The country wine year runs from late spring to the first frosts, and it splits neatly into four seasons of picking: flowers in May and June, soft fruit through high summer, berries and orchard fruit from August to October, and the hard, late, frost-touched fruit of November. Each of those makes a different wine, and because one batch with our Hedgerow Wine Making Kit is a single gallon, about six bottles, you can take the year a fruit at a time rather than committing to a cellar of one thing. Here is what to pick when, and what each one turns into.
May and June: elderflower
The first wine of the year, and for many people the best reason to start. Elder comes into flower in late May and through June, in flat creamy heads with a heavy scent, and the window is short: once the flowers start to brown and drop they are past.
Pick on a dry, sunny morning, when the scent is strongest, and take the heads without the thick stalks. Shake them rather than washing them, since a rinse takes away much of what you came for. For a batch you want 30g of dried elderflowers, or about a pint of fresh flower heads if you are foraging your own.
Elderflower makes a pale, floral, faintly grapey wine that tastes like a summer evening and is the one guests always ask about. It is also a good first attempt, because there is no pulp to wrestle with.
July and August: garden soft fruit
High summer belongs to the garden and the allotment rather than the hedge. Gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, raspberries and strawberries all come in, usually faster than a household can eat them, and a glut is the traditional reason country wine exists at all.
Gooseberry is the connoisseur's choice here, sharp and structured. Blackcurrant makes something dark and almost port-like. Raspberry and strawberry are pretty but lighter, and they benefit from the optional extras the recipe table lists, such as raisins, to give the wine some body.
Rhubarb belongs in this stretch too, although it starts much earlier, from spring onwards. It makes a crisp, dry, surprisingly wine-like drink, and it is one of the few country wines that people mistake for a shop bottle.
August and September: blackberries and elderberries
This is the heart of the hedgerow year and the reason most people buy a wine kit in the first place.
Blackberries ripen from August and keep coming into September. Pick the fat, dull-black ones that come away with a gentle tug, and leave the shiny red ones another week. The wine is deep, dark and generous, and it is the classic first country wine for good reason.
Elderberries follow the flowers on the same trees, hanging in heavy purple-black bunches in late August and September. Strip them off the stalks with a fork, take out as much green stalk as you can, and be patient with it, because stalks bring bitterness. Elderberries are always cooked or fermented rather than eaten raw. The wine is the biggest and most tannic of the hedgerow wines and it rewards keeping.
Plums and damsons arrive at the same time. Remember that the fruit weights in the booklet are for stoned fruit, so take the stones out before you weigh.
September and October: apples, crab apples and windfalls
Orchard season, and the most abundant free fruit in Britain. Windfall apples, the ones with a bruise that make them unfit for a fruit bowl, are perfectly good for wine once you have cut out the damaged parts. Crab apples add sharpness and a little tannin.
Apple is high in pectin, which is exactly why the pectolase in the kit matters here, and the recipe table in the kit gives the quantities. It is worth saying that apple wine is often slow to clear, so patience and a careful racking off the sediment do more than any amount of fussing.
Pears, quinces and any garden glut of the same period slot in here as well.
October and November: rosehips, sloes and the late fruit
The hedge saves its most stubborn fruit for last. Rosehips turn scarlet through September and hold on well into November, and sloes, the small blue-black fruit of the blackthorn, are traditionally picked after the first frost. If the frost is late, a night in the freezer does the same job of softening the skins.
Both are fiddly and both are worth it. Rosehips make a wine with an unusual, almost apricot-like character, and sloe wine is dark and astringent when young and rounds out beautifully with time. Again, the recipe table in the kit gives the quantities.
Winter is for the root vegetable wines that fill old country recipe books: parsnip above all, which should be peeled and cut into small chunks before use. They are slow, they are odd, and they are very good.
How to pick, and how to bank a harvest
- Be certain what you are picking. Only ever pick something you can identify confidently, and take a reliable guide with you.
- Pick away from traffic and sprayed field margins, and leave plenty behind for the birds, who need it more than your demijohn does.
- Freeze what you cannot use. Frozen fruit makes good wine, and it lets you blend an August blackberry harvest with an October apple one. Defrost it thoroughly and bring it to room temperature first.
- Skip canned fruit. The flavour disappoints, the syrup makes sugar levels hard to judge, and some brands contain preservatives that stop the fermentation entirely.
Whatever the month, the process is the same four stages: a first fermentation with the crushed fruit in the liquid for about three days, straining off the fruit, a longer second fermentation under an airlock, then bottling and maturing. Keep the wine somewhere steady between 22 and 27 degrees Celsius and it will be ready in eight to twelve weeks. The kit's allergen line is contains sulphur dioxide and sulphites, every ingredient is listed on the pack, and if you have an allergy question, email hello@sandyleaffarm.com before ordering. Wine making is for adults aged 18 and over.
Hedgerow wine calendar FAQs
What is the best month to start making hedgerow wine?
September, because blackberries, elderberries, plums and early apples overlap, and a batch started then is drinkable by Christmas. June is the other obvious moment, for elderflower.
How much elderflower do I need for a batch?
Use 30g of dried elderflowers, or about a pint of fresh flower heads if you are picking your own. Pick on a dry, sunny morning and shake the heads rather than washing them.
Can I mix two fruits in one batch?
Yes. Take the two recipes and scale each in proportion, so a half and half blend uses half of each recipe's fruit and sugar. Blackberry and apple is a reliable starting point.
Do I have to wait for a frost before picking sloes?
It is the tradition, and frost softens the skins, but a night in the freezer does the same thing. Picking after the first frost also means the fruit has had longer on the bush.
How long does each batch take from picking to pouring?
Eight to twelve weeks with our hedgerow wine kit, most of which is simply waiting. Country wines usually improve further if you can leave them longer.
Fancy putting this year's hedge into bottles? Have a look at our wine making kits.
