Elderberry Cordiall - Could this be used to make wine

[photoken]

Hello,

I was in tescos doing the weekly shop today and stumbled across Elderberry Cordiall - I was wondering has anyone used this stuff - It is quite pricey around £3 for under a Ltr of the stuff but it probley has a good flavour I was thinking - maybe need to give it a boil 1st and add a couple Ltr's of white grape juice and maybe around a kg of sugar - anyone given this a try??

Ken

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

You can. Make it as you said, but add either 500g gooseberries (if you can find them; you'll need to add a teaspoon of pectolase) or the grated rind & juice of a lemon, and a mug of strong black tea or rooibos. Assuming it's a 500ml bottle of cordial, reduce the sugar to 450g. That will give you roughly 1kg total sugar (360-375g from the cordial, 150-160g from the grape juice, ~30g from the gooseberries) which will give you a final ABV of around 11%.

Check the ingredients list for the cordial. If there's anything that says XXX-sulphite, xxx-sulphate, it will need to be boiled and cooled before use.

I'd start the wine off without the cordial, and add the cordial once it has been fermenting for four or five days. The process of fermentation will destroy some of the elderflower flavour (the same happens with rose petals) so adding the cordial after a few days will maximise the flavour in the finished wine. You can do the same thing with fresh or dried flowers.

 

[oldbloke]

If there's anything that says XXX-sulphite, xxx-sulphate, it will need to be boiled and cooled before use.

Where you wrote sulphate I suspect you meant sorbate ?

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

If there's anything that says XXX-sulphite, xxx-sulphate, it will need to be boiled and cooled before use.

Where you wrote sulphate I suspect you meant sorbate ?

Yes