elements into a light fruity and refreshing warm weather wine. In the glass it has a light straw color and a pungent aroma that you know must be some type of plant.

During this past week's #winechat I was given the link to a source of a video about dandelion wine. It is the story of a woman who lives off the grid in Wyoming and amongst other things she does to sustain herself, she makes dandelion wine. Her ingredients, process and passion are on display during the 7 minute video. Her process is not all that different than my own and it made me smile. I noticed she used raisins in her wine. I haven't done that in my dandelion wine, I have in other fruit wines, and I know exactly what that would do and must try it the next time. The additional body and grape wine characteristics would certainly take it up a notch. She also used ginger and a combination of orange and lemon, which again seems like a worthy experiment for this year.

We will be up at the house in VT several times again this spring and I sincerely hope I can bring home at least some dandelions to make another batch. I look forward to trying some recipe alterations and continue what is becoming an annual tradition in my little New England home winery.

Here is the video about Miss "V" and her dandelion wine.

It's Time for Dandelion Wine


This video came from the Wyoming 2011 Short Film competition. Make sure to check out the other entries and vote for your favortie at the contest web site.

Cheers!

Jason

For The Love of Dandelion Wine

The way I heard it I might be channeling the passion for dandelion wine of an ancestor. At a family reunion a few years back I was telling a great uncle about my winemaking exploits. He recalled a memory of seeing jugs of dandelion wine fermenting in the basement of the home and family member that I can’t recall my relation to. This practice was lost in the generations since and has only been rekindled recently, and largely due to the availability of free dandelions at the family vacation place in Vermont.

An untreated lawn full of dandelions is the bane of many homeowners. Dandelions are a weed and propagate vigorously so if you have them, you have them! To a home winemaker it is quite the opposite. Cheap wine!

I made dandelion wine for the first time in 2009. With five years of winemaking experience to my credit I was hoping for a successful go, but I was still unsure if making wines from grapes and fruit would translate to flowers.

Around mid-day on a cool, partly cloudy day in May of 2009 I picked two one gallon zip seal bags of dandelion flowers. This ultimately netted me six bottles of citrus-infused sweet wine with strong aromas of grass and flowers. The result was much more than I had expected. Reviews of the wine from tastings we have had exceeded any expectations I had, and have been a great honor.

I used a recipe published by Jack Keller, a VERY well known winemaker and winemaking educator on the web, which you can find at his web site at http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques2.asp. I opted for the first recipe which uses golden raisins to increase the body. This year I will be using some white grape juice in place of the raisins for the same effect.

This weekend, at the house in Vermont once again, I picked four full bags of dandelion flowers. Obviously this quantity will greatly increase the resulting amount much to the chagrin of my family. Oh the hardship of using free produce to make 20-30 bottles of wine!

I haven’t considered the pairing opportunities with such a wine but I surely will in the coming months. I do still have a few bottles of the batch from 2009 which I can enjoy while I wait for the newest vintage to be ready.

Cheers!

--Jason

Dandelion Wine Experiment

Two weekends ago I picked about 4 quarts of dandelion flowers with spontaneous enthusiasm of making a batch of dandelion wine. I have never made it before, have only had a very little bit in the past and was not sure what to expect.

The dandelions were recovered from the lawn at the VT house where no chemicals, etc are used so they should be as organic as something that is fed by the rain in the Northeast can be. That is an absolute requirement otherwise bad things can result.

The experiment is going along well, with about 1 gallon total fermenting. The recipe I used called for citrus and the intermediate result is a citrus tasting wine with interesting grassy and floral notes. Only time will tell.

Cheers!
--Jason