Homebrewing French Lilac Wine

In the continuing saga of my wild botanical homebrewing endeavors, I was enjoying the lilac flowers a while back, and decided to brew something with them. I looked through a few lilac cordial recipes before finding this French lilac wine recipe from Leslieland that was exactly what I was looking for:
http://leslieland.com/2009/05/lilac-wine/

Her description was impressive, especially following her opinion that homemade wine is usually awful; “It was sweet and not sweet at the same time, full-bodied but not
cloying, wonderfully aromatic of lilacs, sort of like – well, not like
anything.” If this homebrew non-believer had been converted by this wine, I clearly needed to make it.

One of the things I liked about the recipe was the primary fermentation occurring in a crock. I had been meaning to get a crock for fermenting sauerkraut for some time (I had just been doing it in the quart jars) and this was the perfect excuse. Once I brought it home, there was just something very comforting about having a crock sitting on the counter. The Montrachet yeast was very active, and it made little fizzing sounds out from under the piece of loose foil I put over the top.

 I got it siphoned into the carboy after a week of bubbling away in the crock, and let it ferment about three months until activity ceased.

Since I failed to taste the wine when I was putting it into the carboy to ferment, bottling day was filled with anticipation. I was not disappointed, and the wine has an amazing floral flavor different from any other I’ve tried. It’s close to a white dessert wine, but that flowery lilac essence is very distinctive. From what I hear, this wine gets better and better with age, so I’m going to wait a year before I open a bottle to give it another taste. 

Lilacs are fleeting, they bloom for a few weeks and then you have to wait another year to enjoy them, but I think I’ve figured out a great way to enjoy the lilacs all year round. I won’t lie, I’m feeling pretty darn pleased with myself as a botanical homebrewer right now.

Cheers!