I love Elderflowers and my grandad used to make the most amazing Elderflower wine. Like most traditional English Fruit Wines it was quite sweet and you drank it in sherry-type glasses rather than wine glasses. I think this was mainly to do with the strength of the stuff! He made all types of fruit wines, using whatever was left over on the farm, from rhubarb to pear.

I was reminded of this when watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall make elderflower champagne on River Cottage Spring last night - how fab would it be to toast your marriage with a completely authentic english drink. And at this time of year elderflowers are everywhere, the picture above was taken of some growing wild in our local park, so just think of that low carbon footprint! I’m going to try and make some, I’ll let you know how it goes, it looks pretty simple (famous last words!) but having never made wine before it could all go horribly wrong! If you are feeling brave there is the recipe on rivercottage.net but I’m going to follow the recipe on a blog called www.catstripe.co.uk It could be a great thing to do with friends and family before the wedding and think how proud everyone would feel to be drinking their own wine at your wedding reception - although you would have to okay this with the wedding venue. It might be good to have a contingency plan just in case! For sellers of fruit wines in the UK see:

www.yorkshirecountrywines.co.uk www.thesussexwinecompany.co.uk or www.pennardorganicwines.co.uk