Q. I have been making dandelion wine the past 15 years. The first three years I entered it in a wine competition and won gold medals and even a Best of Show. My sister and I were complete novices, so we were shocked. For many years afterward, the wine continued to turn out beautifully. Unfortunately, the last two vintages have been disappointing. Two years ago, five of our six carboys turned brown while only one remained perfect. From last year’s batch, almost every bottle is carbonated and fizzes when opened. We can’t figure out what went wrong. I don’t want to repeat these mistakes in the future. Any ideas?
Pat Slater
via email

A. One of the things I love most about your question is that it reminds us that winemaking didn’t begin with grapes.

For centuries, long before more people had access to vineyards, families throughout Europe and later North America were making what became known as “country wines.” Country wines were created from whatever the local landscape offered: Elderflowers, blackberries, rhubarb, rose hips, nettles, tree saps, herbs, roots, and, of course, dandelions. These homemade beverages were often seasonal traditions, eagerly anticipated each year and passed down through generations.

Dandelion wine is perhaps the most famous of them all. Many readers will immediately think of Ray Bradbury’s novel Dandelion Wine, which used the beverage as a symbol of preserving summer itself in a bottle.

Unlike grapes, however, dandelions don’t contain enough sugar to make wine on their own. The flowers contribute aroma, flavor, color, and a distinctive honeyed-herbal character, but the fermentable sugars usually come from cane sugar, honey, raisins, citrus juice, or another supplemental ingredient. In many ways, country wines require the winemaker to build the balance that grapes naturally provide.

The fact that you enjoyed more than a decade of success before running into trouble tells me something important: Your basic process works. When a wine that has been consistently successful suddenly begins misbehaving, I usually look first for changes in handling, storage conditions, equipment, or microbial stability.

Let’s start with the browning issue.

Dandelion wine is relatively delicate. Unlike red grape wines, it contains very little tannin, which means it has fewer natural defenses against oxidation. Browning is often one of the first visible signs that oxygen has gotten the upper hand.

What catches my attention is that five carboys browned while one remained sound. If every vessel had oxidized equally, I’d suspect a recipe issue. Since one stayed healthy, I’d be more inclined to investigate differences among the containers themselves.

Take a close look at your carboys, bungs, airlocks, tubing, and siphons. Small leaks can allow oxygen to enter slowly over time. Excessive headspace can also accelerate oxidation, particularly during long aging periods. If you’ve been using the same equipment for many years, worn rubber bungs or aging plastic components may be worth replacing.

I’d also review your sulfite practices. Sulfur dioxide is one of the most valuable tools available to home winemakers, particularly when working with delicate flower wines. Sulfites help protect against both oxidation and spoilage organisms.

One possibility that is often overlooked is the age and condition of the sulfite source itself. If you’re using Campden tablets or fast-dissolve sulfite tablets, take a close look at the packaging. I’ve seen situations where foil packets were punctured, poorly sealed, or had absorbed moisture over time. Sulfite products that are damp, improperly stored, or simply very old can lose potency. A winemaker may think they’re adding the same protective dose they’ve always used when, in reality, the sulfite source has degraded significantly.

Storage conditions matter as well. A wine stored at warmer temperatures will age and oxidize much faster than one stored in a cool cellar.

Now let’s talk about the fizzing bottles.

In a wine intended to be still, carbonation almost always means that fermentation restarted after bottling. Somewhere along the line, yeast found enough sugar and opportunity to wake back up.

Country wines can be deceptive in this regard. Because they often have different nutrient levels and acid balances than grape wines, fermentations can proceed more slowly and less predictably. A quiet airlock doesn’t necessarily mean fermentation has finished.

For many home winemakers, one useful tool is the old Clinitest tablet method. Originally developed for diabetic urine sugar testing, Clinitest tablets became popular among home winemakers decades ago as an inexpensive way to check whether residual fermentable sugar is still present in a finished wine.

For a true numerical answer, consider sending a sample to a commercial wine lab for residual sugar analysis. It costs more than a Clinitest tablet, but it’s considerably less expensive than losing an entire vintage to bottle refermentation.

If you’re intentionally leaving any residual sweetness in the finished wine, stabilization becomes particularly important. Potassium sorbate, used together with SO₂ and filtration, can help prevent renewed fermentation in the bottle.

Because you’ve experienced two different problems in consecutive years, I’d also take a hard look at sanitation. Old tubing, scratched plastic buckets, bottling equipment, and hard-to-clean fittings can harbor microorganisms that are invisible to the eye but capable of creating issues later.

Nothing you described sounds mysterious or catastrophic. In fact, your long history of success suggests the opposite. You already know how to make great dandelion wine — the challenge now is simply identifying which variable changed.