Dandelion Wine

Dandelion wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered...sealed away for opening on a January day with snow falling fast and the sun unseen for weeks...

― Ray Bradbury

A while back I posted about a terrific dandelion wine from the Maple River Winery.  As a Ray Bradbury fanatic (lunatic), I knew I had to get my hands on this mysterious wine mentioned in his novel with the same name.  In the book, it was sipped during the non-summer months to keep that season alive and well on cold winter days.  For me, it was always perfect on a hot summer day on the porch, served extremely chilled.  Well, the Maple River Winery closed its doors a couple years ago and the Bradbury tradition was no more.  We found a local winery that offered this unusual varietal, but unfortunately, they make their version with grapes and not entirely with dandelions, so it was a super sweet dessert wine that had none of the charm and mystery of Maple River's.

Recently, Jenna found a dandelion wine being sold by the Hidden Legend Winery.  I took a chance and ordered a bottle.  Happy to report that this is the stuff.  As they describe it on their site:

This is not your grandmother’s dandelion wine, but it’s pretty darn close. It’s been approvingly described as “delicate” and “grassy” but we just think of it as summer on a back porch in Montana. Hidden Legend Dandelion Wine is best-appreciated mid-afternoon, by itself, or with a very soft cheese.

A perfect description.  And four more bottles are on their way to chill those hot humid summer days that will soon be here.

The Hidden Legend site.

Summer Solstice

A whole summer ahead to cross off the calendar, day by day. Like the goddess Siva in the travel books, he saw his hands jump everywhere, pluck sour apples, peaches, and midnight plums. He would be clothed in trees and bushes and rivers. He would freeze, gladly, in the hoarfrosted icehouse door. He would bake, happily, with ten thousand chickens, in Grandma’s kitchen.

 

But now—a familiar task awaited him. One night each week he was allowed to leave his father, his mother, and his younger brother Tom asleep in their small house next door and run here, up the dark spiral stairs to his grandparents’ cupola, and in this sorcerer’s tower sleep with thunders and visions, to wake before the crystal jingle of milk bottles and perform his ritual magic.

He stood at the open window in the dark, took a deep breath and exhaled. The street lights, like candles on a black cake, went out. He exhaled again and again and the stars began to vanish. Douglas smiled. He pointed a finger. There, and there. Now over here, and here . . .

Yellow squares were cut in the dim morning earth as house lights winked slowly on. A sprinkle of windows came suddenly alight miles off in dawn country.

“Everyone yawn. Everyone up.”

- Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine

There are occasions...  and then there are occasions...  for Dandelion Wine.  And unlike a lot of places, the Maple River Winery uses nothing but dandelions for this amazing wine.  I tried some two years ago and it was really terrific.  Unlike any wine I had ever tasted.  I dare not even compare it to a Riesling like a lot of reviews do.  It's its own thing.  Sweet and almost nutty.  You KNOW you aren't drinking fermented grapes.

If there were a favorable usage for the word earthy, it would apply here.  I'll admit that Bradbury's 1957 novel has probably made my review pretty subjective, but I stand by my recommendation.  This is amazing wine.  And the first time I tasted it, I was sitting on the porch on an extremely hot day, listening to cicadas.  Now I know Bradbury's characters saved their dandelion wine for the non-summer months.  To capture Summer literally in a bottle.  But I can't think of a better time to drink a chilled glass of this stuff...  it has to be hot and humid.  And there must be summer bugs doing their thing.

Click here for the Maple River Winery IG.