Elderberry wine taste

[Irish]

So a couple of months back I picked lots of fresh elderberry.... I went ahead and made a wine and when I tasted while bottling I was not impressed, it was very bitter and left an awful after taste.

HOWEVER!!!!
I went and had a taste of a small tester bottle I made.... WOW, very very impressed.

Its a lovely dry rosé ... My baby will be having his baptism in a few weeks so I've a lovely selection of wine for the afters .

Anyone that's considering doing an elderberry wine, its really worth a go.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I would love to try making wine from picked ingredients but i am bone idle so just buy juice in, glad it turned out well' :thumb:

 

[Zephyr259]

What was your recipe? I've just racked an elderberry port, super sweet but very tasty, and a light elderberry wine which was bone dry and should be tasty after some aging.

 

[GDog]

nice one, :thumb:

I'm encouraged as I've got 2 DJ's, and two smaller bottles aging off September, and I've no idea what elderberry wine even tastes like (as you found, initial sample was horrid).

I made a blackberry batch too, same size - which I've bottled this w/e

I had a few bags of each left , not enough to do a single batch , so I mixed them on Friday, and have them in the airing cupboard as we speak bubbling away..

Did you simmer the elderberries and strain, or stew on the fruit?

I did the former, and what a **** on it was, never again !

 

[Gunge]

It's the best. I make 4 gal each September and give it 2 years before suppin'. I make it very rich and strong. I'm no wine buff and can't tell one red from another but the elderberry is at least as good as any bought stuff I've tried. Marvellous. The English grape indeed!

 

[Irish]

I used 3 bags of elderberry , 1 and half bags into 2 pots and simmered for 15 -20 min then mashed them and let sit for 2 hours.

Then cut a net type dress my wife had to squeeze the juice out of the berries.

Put the usual chemicals in and let fire away... It was a fast active fermentation!

But as I said it was nasty when I tasted it when bottling but very nice now.
I'll be leaving some of the batch to mature for a year or so to really get the full flavors .

 

[Tau]

Had difficulty finding them this year, the patches I pick from had been cleared for new housing and powerlines. I planted a few seeds hoping that they will come in the spring and plant around in a few places for picking in a couple of years :) Failing that I'll buy a few plants and plant in the wild away from the house the flowers do stink. After weeks of searching found lots all planted around a supermarket carpark, to much pollution to use though, one bush was away behind the supermarket and away from traffic and used 220g which was enough to add to a wow.

 

[AdrianTrace]

I made an elderberry wine a few years back, but it came out fairly undrinkable: so thick with tannins that a glass would take hours to drink. It got shoved to the back of the wine store under the stairs and left.

Roll on 4 years and we moved house, so needed to empty the cellar. The demijohns each had about an inch of sediment (having been stabilised, fined and racked before storage), and were very nice to drink. Definitely worth aging elderberry, if you can.

Sent from my thl 5000 using Tapatalk

 

[Zephyr259]

Cool, my port was made with the juice of berries simmered for 15 minutes then strained without crushing or pressing. From what ive heard this can result in a huge ammount of tannin. The berries were then added to a FV with a kilo of sugar and some additives to make a 2nd gallon of lighter wine. Recipe says to age each at least 6 months so won't be ready til June. Going to experiment some more with them next year as we have a heap of them near here.

 

[Gunge]

I get all mine from our garden, it's like a bladdy jungle round here. Ferment on the pulp then pass thru' muslin - no pressing or squeezing. High tannin still but 2 years in storage sees to that. About 14% alc and as smooth as a smooth thing on National Smooth Day during a particularly smooth year.

 

[Irish]

I get all mine from our garden, it's like a bladdy jungle round here. Ferment on the pulp then pass thru' muslin - no pressing or squeezing. High tannin still but 2 years in storage sees to that. About 14% alc and as smooth as a smooth thing on National Smooth Day during a particularly smooth year.

Loving the smoothness of your reply... Real smooth!! ;-)

 

[dublin12]

Binned my elderberry / WoW yesterday. Never ever again.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

That is one of the reasons i don't make wine from picked ingredients, all the faffing about making it and then waiting months for it to age only to find its not very nice, hats off to those that do but its not for me.

.

 

[Tau]

Binned my elderberry / WoW yesterday. Never ever again.

You were a little impatient with it, takes almost two years before it's drinkable with the amount of elderberry you used. It has such a distinctive flavour not everyone likes, best when blended with other strong flavoured fruits like blackberry or sloes. Really you can get away with just 250g of fresh berries if adding grape juice or blackberries, still a year in the bottle before drinking.

Funny that youngs often suppliment their red grape kits with elderberry juice with grape, you or others may have noticed when looking at the ingredients if you've ever bought them.

 

[Gunge]

Yup, two years and it should be good. Don't be tempted to open a bottle before then. It undergoes a miraculous metamorphosis in that time. Longest I left some was 5 years. Every time I went to open a bottle I changed my mind, seemed terrible to sup something in an hour or two that had been there for five years. But once the first one was reluctantly cracked, well the floodgates opened up and that batch is but a memory, sob!

 

[dublin12]

If I hadn't put in the cherry lowicz I would have kept it going.. Getting to an age where 5 years for a drink seems 4.8 years too much :smile:

 

[alvin]

Additional considerations for improving an Elderberry recipe include: using a yeast such as Lalvin K1V-1116 for increased fruitiness, adding Sloe Berries for bitterness, Currants for vinosity and Apple Juice for a faintly sweet note.


In a 25 Litre plastic FV I use 750 grams dry Elderberries (or equivalent fresh), 150 grams dry Sloe Berries, 6 kg Currants, 3 litres AJ and 18 litres water (no RGJ). Add 1.9 Kg sugar for 13.5% abv.


Made with the cold method (no heating of fruit, which is thrown in whole -- chopping / mincing is unnecessary and complicates post-ferment racking), additions (pectolase, tartaric acid, nutrient, Vit B1 tabs) and sugar all thrown in dry, all fermentation in the primary FV (airlocked after 5+ days), then syphoned through nylon netting (curtain type, secured around cup / wand with elastic band) into demijohns (quick and easy near-total extraction of the wine).


I tried various Elderberry wine recipes / methods over the years and found that this recipe / method consistently produces a superb medium-bodied red (better than most commercial reds) that is not obviously Elderberry in taste and is far greater than the sum of its parts. Making an excellent and authentic red wine cost-effectively really can be almost as easy as making a juice wine.

 

[dublin12]

This looks marvellous - how long does it take for the wine to reach good drinkability ? Also any particular currants ?

 

[GDog]

yikes, that's about £18 worth of currants - I've saved this, and will wait till the elderberries are back on the trees, I've used the 10lbs I had frozen..

Sounds lovely though, thanks for sharing.

Al

 

[Tanzanite]

I have been making wine to a excellent quality for 30 years and never boiled any thing only banana for a short period to add body to a dessert wine, pouring of boiling water, over fresh or frozen fruit the using pectilose to extract the juice all ways works fine, boiling is to be avoided if possible, Elderberry is a better mixer than a wine on its own, but can produce a very nice drink with plenty of aging, i make a full bodied oaked red with a mixture of soft fruits , elderberries , some rioja concentrate and a good shot of oak