How to Make Elderflower Wine: A Classic Country Recipe

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Every June, elderflower bushes erupt across the UK — in hedgerows, canal paths, park edges, and back gardens. For about three weeks, the creamy-white flower heads fill the air with a sweet, floral scent that smells exactly like summer should. Most people walk past them. Some make cordial. A few of us make wine, and once you’ve tasted a properly made elderflower wine — dry, crisp, and faintly honeyed — you’ll wonder why you ever bought Pinot Grigio.

Elderflower wine is one of the easiest country wines to make. The ingredients are mostly free, the process is forgiving, and the result is a genuinely impressive white wine that tastes nothing like the syrupy homebrew people imagine. Here’s how to make it from picking to pouring.

When and Where to Pick Elderflowers

Timing

Elder trees (Sambucus nigra) flower from late May to early July in most of the UK, with peak season typically in mid-June. Southern England gets flowers first, Scotland a week or two later. The window is short — individual flower heads last about two weeks before the petals begin to brown and fall.

Pick on a warm, dry day, ideally mid-morning after the dew has dried but before the afternoon heat. The flowers are at their most fragrant when freshly opened — look for heads where most florets are open but the tiny central buds haven’t yet gone brown.

Where to Find Them

Elder grows almost everywhere in the UK — hedgerows, woodland edges, canal towpaths, railway embankments, parks, and waste ground. Look for bushes with flat-topped clusters of creamy-white flowers on a shrub or small tree with compound leaves. The smell is unmistakable once you know it — sweet, muscat-like, with a hint of honey.

Where NOT to Pick

Busy roadsides — exhaust fumes and road grime coat the flowers
Recently sprayed farmland edges — pesticide residue
Dog-walking paths at nose height — use your imagination
Private land without permission — foraging on common land and public footpaths is legal under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, but picking from private hedgerows without permission is technically theft

The Woodland Trust has an excellent tree identification guide if you’re not sure whether you’re looking at elder or something else. Elder has a distinctive musty smell in the bark and compound leaves with 5-7 serrated leaflets.

How Much to Pick

For a standard gallon (4.5 litres) of wine, you need about 10-12 large flower heads. Pick generously — it’s better to have slightly too many than not enough. Shake each head gently before putting it in your bag to dislodge any insects. Bring a large carrier bag or basket, not a plastic bag that squashes the flowers.

Equipment You Need

You don’t need specialist equipment to start, but a few items make the process much easier.

Essential

Large food-grade bucket with lid (10-15 litres) — your primary fermenter. A home brew bucket from any brew shop costs about £8-12. A clean food-grade bucket from a hardware shop works too
Demijohn (4.5 litres) — glass or PET plastic. About £5-8 from brew shops or Amazon
Airlock and bung — fits into the demijohn neck. About £2. Lets CO2 escape during fermentation while keeping air and contaminants out
Siphon tube — about £3-5. For transferring (racking) wine between containers without disturbing the sediment
Muslin cloth or straining bag — for separating the flowers from the liquid
Bottles — 6 standard wine bottles per gallon batch. Save old wine bottles and buy new corks (about £5 for 30)

Nice to Have

Hydrometer — measures sugar content and lets you calculate alcohol percentage. About £5-8. Not essential for your first batch but useful for consistency
Wine corker — a hand corker makes bottling faster and more reliable than pushing corks in by hand. About £15-25
Campden tablets — sodium metabisulphite for sterilising equipment and stabilising wine. About £3 for 50 tablets

Our guide to homebrew starter kits covers what comes in a typical kit if you’d rather buy everything in one go.

Ingredients

For one gallon (4.5 litres / 6 bottles):

10-12 large elderflower heads — freshly picked, shaken free of insects
1.2 kg granulated white sugar — standard supermarket sugar. Don’t use brown sugar — it adds colour and flavour you don’t want in a delicate white wine
4 litres water — tap water is fine in most UK areas. If your tap water is heavily chlorinated, let it stand overnight or use filtered water
2 lemons — juice and zest. Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and prevents the wine tasting flat
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient — feeds the yeast and promotes clean fermentation. About £3 for enough to last dozens of batches
1 sachet wine yeast — a white wine yeast like Gervin No. 3 or Lalvin EC-1118. About £1 per sachet. Do not use bread yeast — it produces off-flavours and stops fermenting at lower alcohol levels
1 teaspoon pectolase (pectic enzyme) — breaks down pectin from the flowers, helping the wine clear. Optional but recommended

The Recipe Step by Step

Step 1: Prepare the Flowers

Strip the tiny florets from the green stems using a fork or your fingers. The green stems taste bitter and will taint the wine — remove as much green material as possible. This is the most tedious part of the process and takes about 30-40 minutes for a gallon batch. Put music on.

Don’t wash the flowers — the natural yeasts and pollen on the surface contribute to the flavour. Shaking off insects during picking is sufficient.

