Chokecherry Wine - My First Attempt

[TasunkaWitko]

Hey, @buMbLeB -

First, my sincere apologies for taking so ridiculously long to reply; it's been a long year! LOL

Secondly, it's not weird at all - I enjoy chokecherries off the bush, too. I've found that as they ripen, they lose that astringent edge and are actually quite good...and sweet.

Well, a late update on this -

This time, the boy stayed out of it, and that makes me happy. Since my last posting, I racked this off the lees once or twice, then put it away to bulk-age. For a month or so, I told myself to forget about it, and after a while, I did!

Somewhere in that time, I re-filled the air-lock a couple of times, and finally, a month or so ago, I put a 38-mm cap on the fermenter and put it in the refrigerator, hoping that it would pull down any vestigial sediment etc. Normally, one would add a fining agent, but I did not do that at this time, since it didn't seem to need it. There was just the tiniest bit of sediment on the bottom; but otherwise, the wine seemed wonderfully clear and had a beautiful colour.

Last night, I bottled this wine, and I am thinking that I really have something nice. The normal, "proper" procedure would be to add a crushed campden tablet (dissolved in a bit of warm water) and a half-teaspoon of sorbate. I did not do that this time, for my own reasons, but intend to do so in the future; therefore, I am putting down this procedure so that I won't forget.

Anyway, proceeding with the bottling, I washed and sanitised all equipment, then got down to doing it. It was quite easy, thanks to my mini auto-siphon and bottling wand (thanks for the recommendation on that, @PitRow !) - in fact, it was even easier than bottling beer. One thing I was eager to try was this handy gadget, which turned out to be very easy to use and made corking a breeze:

http://a.co/9P7ZAVw

The are currently unavailable at Amazon, it seems, but can be found here, also:

http://mastervintner.com/master-vintner-mini-corker/

I was expecting to get 4 bottles from the batch, plus a partial fifth bottle; however, I was happily surprised with 5 full bottles. I had just enough left over for a small sample, and it sure was good. The chokecherry came through very well, and I was quite happy to see that it still had the slight, zippy "spiciness" to that I referred to in my post above.

The bottles of chokecherry wine are currently sitting upright, in the dark, while the pressure equalizes and the corks settle in. In a few days, I will store my wine horizontally and leave it alone for a few weeks while the "bottle shock" wears off. I am guessing that when the time comes to sample it, I'll be quite pleased with it. I plan to see how this wine matures over the next year or so, and am hoping for really nice things.

For now, this second recipe that I made looks to be the one to use. I don't see any need for changing it, but will try to improve my methods and practices a bit in the future, including attempting to use some of the additives that can make a good wine even better. I have enough chokecherries in the freezer to start another batch of wine, and will get it started as soon as I can.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Here is the label that I created for this wine:

 

[TasunkaWitko]

After having had a chance to try this now, I will say that it is excellent. It is very clear, with wonderful colour (I''ll try to get a photo, next time) and has a very pleasant...aroma? bouquet? Whatever.... There is an amazing flavor overall, but it also has a really nice character that I cannot describe; something that is unique and very enjoyable. It's a tiny bit zippy - in a good way - and I could swear that there is a hint of a spiced vanilla-like quality to it; that's the best description I can give, but I can't account for it because I used nothing for this wine except the chokecherries, along with the usual pectic enzyme, acid blend etc.

The only fly in the soup is that it is just a tad watered down; not nearly as bad as the first batch, but a bit. I don't know if this is from excessive topping off (it shouldn't be, because I didn't top very much off), or if it is from a little bit of surreptitious sampling by my son (it could be, as he has a history of this), but the wine isn't as "full" as it could be.

I'm starting my third batch tonight or tomorrow, and will lock it up if necessary. I'll also be able to top it up (if needed) with actual chokecherry wine, which might also help a bit. I intend to follow my "second" recipe exactly as I did the first time, since the results were so good; I had considered experimenting a bit, using Côte des Blancs yeast, rather than Montrachet; however, since I only have enough chokecherries right now for one 1-gallon batch, I'll stick with a yeast that is tried, true and a proven good performer.

 

[Jenny P]

Thank you so much for this!! I will be attempting my very first try at making wine later this summer. I decided last year after picking 3 3.5-gallon pails of chokecherries off ONE of my many many trees, that I needed to make more than jellies and syrup. I did pick up the fruit wine kit you talk about, and am waiting for my trees to ripen. I do have a question, in your second recipe what was the final yield in bottles of wine? I just need an idea of how many bottles to acquire for this.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, Jenny -

With this 1-gallon batch, you "should" be able to get 5 bottles; depending on some circumstances, you might only get 4 bottles.

Hope this helps -

Ron

 

[TasunkaWitko]

A couple of weeks ago, we enjoyed an older bottle of my chokecherry wine while sitting at a campfire and looking at the stars:

The wine looked great and tasted great, so I'd say that the basic idea behind this recipe and method works very well, and I expect future batches to only get better!

We are heading toward the end of summer; in a month or so, I expect to be out picking quite a few chokecherries so as to lay over a good supply for syrup, jelly and other projects - including, of course, more wine.

 

[Jenny P]

We are heading toward the end of summer; in a month or so, I expect to be out picking quite a few chokecherries so as to lay over a good supply for syrup, jelly and other projects - including, of course, more wine.

Mine are ready now, well starting anyway, some are still red, but most are black and fall off the stem if touched, so I picked today, 21pounds which translated into 3- 1-gallon containers at 7lbs each. And I only picked 1/2 of one tree, we have at least 10 trees, maybe more! I need more freezer space!!! Then there are the crabapples, and after that the apples.......definitely will need more freezer space!

 

[gratus fermentatio]

That wine is a gorgeous color Tasunka!
Regards, GF.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, GF - and thanks! I think that the fire behind it helped quite a bit, but I sure liked it. The wine tasted great, already has me thinking of future batches. I've got one gallon in secondary, and it's almost time to gather chokecherries for 2018, so there will be many more, hopefully.