Violet Wine (& Mead)

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Violet wine is a simple springtime floral wine, made with either cultivated or wild violets. Common garden pansies are a type of cultivated violet and can be used to make pansy wine with this same recipe.

Prep Time30

Fermentation Time60

Total Time60 30

Course: Wine

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Floral Wine, Flower Wine

Servings: glasses (1 gallon, about 4 bottles)

Author: Ashley Adamant

Equipment

Ingredients

1 quart violets loosely packed
6 cups cane sugar 1/2 to 1 cup less less if using grape juice
A few blueberries, for coloring optional, for color
white grape juice, 4 to 6 cups for body, with sugar wine only
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 cup lemon juice can substitute 1 tsp acid blend
⅛ tsp tannin powder
Wine Yeast see note
Water to fill
Optional Campden Tablet and Potassium Sorbate for Stabilizing (I do not use these)

Instructions

Begin by cleaning your violets of all their green parts. Move flowers to your primary fermentation vessel.
Bring a few quarts of water to a boil and add sugar, stirring to dissolve. Add blueberries for coloring if desired. Let cool.
Once cool, pour over violets. Next, add the lemon juice (or acid blend), wine tannin, yeast nutrient and white grape juice (if using).
Add the wine yeast last. Rehydrate first for 10 minutes in a small portion of water before adding.
Top your carboy with enough water to bring the level to just below the top of the carboy and seal with a water lock.
Ferment in primary for 7 to 10 days.
Siphon to a clean carboy for secondary, leaving the sediment behind and straining out the flowers.
Add enough water to bring the level up to the neck of the carboy and ferment for 2 to 3 months (4 to 6 months for mead). If needed, rack the wine again during this time to discard the sediment and help with clarity.
At the end of secondary, sample the wine. If needed, adjust to taste. See notes for backsweetening.
Siphon the wine into bottles and seal with wine corks.
Let age for 6 months or longer.

Notes

Ingredients

You’ll need about 1 quart (4 cups) of loosely packed violets to make a one-gallon batch of violet wine. Be sure to select unsprayed violets that are pesticide and chemical-free. No need to remove the green flower bases in this wine, as they're edible and just fine in the wine without adding bitterness.

Some choose to add 4 to 6 cups of white grape juice to give flower wines more body (this isn't necessary for mead, as honey naturally gives wine body). If doing so, you may wish to reduce your sugar in the recipe by ½ to 1 cup. Either ¼ cup lemon juice or an acid blend may be used.

Yeast

For violet wine, some good yeast choices include Red Star Cote des Blancs, Lalvin D47 or Lalvin K1-V1116. See notes within the article for the specific qualities of each yeast.

Stabilizing and Back Sweetening ~ If the wine seems to dry at the end of secondary, you have the option to backsweeten. First, rack to a clean container and stabilize the wine by adding 1 Campden tablet and ½ teaspoon potassium sorbate. This will kill off the yeast, ensuring there will be no continuing fermentation in your bottled wine (rapid ferments may cause bottles to burst). Wait 24 to 48 hours before adding sugar.

Sugar should be added in the form of a simple syrup made by heating equal parts water and sugar. For a one-gallon batch of wine, start with ½ cup sugar.

See notes within the article for further info regarding stabilizing and back sweetening.

Nutrition