Cherry wine recipe, from Ian Ball's "
Wine making the natural way". This is the version including sugar, let me know if you want the sugar-free one.
Superb wine; glorious colour. Ready to drink 10 months after the fermented wine has been transferred to a storage vessel to clear and mature. Alcohol content about 14% by volume. Raisins give extra flavour, body and smoothness to this wine and nourish the wine yeast, encouraging maximum efficiency.
Ingredients (to make 1 gallon)
Black cherries 2kg
Raisins 340gm
Granulated sugar 900gm
Strong tea 1/2 cup (or a teaspoon tannin)
Lemons 2
Yeast extract / marmite / malt extract / yeast nutrient 1/4 teaspoon
Yeast (take your pick)
Dechlorinated water to 4.5 litres
Stage 1
Discard stalks and stones. Rinse cherries in cold water, then mash them in a bucket (not like an AG mash
) Add raisings after rinsing them and chopping or mincing. Cover bucket. Warm 1/2 litre of water in saucepan. Stir in sugar and yeast extract. When dissolved, cover and allow to cool., then pour into the bucket. Make tea, strain and allow to cool, discard leaves/bag; extract juice from lemon, chuck away pips pith and peel. Add juice and tea to the bucket and pitch yeast; top up to four litres with water. Cover and leave to ferment for 10 days, stirring twice daily.
Stage 2
Rack wine from sediment into a demijohn. Discard the solids. Top up to the neck with water. Cover. Leave to ferment to dryness (can take 4-5 weeks at 18C)
Two weeks after fermentation has finished, rack wine from its sediment into a fresh demijohn. Top up with wine of a similar flavour and colour, or cold water. Fit a bung and keep somewhere cool for 10 months to clear and mature. After 10 months' storage the wine should be clear and ready for bottling.
When bottled, the wine needs a further 2-3 months to condition; it reaches peak about 36 months (!) after being racked into its storage vessel to clear and mature, if you can manage to leave it in storage that long.