Step 2: Make the Must

Boil 2 litres of water and dissolve the sugar in it, stirring until completely clear. Pour this sugar syrup into your sterilised fermenting bucket. Add the remaining 2 litres of cold water. The temperature should now be warm but not hot — around 30-40°C is ideal.

Add the elderflower florets, lemon juice, lemon zest, and pectolase. Stir well. Cover the bucket with its lid or a clean tea towel secured with an elastic band.

Step 3: Add Yeast (Next Day)

Wait 24 hours for the pectolase to work, then sprinkle the wine yeast and yeast nutrient onto the surface. Don’t stir — let the yeast hydrate for 15 minutes, then give it a gentle stir. Replace the lid.

Primary Fermentation

Primary fermentation happens in the bucket and lasts 5-7 days. During this phase, the yeast is most active — consuming sugar and producing alcohol and CO2.

What to Expect

Within 24-48 hours of adding yeast, you’ll see bubbles forming on the surface and the liquid will develop a frothy cap. The smell changes from sweet and floral to yeasty and slightly alcoholic. This is normal and means fermentation is working.

Daily Stirring

Stir the must once daily for the first 5 days to keep the flowers submerged and ensure even extraction. Push the flower cap down with a sterilised spoon. The liquid will become increasingly fizzy and cloudy — this is the yeast at work.

Temperature

Keep the bucket in a warm room — ideally 18-22°C. Too cold (below 15°C) and fermentation slows or stalls. Too warm (above 28°C) and the yeast produces harsh off-flavours. A kitchen or airing cupboard works well for most UK homes.

When Primary Is Done

After 5-7 days, the vigorous bubbling slows. The flower heads have given up their flavour and colour. Time to strain.

Secondary Fermentation

Straining

Pour the must through a muslin cloth or straining bag into a sterilised demijohn. Squeeze the muslin gently to extract remaining liquid from the flowers, but don’t squeeze hard — excessive pressure extracts bitter compounds from the plant material. Discard the spent flowers (they make excellent compost).

Into the Demijohn

The demijohn should be filled to just below the neck — leaving about 3cm of airspace. If you’re short, top up with a little cooled boiled water. Fit the bung and airlock. Half-fill the airlock with water or sanitiser solution.

What Happens Now

The airlock will bubble as CO2 escapes — initially every few seconds, then gradually slowing over the following weeks. Secondary fermentation is gentler than primary — the yeast is still working but at a slower, steadier pace. The wine begins to clear as yeast cells and particles settle to the bottom, forming a layer of sediment called lees.

How Long

Leave the wine in the demijohn for at least 6-8 weeks. Don’t rush this — patience here is the difference between rough homebrew and something you’d proudly serve to guests.

Wine bottles stacked horizontally during aging

Racking and Clearing

First Rack (8 Weeks)

After 6-8 weeks, a thick layer of sediment will have settled at the bottom of the demijohn. Racking means siphoning the clear wine off the sediment into a clean, sterilised demijohn, leaving the lees behind.

Place the full demijohn on a table and the empty one on the floor. Insert the siphon tube into the wine, keeping the end above the sediment layer. Start the siphon (a gentle suck on the tube works, though auto-siphons are more hygienic) and let gravity transfer the wine.

Why Racking Matters

Wine sitting on lees for too long develops unpleasant flavours — a yeasty, bready taste that masks the delicate elderflower character. Racking removes the dead yeast and allows the wine to continue clearing.

Second Rack (Optional, 4-6 Weeks Later)

If the wine is still hazy after the first rack, leave it for another 4-6 weeks and rack again. Most elderflower wine clears naturally with one or two rackings. If it refuses to clear, a wine finings product (available from any homebrew shop for about £2) speeds the process. Our guide to making fruit wine covers fining techniques in more detail.

Bottling

When to Bottle

The wine is ready to bottle when:

It’s clear — you can read text through the demijohn when held up to light
Fermentation has stopped — the airlock hasn’t bubbled for at least 2-3 weeks
It tastes dry — no residual sweetness (unless you want a sweeter wine, in which case stabilise first)

The Process

Sterilise your bottles (rinse with a Campden tablet solution or use VWP cleaner)
Siphon the wine from the demijohn into bottles, leaving 2-3cm of headspace below the cork
Cork the bottles firmly — a hand corker makes this much easier
Label with the date and batch name

How Many Bottles?

One gallon produces roughly 5-6 standard 750ml bottles, depending on how much wine you lose to sediment during racking.

How Long to Age It

Minimum

Elderflower wine is drinkable after bottling, but it improves noticeably with age. At a minimum, leave it for 3 months before opening the first bottle.

Sweet Spot

6-12 months produces the best results. The floral notes round out, any remaining harshness from fermentation mellows, and the wine develops a complexity that fresh batches lack. A year-old elderflower wine served chilled is something special.

