elderflower wine question

[BernardSmith]

I make a batch or two of elderflower wine every year. This last batch which is just about ready for bottling and which I want to make sparkling is a little disappointing. The flavor of the elderflowers is less intense than usual and that may be because this time I used clover honey as the fermenting sugar.
I typically use 2 oz of dried flowers to a gallon and about 2.5 lbs of sugar (this time honey). The yeast was 71B. ABV is about 12%.
I am thinking of adding some acid blend to kick the flavor forward a bit or perhaps (that "or" might be an "and") add a tea made of two additional oz of the flowers steeped in a a pint of boiling water for a few hours. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Deezil]

I would try the tea first, if you don't think aging will bring out the characteristics of the flowers already used. I've never made a flower wine though, not yet.

Did the honey smother it? Blackberry honey would be a good match for a flower wine, but that's good ol hindsight for ya lol

 

[BernardSmith]

Elderflower wine - as I normally make it has a delicious intense flavor. The honey seems to have smoothed out the edges of the flavor in ways that hide or diminish the specific floral characteristics of the wine. Traditionally, people who make elderflower wine don't age it at all. In fact they bottle it before the fermentation has ended so that the wine is very effervescent (and often explodes bottles)... I have always aged the wine and made a still version and the flavor neither increases nor fades. This time it is simply not there. Haven't measured the TA yet but given the fact that I used honey it ought not to be very low and yet the wine tastes as if the pH is high (low acid)... Cannot make sense of this. But I think I agree with you, Manley and will make a pint or so of strong elderflower tea and add that to the carboy. Cannot hurt...

 

[salcoco]

try some bench trials with sugar syrup. Sweetening the wine can bring forward the flavor.

 

[BernardSmith]

try some bench trials with sugar syrup. Sweetening the wine can bring forward the flavor.

That is a possibility but this batch I had planned on making sparkling and so wasn't really planning on stabilizing... but I guess I could ... um.... try Stevia or some other non fermentable sugar