I don’t know what it was about this spring, but it was all about the flowers. A friend mentioned to me that she was wanting everything flowery and colorful in her culinary endeavors, and I was right there with her on that. From lavender syrups, to rose petal jelly, to lilac wine, to calendula petals in my salad every day, I just wanted to infuse my life with flowers. After trying out a rose petal jelly recipe in June, I decided I didn’t want to stop there, and tackled a sparkling rose petal wine recipe that caught my eye. I came across this recipe on the And Here We Are blog (which is great by the way) and went for it on a flowery whim: http://andhereweare.net/2013/06/sparkling-rose-petal-wine.html/
First, I had to pick rose petals. A lot of rose petals. This worked out, because we have quite a few old climbing roses growing around this homestead.
Basically this is like a tea wine, where the plant is boiled and strained off leaving the remaining liquid to add sugar and yeast to. The rose petals faded considerably while they were boiling, which would have been really disappointing if I hadn’t read about the surprise involved in the recipe. (Yes, there is a surprise!!!) When the lemon juice was added in, it was nothing short of impressive to watch the reaction of the pale pink liquid bursting into bright pink. At this stage the wine was beautiful to look at, but I felt like it didn’t smell rosey enough. My variety of rose was likely less of a fragrant one, so I added in a little rosewater that I keep in the cabinet for cooking tasty desserts. This made a huge difference in the aroma flavor. This wine was definitely smelling like a rose!
To get the sparkling part to happen, I bottled the wine in flip top bottles after only a couple of weeks to let it keep fermenting and retain it’s bubbly personality. The bottles need to be stored in a cool place (our root cellar in this case) and “burped” periodically to avoid explosion. It’s a little high maintenance, but that sparkling aspect is completely worth it.
I have to say, this is my favorite thing I have ever brewed. It’s light and refreshing, tastes like a summer garden and the bubbles make it feel like you’re celebrating with something extra fancy. In fact, I think I will need to have a garden party in this wine’s honor! Summer is fleeting, but the flowers don’t have to be, so if you have an inclination to preserve or brew things for the winter, this will definitely keep summer going in your wineglass!
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