The Mrs. and 3 Year (left) and 4 Year (right) old Elderberries Flowering in WV

We started making country wines in 1996 in our little townehouse from fresh fruit and concentrates. We made an elderberry from concentrate, and while it was ok, it wasnt great. It wasnt until we moved back out into the countryside and had a real Wineyard where we could grow our own berries that our elderberry winemaking started to really take off.

In 2004 we bought our first elderberry bush, but we didnt have a pollinator and so didnt get any fruit. In 2005 we added another elderberry and together they produced 9 pounds of berries. I believe they are most likely a Johns and an Adams. We picked the berries and stripped them off by hand and we made our first batch of homegrown elderberry wine using Pastuer Red yeast. It was oaked, and back sweetened a little with welches grape concentrate. It turned out surprisingly good young, probably due to the modest amount of tannins released from such a small amount of berries. We took it to some expert tasters and they thought it was good, but that it needed more body. Future batches will have at least 3 lbs of fruit for body but will likely take more time to age before being drinkable.

In 2006 we expanded our Wineyard to more than 30 Elderberry bushes, Sambucus Canadensis varieties Johns, York, Adams, Nova, and a Sambucus Nigra European variety, Sampo. The Elderberry Improvement Project at the university of Missouri has tested many Elderberry cultivars and described two new American varieties called Wyldedwood 1 and 2. We plan on growing these in our WV Wineyard to compare with the other varieties. We have also ordered some golden colored S. Nigra Elderberries called Greenberre to make a white elderberry wine.

I put this page together to localize as much information about growing Elderberries, harvesting the berries easily and making wine with them. There are links to the safety of eating elderberries, the elderberry improvement project, Mr. Jack Kellers winemaking website with recipies and to the winepress.us and other forums where you can learn a great deal about not only making elderberry wine but everything about making any wine.
Cracked Cork in WV

The Elderberry Forrest, Bushes are in Their Second Season of Growth and now under drip irrigation in the WV Wineyard June 2007