We have an abundance of roses in our garden over the summer months, and each year I enjoy not only looking at them and taking in their scent, I also enjoy making treats out of them for friends and family.
The main things I have made to date have been rose water, rose oil and face masks. This year when considering other things to make using their petals, I came across the idea of rose wine and decided to give this a go.
Unlike most wines the turn around time to bottling and drinking is far quicker and with a garden summer party at my mums in August I was keen to have a few bottles out for the guests to hopefully enjoy!
My mother and I made the wine together and I wanted to combine rose petals from our cottage and from the place that I call “my haven” namely my mothers.
I set out one sunny evening to collect the rose petals first from our garden.
Stopping to have a sniff throughout my petal picking!
Once I had collected half of the batch required from our garden I was soon collecting from my mothers garden too.
With a basket full of rose petals, it was time to start the wine making process…
I like to keep things simple in life and not over complicate anything, therefore after looking at many recipes I settled on one I found on the blog And Here We Are for its simplicity.
Ingredients
- 7 Cups of fresh rose petals
- 6 Litres of filtered water
- 2 Lemons
- 2 lbs. Sugar
- Champagne yeast
Equipment
- Stockpot
- Demijohns
- Airlock with rubber stopper
- Fermentation bucket
- Funnel
- Muslin square
- Wine bottles
Method
- Pour the water and the rose petals in to the stockpot and leave to simmer until the colour has drained from the petals (around 15/20 minutes)
- Turn off the heat and allow to cool
- Strain the liquid from the petals in to another pot, pressing the water out of the petals
- Squeeze in the juice from the lemons in to the strained water and add in the sugar, stirring until dissolved
- Once the sugar has dissolved transfer the mixture into the fermentation bucket
- Add in the yeast and allow it to sit for approximately 2 hours
- Using the muslin strain the mixture before transferring into the demijohns adding the airlocks, keep in a cool dark place for 3-6 weeks
- Bottle the wine in to swing top bottles (to avoid any messy explosions in your home)!
- Leave to sit and ferment a little longer and decide when its ready to enjoy! You can at this stage transfer in to non swing top bottles should you prefer.
- Store the wine in a cool dark place or even better in the fridge so that its ready to open on a hot summers day.
If you give this wine a go I’d love to know how you get on.
Love Emma x