Rose Petal Wine - The Making Of ...

This is a wine I have not made before and is one that I have been planning since June last year. Mom has a purple-pink rose in her garden that has a heavenly scent, and which immediately suggested ‘wine experiment’ to me. I have heard encouraging things about rose petal wine from other people, so thought I would try it for myself. Therefore, since late May I have been clipping roses from our garden that were just starting to look past their best.

We have three roses - two whites, which we ordered from vouchers given to us by Betty Rumsby as a wedding present, and a red that was here when we arrived. All are heavily scented. And Mom has been on strict instructions to freeze her roses as they started to fade.

Until today, 3^rd July, I have been concerned about how effective freezing rose petals would be. Each time I have opened the bag containing frozen petals there has been an odd smell. Not entirely unpleasant, but certainly not rose-like. The bag was starting to take up more room in our (far too small) freezer than it merited, so I think Claire was pleased that I began this wine today.

C J J Berry’s recipe calls for four pints of rose petals, but in fact I got four and a half. The quantity was evenly shared between flowers from our garden and those from my mother’s. And there were three or four different types of rose from Mom’s garden, including one that was pink and white candy-striped.

I put the petals in the bucket along with 2 ½ lbs sugar, juice from one lemon and a litre of white grape and peach juice drink. I poured over six pints of boiling water and I am now more hopeful than I was before. Whilst freezing white petals has sent them brown, the scent from the bucket is promising.

I added the yeast and a teaspoon of nutrient on Monday morning, 4^th July.

The flowers, having turned near grey, were sieved out on Sunday 10^th July. But the liquid in the demijohn is an attractive orangey-pink. I had to add less than half a pint of tap water and I have wrapped the demijohn in silver foil because I do not know how stable the colour will be. It all smells delightful, and I am possibly more excited that I should be about this wine.