Dandelion Wine
Seeing the cheery bursts of golden yellow Dandelion flowers in the garden, hedgerows and fields this April was a call to action, “make some Dandelion wine! “
Now the month of May is well under way it’s great to see the Dandelion “clocks” knowing that, unlike last year’s disappointment when nothing happened due to a lack of organisation, the wine is fermenting in the demijohn and Goldfinches are feasting on the ethereal puffs of delicate white feathery seedheads that provide an abundant food source for them.
The recipe
Dandelion Wine Medium Dry
Makes 4.5 litres (1 gallon)
I litre (2 pints) dandelion flowers
1kg (2.2 lb) bag of granulated sugar
2 oranges (preferably unwaxed)
1 sachet of wine yeast
4.5 litres (1 gallon) boiling water
Extra boiling water if needed for topping jar up
Method
Pick the Dandelions on a sunny day pressing the flowers down lightly as you fill the container.
The Burlands Cottage ones were picked on a scorchingly hot day on April 28th 2025.
I choose to remove as much of the green as possible from the flower heads to reduce the resinous taste that you’d get if you didn’t. This maybe thought of as a labour of love or just madness but it becomes quite meditative after a couple of hours! Even Ellie our cat seemed to find this time relaxing.
Put the flowers in a bucket (previously sterilised), pour on the boiling water.
Add the sugar, orange rind (or zest in this case), orange juice and sugar. Give everything a good stir with a sterilised spoon.
Leave to cool for a couple of hours then sprinkle the yeast on top, cover and leave for a couple of days stirring occasionally. Watch for the magic signs of fermentation.
After 3 or 4 days, using a piece of muslin, filter the juice into a pre-sterilised gallon container, seal with an airlock and leave until fermentation has finished. At this point, out of curiosity, Mark used a wine thief to see how it tasted, result - delicious but understandably very sweet.
Syphon into clean bottles when fermentation is finished, cork and try to leave for as long as possible as it improves with keeping. The Dandelion wine we’re currently drinking was made in 2023. Just for a bit of fun I designed a label for it to give it a bit of the gravitas I think it deserves.
Pretentious tasting notes
Jolly good! Especially out of the fridge on a hot day. Tastes like a dry sherry without the air miles!
Note: Dandelion Taraxacum Officinale. The name “Dandelion” comes from the old French name for the plant dent-de-lion, meaning “lion’s tooth”. There’s another French name “Pissenlit” (no need for translation here) that refers to its diuretic qualities. We’ve been drinking Dandelion wine for many a year and it hasn’t proved an issue yet…
The whole plant is one of nature’s great medicines, although many people see it as a weed it is an extremely useful herb as well as making a superb country wine.