Elderflower champagne – cuvée 2015

Flowering of elder started already at the end of may in La Ville Heleuc – it’s time to start the 2015 vintage of elderflower champagne.

The moon calendar showed up flower days on sunday and monday. Ideal to start. Unfortunately the sun did not show up sunday and wether was rather wet, so I had to wait for monday to pick up the 78 required elder umbels (see recipe below)..

Fortunately the spring harvest of honey was over and the extractor available. It is made of stainless steel, has the good size and a tap to extract on the bottom. Once the elderflowers covered with water and lemons, sugar and vinegar added, I just had to turn the whole vigorously.

For 5 days the preparation will be turned three times a day, then we will filter and bottle the champagne (best is a fruit day in the moon calendar). Three weeks later we should be able to toast!

Here are the quantities for about 30 bottles

• 26 elder umbels
• 6 organic lemons cut into 4
• 2,4 kg of organic sugar
• 6 tablespoons of organic cider vinegar
• 24 liters of water