Maximum

Elderflower wine doesn’t improve indefinitely. After 2-3 years, the delicate floral character fades and the wine tastes increasingly neutral. Drink it within 18 months for the best flavour, though it remains perfectly safe for years beyond that.

Serving

Serve chilled, like a Sauvignon Blanc. Elderflower wine pairs well with light summer food — salads, fish, chicken, and soft cheeses. It also makes an excellent base for cocktails — elderflower wine spritz with soda water and a sprig of mint is summer in a glass.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Fermentation Won’t Start

Temperature too low — move the bucket to a warmer room. Yeast is dormant below about 15°C
Dead yeast — the sachet may be old or improperly stored. Add a fresh sachet
Too much sulphite — if you used Campden tablets to sterilise the must, wait 24 hours before adding yeast. Sulphite kills yeast if the concentration is too high

Wine Won’t Clear

Pectin haze — you didn’t use pectolase, or didn’t add enough. Add more at any stage and leave for a week
Starch haze — rare in flower wines but possible. An amylase enzyme treatment clears this
Suspended yeast — the wine needs more time. Move it to a cooler location (10-15°C) and wait. Cold helps yeast settle

Wine Tastes Too Sweet

Fermentation may have stopped before all the sugar was consumed. This happens if the temperature dropped or the yeast reached its alcohol tolerance. Add fresh yeast and move to a warm room. If the yeast has reached its limit (~14% for most wine yeasts), the wine will remain sweet — consider blending it with a dry batch or using it as a dessert wine.

Wine Tastes Too Dry or Harsh

Some elderflower wines finish very dry and slightly harsh. Back-sweetening helps: dissolve 50-100g of sugar in a little warm water, add gradually to the finished wine, taste as you go. Stabilise with a Campden tablet and potassium sorbate before back-sweetening to prevent re-fermentation in the bottle.

Wine Smells of Rotten Eggs

Hydrogen sulphide — produced by stressed yeast or a lack of nutrients. Rack the wine immediately to get it off the lees. A copper coin dropped into the wine (and removed after a day) can neutralise the smell in mild cases. In severe cases, the batch may be beyond rescue. The National Association of Wine and Beermakers has troubleshooting resources for common homebrew problems.

White wine being poured into chilled glasses

Variations and Experiments

Elderflower Champagne (Sparkling)

A lighter, lower-alcohol sparkling version. Use less sugar (800g instead of 1.2kg), ferment for a shorter period, and bottle while still slightly sweet. The residual sugar ferments in the bottle, creating natural carbonation. Use champagne bottles and wire cages — standard wine bottles can explode under pressure. This is not a beginner project.

Elderflower and Gooseberry

Add 500g of gooseberries (crushed) to the primary fermentation alongside the flowers. The gooseberries add tartness and body, creating a more complex wine that ages well. Pick gooseberries at the same time as elderflowers — they’re in season simultaneously.

Elderflower and Grape Juice

Replace 1 litre of water with 1 litre of white grape juice concentrate. This adds body and vinous character, making the wine taste closer to a conventional white wine with elderflower undertones. Good for people who find pure elderflower wine too delicate.

Dry vs Sweet Styles

The recipe above produces a dry wine. For a medium-sweet version, back-sweeten with 100-150g of sugar after fermentation, stabilising with potassium sorbate to prevent refermentation. For a sweet dessert style, use 1.5kg of sugar in the initial must — the higher sugar content will produce a higher alcohol wine that retains some sweetness.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does elderflower wine take to make?

From picking flowers to bottling takes about 3-4 months. Primary fermentation is 5-7 days, secondary fermentation is 6-8 weeks, plus another 4-6 weeks for clearing and a final rack. Add 3-6 months of bottle aging for the best flavour. You’re looking at about 6-10 months from flower to glass for optimal results.

Can I use dried elderflowers?

Yes, but the result is less aromatic than fresh flowers. Use about 30-50g of dried elderflowers per gallon. Dried flowers are available from herbalists and online shops year-round. Fresh flowers picked at peak bloom produce a noticeably more fragrant wine.

Is elderflower wine actually wine?

Technically it’s a country wine or flower wine rather than grape wine. It’s made by fermenting a sugar solution infused with elderflower flavour, using the same yeast and process as grape wine. The result tastes like a light, floral white wine and is served the same way.

What alcohol percentage does elderflower wine reach?

With 1.2kg of sugar per gallon and a standard wine yeast, expect about 12-14% ABV. A hydrometer reading before and after fermentation gives you the exact figure. The alcohol level depends on sugar content and yeast tolerance — most wine yeasts work up to 14-16% before stopping.

Can I pick elderflowers from public land?

Yes. Under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, you can pick wild flowers, fruit, and foliage for personal use from public land and common land in England and Wales. Don’t strip a bush bare — take a few heads from multiple trees rather than clearing one. Picking from private land requires the landowner’s permission.

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