Rosehip wine is the last country wine of the year and the one that takes the most picking for the least fruit, which is exactly why so few people make it and why the ones who do keep coming back. The hips ripen scarlet through late September and hang on the hedge into November, they are small and hard and awkward to gather, and the result is a pale amber wine with an unusual apricot and tea character that has no shop equivalent at all. With our Hedgerow Wine Making Kit a batch is one gallon, about six bottles, ready in eight to twelve weeks. The recipe table in the kit gives the quantities.
What is a rosehip, and which roses give the best ones?
A rosehip is the fruit the rose leaves behind after the flower falls: a firm, glossy, orange-red pod holding seeds in the middle. Every rose makes them, but the ones worth gathering come from wild and near-wild roses in hedges and on waste ground rather than from a bedding rose in a border.
The dog rose gives the classic small oval hip, and it is the one most British hedges are full of. The Japanese rose, often planted along roads and on coastal banks, gives fat round hips the size of a cherry tomato, and if you can find a stand of it your picking time collapses. A mixture is fine. What matters more is that the hips are properly red and firm, and have not gone soft and wrinkled, which usually means they are past their best.
As with any foraging, be certain what you are picking, take only what you will use, pick away from busy roads and sprayed field edges, and leave plenty on the bush for the birds that depend on it through winter.
When should you pick them?
From late September, and traditionally after the first frost, which softens the hips and makes them easier to break down. If the autumn is mild and you would rather not wait until December, pick them firm and put them in the freezer overnight, which does the same job.
Freezing has a second advantage. Rosehip picking is slow work, so many people gather a bag over several walks, freezing each haul as they go, and start the wine when they finally have enough. Frozen fruit makes good wine as long as you defrost it thoroughly and let it come up to room temperature before it meets the yeast, since cold liquid will not ferment.
The hairs, and why straining matters
Inside a rosehip, around the seeds, is a mass of fine hairs. They are a genuine irritant, and generations of schoolchildren knew them as itching powder. This is the single reason rosehip preparations have always been strained through a fine cloth or muslin, and it is the one instruction you must not shortcut.
Practically, that means keeping the hips coarsely broken rather than blitzed to a pulp, straining the liquid carefully off the fruit when the recipe tells you to, and then straining again through something fine. Once the wine has gone into the demijohn for the second fermentation and you have racked it off the sediment, there is nothing left to worry about. It is simply worth doing properly at the start.
Wear gloves if your skin is sensitive, and wash your hands after handling the fruit rather than rubbing your eyes mid-job.
What does rosehip wine taste like?
Light in colour, somewhere between pale amber and rose gold, and lighter in body than a blackberry or elderberry wine. The flavour that people reach for is apricot, with something like a good black tea behind it and a gentle floral edge. It is naturally on the delicate side, which makes it a wine that suits being drunk cool.
Because it is delicate, two of the kit's ingredients earn their place here. Citric acid lets you sharpen the wine, which most country wines benefit from and crisp ones drunk cold benefit from most: add half a teaspoon at a time, taste as you go, and stop as soon as it is right, because sharpness is very hard to take back out. The recipe table also lists optional extras such as raisins to add body, which is worth considering for a wine this light.
How the batch runs
The same four stages as every country wine. A first fermentation, with the prepared fruit sitting in the liquid for about three days in a five litre food grade bucket with a lid. Straining the fruit off. A longer second fermentation in a five litre demijohn or a second bucket fitted with an airlock. Then bottling and maturing.
Keep it somewhere with a steady temperature between 22 and 27 degrees Celsius, out of direct sunlight and away from cold draughts and cold garages. Do not bottle until the airlock has gone quiet and stayed quiet, because bottling a wine that is still fermenting risks burst bottles. Rosehip wine will be ready in eight to twelve weeks and is better for longer, and once bottled you should drink it within a year.
The kit contains wine yeast, yeast nutrient, pectolase, finings (a very fine bentonite clay, with nothing animal derived in it), citric acid, a stabiliser tablet and a steriliser (sodium metabisulphite), with the recipe table. You add the fruit, sugar and water, plus the bucket, demijohn, airlock, siphon and bottles. The 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.
Rosehip wine FAQs
When are rosehips ready to pick?
From late September through to November, once they are properly red and firm. Tradition says pick after the first frost, and an overnight spell in the freezer achieves the same softening if the frost is late.
Do I have to remove the seeds and hairs?
You do not pick them out by hand, but you must strain thoroughly, because the fine hairs around the seeds are an irritant. Keep the fruit coarsely broken rather than pulped and strain through a fine cloth.
Can I use rosehips from a garden rose?
You can, provided the plant has not been sprayed. Wild and near-wild roses tend to give better hips, and the large round hips of the Japanese rose make picking far quicker.
What does rosehip wine taste of?
Pale amber, light bodied and dry, with an apricot note and something like black tea behind it. It suits being served cool, and a little citric acid sharpens it nicely.
How long does a batch take?
Eight to twelve weeks with our hedgerow wine kit, giving one gallon, about six bottles. Country wines usually improve if you can leave them longer.
Fancy the wine nobody else on your street is making? Have a look at our wine making kits.
