Gilly Flower Wine

This gillyflower wine recipe hails from the early 18th century, around 1725, a period when English households commonly infused wines and cordials with blossoms and fruit to create aromatic and festive beverages. Handwritten into manuscript collections, these recipes were practical guides for the well-supplied home cook or housekeeper, serving both as convivial treats and medicinal tonics. The distinctive flavor of gillyflower—actually clove pinks or carnations—was valued for both fragrance and color, with ingredients like sack (fortified wine), currant juice, and Rhenish (Rhine-region wine) marking a time when imported wines were fashionable status symbols.

In the 18th century, this recipe would have called for a large copper or brass cauldron to boil the sugar and water, a ladle to skim the scum, and a wooden stirrer. The cooling would occur in large ceramic or wooden tubs. Chopped flowers and ingredients were mixed in by hand, while fermentation took place in either stoneware jugs, wooden casks, or large glass demijohns (if available). Straining involved linen or muslin cloths and funneling into casks, sealed with wax or tight-fitted stoppers. Bottling was done into thick, re-usable glass bottles sealed with cork and sometimes wax.