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Cowslip Wine

Getting confident

In season April to May · makes 4.5 L · target OG 1.088

A classic English spring flower; delicate-infusion again, with a genuinely fleeting season.

Before you start. Use only garden-grown cowslips — wild cowslips are protected; do not pick them from the wild.

You will need

  • Cowslip flowers (garden-grown)1.5 L loosely packed
  • Sugar1.3 kg
  • Raisins, chopped250 g
  • Lemons, juice of2
  • Wine yeast + nutrient1 sachet
  • Waterto 4.5 L

Picking it at the right moment

  • Cowslip

    Use fully open, deep-yellow flowers (from cultivated plants only).

Method

  1. 1

    Sanitise. Cowslip is one of the oldest English wine flowers — soft, apricot-scented, a true taste of April. Use only GARDEN-GROWN flowers; wild cowslips are protected and must not be picked.

  2. 2

    Pick the flowers off their green calyces on a dry day. As with any flower wine, protect the scent: pour water boiled and cooled to just-warm over them and steep only 24 hours.

  3. 3

    Strain onto the sugar, chopped raisins and lemon juice; top to 4.5 L (reading ~1.088).

  4. 4

    Pitch the yeast and nutrient when cool; ferment cool to hold the delicate aroma.

  5. 5

    Ferment out, rack, clear and bottle.

  6. 6

    A pale, honey-and-apricot spring wine, gone almost as soon as it starts — pick while you can.

What this one teaches you

  • · Delicate infusion

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An original MakeWine recipe.