Gorse Flower Wine

Townie · Gorse Flower Wine

On my way home from work tonight I noticed the gorse down here is in full bloom..

If memory serves me correct I think Diana made some either last year or the year before..

Is it worthwhile making ? or has anyone else made it? and does it have a nice taste ?

Townie

Oh and does anyone have the recipe

please

JamesB

funny, i was just sitting down to a glass of gorse wine when I read this.
I have to admit, its not my favourite wine by a long way but it is very intense and flowery.
Its also a real pain to pick the flowers!

If anyone wants to try either gorse or broom wine then we still have lots left from our over production in 2005, the only snag is you have to pick it up from us!

James

P.s for me at least, the only flower wine thats really drinkable and worth the effort is elderflower but thats just my personal taste.

wildgarlic

Not tried gorse flower wine but did like Pauline's rose petal wine.

Julie

I made rosehip wine one year from our Rosa Rugosa bushes. I added the petals too for fragrance (saved them as they died back in the freezer till I had loads) It wasn't all that popular - folks either liked it or hated it. It smelled of turkish delight, which I thought was wonderful, but I guess it was a bit unexpected for most people.
If you try it, don't do the stupid thing I did....I stuck my nose in a glassful and sniffed hard to enjoy the smell. The wine went right up my nose and oh boy, did it sting for ages afterwards.........prat

I used to make gorse wine too, I got everyone in the family to fill a jug with the gorse flowers so it wasn't too arduous a job for one person. The whin has a fantastic coconut scent when it's in bloom. Broom is a poor, but usable, substitute and has no fragrance that I'm aware of.
A really great book, if you can get your hands on it, is Margaret Vaughan's 'Fruity Passions'. It was from a TV series back in the eighties (we're veterans at this - I'm using my mums old demijohns and equipment) and it has a few other recipes for using the fruit pulp etc too. She is very old school about the whole business and doesn't use any chemicals - just good old fashioned hygiene. Most of all, it is a friendly book and the warmth of the author shows through. I can't say enough good things about it, if you spot a copy, snap it up. Get me to show you my copy if you're over here.

Diana

Yep, I made some last year - not tried it for a while, but when bottled it was one of the best I've ever made. Kind of painful picking them.

Recipe is roughly:
2litres gorse flowers (roughly packed into jugs to measure - I think it was 2 carrier bags full unpacked)
1kg sugar
2 lemons
2 oranges
4.5 litres water
yeast

Simmer flowers in water for 15 mins
Then add sugar to disolve.
Pour into a bucket and add the juice and peel of the citrus.
Cool to blood temp and add the started yeast. Cover with a cloth and leave for 3 days.
Strain into a demijohn and leave to ferment out.
Rack off into clean demi john and leave for a month. Then filter and bottle, of leave until clear and then bottle.

Add more sugar if you like sweet wines.

Can add ginger to this too (not tried that yet).

The above is probably a rough adaptation of Roger Phillips recipe from Wild Foods