The Bay Area’s food and wine scene is, of course, world-class and often pretty innovative. A new Oakland winery is producing a vintage like no other where flowers — not grapes — are the star of the bottle. Cornell Brand; KGO-TV

Free Range Flower Winery (“FRFW”) is a family-owned urban winery located in Oakland, California, that produces one of a kind hand-crafted wines in small batches from organic, locally sourced flowers.

Founders Aaliyah Nitoto and Sam Prestianni had been considering the idea of turning Nitoto’s passion for making flower wines into a bona fide business for several years.  With the release of their first wine, a lavender wine called “L“, they’ve made their dream a reality.

What is Flower Wine?

Flower wines (a.k.a “country” wines) have been made using different combinations of fruits, herbs, and flowers from the garden to make wine using fruits, herbs, and flowers to make wine instead of grapes.

Wine has been made from flowers for centuries.  The first record of a true flower wine, made from chrysanthemums, comes from Ancient China’s Han Dynasty. Regarded to this day as an “auspicious wine,” it’s the celebratory beverage of choice at the country’s annual Double Ninth Festival.  Other popular flowers used to make wine include dandelion and elderflower.

Essentially to make flower wine boiling water is poured over flowers to release their essence.  Thereafter, sugar, yeast and other ingredient are added to make wine.

Free Range Flower Winery winemaker Aaliyah Nitoto has developed a proprietary process that taken years to perfect using non-GMO sugar source.  According to Prestianni “literally no one else is making this kind of wine, and it took her years to perfect the recipe and all the complementary elements that give the wine its distinctive character. To me, it’s both a simple and complex combo to get it right, and she’s nailed it“.

Think of it as a marriage of the garden winemaking traditions of women from centuries past with the innovative spirit of today.

Florification take place on lees in pressurized unitanks, without filtration, or racking until the wine is bottled.  Florification (derived from flor-, the Latin root for flower) is a term for flower winemaking akin to vinification, which refers to the production of grape wine from fruit selection to fermentation to bottling. Lees are the yeast and other natural elements that settle at the bottom of the tank during the fermentation process.

The wines are hand-crafted in 25-gallon batches from locally sourced, organic lavender flowers and lemons—not grapes.  They are naturally effervescent.

How does it taste?

Refer to my Instagram post below for my tasting notes:

Trying something deliciously different tonight – Lavender wine- not wine infused with lavender – wine made from lavender and lemon. The lavender and lemon are locally sourced and organic. It’s pale pink with a floral, candied lemon, licorice and raspberry hard candy. On the palate off dry and fresh with candied raspberry, citrus, red licorice and a bit of juniper. It was great paired with an app of @cypressgrovers Purple Haze (Chèvre with lavender and fennel pollen) and citrus cured smoked salmon! Produced and bottled in Oakland, CA (a.k.a The Town) SRP- $30 500 ml #sample . . . #flowerwine #wine #winelover #organic #lavenderwine #oakland #visitoakland #winewriter #enofylzwineblog

A post shared by martindredmond (@martindredmond) on Aug 13, 2018 at 7:38pm PDT

According to FRFW…”Our lavender wine pairs well with savory, salty, and sweet entrées. It’s also an uncommonly delicious apéritif, dessert, or brunch partner and a dynamic ingredient in sparkling cocktails. Serve chilled in a champagne flute“.

The first-ever batch of “L” sold out at the winery’s launch party in Oakland recently.  Demand has been so high that FRFW has doubled its production capacity.  Going forward, they’re considering making wine from other flowers like rose, hibiscus, lilacs, and elderflowers.

FRFW’s “L” wine is a very enjoyable sip that’s worth trying, especially if you appreciate a bit of sweetness in your sparkling wine.

They do not currently have a tasting room, so customers are encouraged to order online and pick up their orders at one of our regularly scheduled special events (email info@freerangeflowerwinery.com for more information).  For online orders of three (3) or more bottles, they offer free home delivery for Oakland and Berkeley residents only.

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