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Swig of the Month

Hidden Spring Winery - A Bottle of Sunshine
Photograph by Benjamin Williamson

A Bottle of Sunshine

Hidden Spring Winery
1057 White Settlement Rd., East Hodgdon 207-532-0753


Why we dig it

In 1924, Richard Sloat’s family started farming just outside Houlton. Some 20 years ago, Richard’s wife, Jean, gave him a hobby winemaking kit. Two years ago, the couple opened a winery on the farm, using ingredients like chokeberries, elderberries, and rhubarb. And in the spring, the Sloats plop down in their fields to pluck dandelions. At breakneck pace, Jean says, she can gather a pound of the gossamer petals (no stems or leaves) in an hour. By midsummer the next year, those petals have become wine, sold at the scenic hilltop tasting room. The aroma is honeyed, the taste clean and dry with a mellow hint of sweetness. The color? Thoroughly dandelion.