Rose Petal & Strawberry Wine

You will need

• Scented rose petals (white heels trimmed)1 L loosely packed
• Strawberries0.8 kg
• Sugar1.2 kg
• Pectic enzymeper dose
• Wine yeast + nutrient1 sachet
• Waterto 4.5 L

Picking it at the right moment

• Rose petals

  Cup a bloom and smell it — pick when fully open and the scent is at its strongest; a faint smell means wait or choose another.

• Strawberry

  Ripe when red all over including around the shoulders, and fragrant — a white or green tip means underripe, and they barely ripen after picking.

Method

1. 1

   Sanitise. Use only unsprayed, strongly scented petals; trim the bitter white heel from each. Hull the strawberries.

2. 2

   Crush the strawberries under 2.5 L cooled boiled water; add pectic enzyme when cool, then the petals.

3. 3

   Pour water boiled and cooled to just-warm — not hot — over them to protect the rose scent; steep the petals only 24 hours.

4. 4

   Add the sugar dissolved warm; top to 4.5 L (reading ~1.086); pitch the yeast and nutrient; ferment cool.

5. 5

   Ferment on the pulp two days, strain, rack and clear.

6. 6

   A pale-pink, romantic summer wine of rose and strawberry.