We have opened the first bottle of Elderflower Champagne. It was a long time coming, but I thought that two years in the house, and having friends around for the weekend was good enough reason.

Unfortunately, despite being the first bottle opened, it was also the last complete bottle we have. We made 15 and a half in total, all of which except for this one and the other half bottle blew their corks and spewed their contents on the outhouse floor. Now we have only the half bottle left.

So was it worth the wait? It’s been corked up for eight months now, slowly maturing in the outhouse and gradually getting clearer as time went by.

We got five glasses out of that bottle, of which the first two were perfectly clear. Unfortunately its natural effervescence stirred up the sediment at the bottom of the wine, which clouded the other three glasses and may have contributed to their slightly rough flavour.

The result certainly wasn’t unpleasant, but I prefer our home brewed wine, which is smoother and more rounded. The elderflower champagne – the first I’ve tasted – was much sharper and a little bitter, and not quite the taste of summer I’d been hoping for.

But it was… interesting. Perhaps we’ll try again this year with a few subtle amendments.

Related posts:

1. The explosive elderflower champagne
2. Bottling the elderflower champagne
3. How to make Elderflower champagne