Celebratory Platinum Jubilee wines

With just eight weeks until The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, running between Thursday 2 and Sunday 5 June 2022, there’s just enough time to get brewing and make yourself some homemade wines and even some ginger beer to help with the seventieth anniversary Bank Holiday celebrations.

If you need help organising a street party, The Eden Project’s Big Jubilee Street Lunch has a free planning pack to help you organise the event – you can even add it to the government’s list of events going on around the country.

But what about the wine?

The Queen has her own official Platinum sparkling wine for the event already. At £39 a bottle you can buy some of this ready-made English wine too, but if you want to make your own wines for the event then we can look to Liz’s favourite choices for inspiration.

Apparently she rather likes Mateus rosé (the Portuguese pink that comes in the flattened flask-shape bottle) and the slightly sweet German white wine known as Hock (named after the region around Hockenheim, now more famous for its motor racing circuit).

You can use wine kits, that come with all the ingredients, to make wines similar to these:

Cellar 7 Pinot Grigio Blush 30 bottle wine kit (was £35, down to £33)

On The House Riesling 30 bottle wine kit (was £44.99, down to £42)

But get going on starting these as soon as you can to allow enough time for the wines to finish fermenting.

Platinum wines

For an even closer match to the Platinum theme why not use the Solomon Grundy Platinum 30 bottle 7-day wine kits (down to between £33.99 and £35.95) with the choice of eight styles in red, white and rosé wines.

Their quick fermentation style will allow for a speedy wine making result but it’s best to allow a little extra time beyond the seven days in the just-in-case scenario. Get these started two weeks before you need them (starting by 23 May give or take a few days) so that your Platinum choice is really and truly ready for supping.

But of course you’ll be wanting to match the royal-inspired wine to your party food.

Try the Solomon Grundy Platinum rosé with Coronation Chicken – the dish served to The Queen and Prince Philip at the 1953 coronation banquet. The chicken’s spicy curry mayonnaise coating will need cooling down with this slightly sweet berry-tasting rosé.

But buffet party food needs an informal matching wine. Why not make the Solomon Grundy Platinum Pinot Grigio. A couple of bottles of this pear and nutty flavoured white served straight from the fridge (or cool box if you’re outside) will go down a treat. And for the jelly and ice cream get in the Solomon Grundy Platinum Chardonnay. Its smooth flavours can be made even more tasty by turning it into a fruity spritz – add a couple of strawberries and some tonic water to the wine for a long, and lower alcohol drink.

And if I don’t want the alcohol?

For a traditional street party celebration there must be lashings of ginger beer. And you can make that too!

It takes two weeks to make a non-alcoholic ginger beer (start by 18 May for an almost-zero alcohol drink, about 0.5%) or three weeks for the alcoholic version (start by 11 May) – the choice is yours.

The Mad Millie Ginger Beer Kit (was £29.99, down to £27.99) comes with a fermentation jar and most ingredients (you’ll need to add the sugar). Purchase the reusable glass flip-top bottles separately: Mad Millie Reusable Glass Flip-Top bottles 750ml x6 (£14.95)

If you like your ginger beer with a real fiery flavour then use dried powdered ginger, but you can also use grated fresh ginger root for a more subtle drink.

To find other Platinum Jubilee events going on then look for the hashtags #PlatinumJubilee or #HM70.