Country wine, or fruit wine, is wine made from something other than grapes, whether it be fruit, herbs, flowers or tea. It is a bit more work than regular wine from a kit, but worth it if you have excess fruit lying around. In this case, I had just picked a ton of Evans cherries and Juliet cherries from Edmonton Alberta. The ratio is about 60% sweet to 40% tart.
We had 10 lbs of Juliet Cherries (sweet) and 6 lbs of Evans Cherries (tart). Make sure you thoroughly freeze the cherries first to help break down the pectin in the fruit. Doing this helps to prevent pectic haze, a haze that is only difficulty removed. Don’t worry about pitting them, though, the seeds will add some natural tannin into the wine. Make sure you wash thoroughly and de-stem.
Once the fruit is frozen, add to a primary fermenter and start to boil five liters of water. Once the water has come to a boil, add in eleven pounds of sugar and simmer for another minute. Pour boiling water over the cherries, and top up with another ten liters of water. Let this cool to room temperature Add three teaspoons of tannin, six teaspoons of pectic enzyme, six teaspoons of yeast nutrient and KV-1116 wine yeast. Cover, and let ferment for ten days. When transferring to the secondary fermenter, siphon with a nylon bag over the end that goes into the wine and top up to where the neck of the nineteen liter carboy starts to taper in.
Top Up Mark
Once the wine has drained, pour wine soaked cherries into a straining bag in a bucket and gently squeeze out the remaining liquid.siphon this into the carboy and top up with sanitized water. Transfer your wine once a month for 4 months. Once wine is clear after the fourth transfer, proceed to bottling.
Cherry Wine
Cherry Wine