Bitter Orange Wine
This fortified wine is a traditional Provencal recipe made with bitter oranges when they are in season.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 bottles white or rosé wine
- 6 large bitter oranges
- 1 lemon
- 1 bottle neutral white alcohol such as vodka
- 1 kg brown cane sugar
Optional Flavouring
- cinnamon stick
- vanilla pod
- star anise
- clove
Instructions
- Wash the oranges and cut them into quarters.
- Place the fruit in a large glass jar (not metal) with the wine, alcohol, sugar and spices.
- Stir the preparation is then daily for a week with a wooden spatula to dissolve the sugar.
- Then, it is left to macerate in a cool, dark place (ideally in the cellar) for 40 days.
- Remove the fruit using a ladle. They can be reused to make marmalade.
- Filter first with a fine strainer to remove the largest particles, then a second time with a reusable plastic coffee filter.
- Fill the bottles with a funnel and label them. The wine can still age in the cellar.
Notes
Choose ordinary white or rosé wine – 5 or 6 euros per bottle and keep the empty bottles and corks to store your wine afterwards.
Neutral alcohol at 40/45 degrees lets you keep orange wine out of the fridge. You can use fruit alcohol or simply cheap vodka. In some European countries (in Italy), you can find 90-degree alcohol. In this case, a 50-cl bottle will suffice.
The most time-consuming part is removing the labels from the wine bottles!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!