Is lemon juice or another acid necessary for elderflower wine? If so then why is that?

[hounddawg]

a second look at elderflower, this time a wild variety collected in a wet area, and again a tea made with 50% distilled water/ 50% flowers (post #9 above was a domestic large berry variety from Edible Landscaping):
pH 6.06; TA 0.14%; gravity 1.013. . . ie numbers similar to domestic, no yeast nutrition

Flavor: it has a floral front with some bitter/ tannic note,,, there is another element which gloms on the taste buds and lasts, after an hour I can still taste it
Aroma: floral, hints of vanilla, attractive, unusual, I don’t have a similar food reference, no hint of cat pee.

when I pulled this plant I smelled first, it was floral/ attractive,,, and rejected another plant which was by a construction gate, that one I would describe as dairy/ butter notes, not floral

never had any elderflower wine, but as for the berries 1/2 the size of a pea or smaller and jet black, that's why elderberry wine must age so long, most everybody that tries young elderberry wine doesn't care for it, but aged long enough and man is it some fine country wine,,
Dawg

 

[winemanden]

a second look at elderflower, this time a wild variety collected in a wet area, and again a tea made with 50% distilled water/ 50% flowers (post #9 above was a domestic large berry variety from Edible Landscaping):
pH 6.06; TA 0.14%; gravity 1.013. . . ie numbers similar to domestic, no yeast nutrition

Flavor: it has a floral front with some bitter/ tannic note,,, there is another element which gloms on the taste buds and lasts, after an hour I can still taste it
Aroma: floral, hints of vanilla, attractive, unusual, I don’t have a similar food reference, no hint of cat pee.

when I pulled this plant I smelled first, it was floral/ attractive,,, and rejected another plant which was by a construction gate, that one I would describe as dairy/ butter notes, not floral

Re Elderflower smelling like cats pee. As I said it's just my impression. Everyone smells and tastes things differently, the main problem is describing it so that others understand what you're getting at.
Perhaps the element that gloms (whatever that means) that's exactly why we used to leave tasting elderflower wine until last. You never know what you're going to get. If we had an assistant when judging, that was one of their jobs, to smell the wines first and put the dodgy ones on one side.

 

[winemanden]

Dawg, What you said about aged Elderberry wine, just brought to mind an incident at a Local wine club show.
A fellow judge was talking to the winner of the Sweet red wine class. 'That was a really nice wine' he said. The winner replied 'Didn't you recognise it? It was the wine you tasted at the show 5 years ago. You told me to put it in the back of the cupboard and forget about it for ten years.' There you go!!!

 

[hounddawg]

Dawg, What you said about aged Elderberry wine, just brought to mind an incident at a Local wine club show.ke,,,
A fellow judge was talking to the winner of the Sweet red wine class. 'That was a really nice wine' he said. The winner replied 'Didn't you recognise it? It was the wine you tasted at the show 5 years ago. You told me to put it in the back of the cupboard and forget about it for ten years.' There you go!!!

patience is not just for making wine, it is the best ingredient after the finish is done, thank you for that, so many think aging is 1 to 5 years, and for most wines it makes good wine, but my personal opinion is 8 to 10 years is the way to got, and the only reason i started making DDDB & SP is to tied me over till then, and if i pass before it is time, well i hope it will be one killer of a wake,
Dawg