Choke Cherry Wine

[Prairie Wine]

We started a batch of choke cherry wine on Friday. We had to mush the cherries and they're tough little things. I did some of it with my hand in a plastic bag, but we don't have a picture of that.

[Prairie Wine]

Then we ground up the raisins.

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We put it all in a bag in the primary.

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Then sweet husband, Bert, did the acid work. And that was a lot of work!

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Here's the dessert wine, 8 pounds of fruit per gallon.

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And here's the dinner wine, 4 pounds per gallon. It smells great in there, too!

[Hippie]

yum...

That looks very tasty and yummy!

[Prairie Wine]

Next Step

We pulled the pulp bags last night. In the picture the dessert wine is what is on the left and on the right is what was in the bags. We tasted the dinner wine and it is so good! Even if we just ended up with this juice I'd be happy. But I'm sure the wine will be even better!

[Hippie]

...how 'bout......

Ever think about making a 2nd wine with all that leftover pulp?

It is usually made with juice or concentrate and half the volume of the 1st wine, lower alcohol, acid, and tannin, finished sweeter. It is meant to be drank earlier while waiting for the original batch to age. Just put the pulp right back into the primary fermentation vessel as soon as the 1st is racked to the secondary fermentation vessel, make up the must, and VOILA! It will start fermenting within minutes. It is advisable to take the pulp out and squeeze lightly after only 1-2 days, 3 at the most. Finish normally.

[Prairie Wine]

In the past we've discussed doing that, but with the holidays coming we're about as busy as we can be with wines. The choke cherries, being as labor intensive as they are would be a good place to try it though. Maybe next summer...