Elderberries contain a huge amount of flavour notes, making them perfect for Elderberry Wine, they also contain suitable amounts of tannin to make them especially good when turned in to a delicious deep, earthy and fruity red wine. Best served with game meats or as a night time tipple. Furthermore with the addition of brandy and elderberry syrup this makes and amazing elderberry port. The easiest way to remove the berry from the stalk is to freeze them and then simply knock them off the stalks with a fork.
Ingredients
- 2kg Elder berries
- 3.5ltrs water
- 1.1kg Caster Sugar
- juice of 1lemon
- juice of 2 oranges
- 1 Sachet of wine yeast (or bread yeast)
Method for creating our Elderberry Wine:
- Add the elderberries and 2ltrs of water to a pan and bring to the boil for 10 minutes, with the lid on
- Using a potato masher give the berries a good mashing until all the juice is extracted
- Let it cool for an hour and infuse then strain it through a muslin cloth. Bring the edges of the cloth in to the middle, tie a knot and use your hand to squeeze as much juice from the berries as possible.
- To this liquid ass the rest of the water, the juice of the lemons and oranges, the sugar – stirring until dissolved, and the yeast (in that order)
- Then pour into a demi-john and secure an airlock in the top.
- Let this ferment for up to 1yr, a minimum of 1 month.
- Then bottle in sterilised bottles and allow to age for a further year. If you can’t wait drink straight away but the wait is definitely worth it as the flavour matures over the course of years.
If you saved the initial squeezed berries – you can follow the same procedure to make more of a rose style wine, using the left over berry pulp. Lighter in flavour and more delicate.
View all of our Elderflower & Elderberry Recipes here
