2011 Cherry Wine

It's Summer, and I drove out to find cherries, hopefully Michigan cherries for my cherry wine.   My three year old cherry tree produced about five cherries this year.

I could have driven to Western Michigan, but that would have taken all weekend. Instead, I went to the Eastern Market, which is a local Farmer's Market in Detroit. Cherries were hard to find, but I came home with six pounds of tart Michigan Cherries. I also got some California Black Cherries there and at the grocery. I also got ten pounds of frozen tart cherries from GFS -- these are pitted, so much easier to use.

 I bought the different cherries so that I would get a "broader" flavor profile. I think that the Black Cherries are the best though. They seem to be the most flavorful.

I boiled the cherries, and added eighteen pounds of sugar.

2011 Cherry Wine Recipe

Michigan tart cherries       6 lb
Black Cherries                  24 lb
Rainer Cherries                   5 lb
Frozen Tart Cherries          10 lb
TOTAL                             45 lb, all boiled than then broken open with a potato masher
Sugar                                  18 lb, added as syrup
Water to make                      8 gallons; density is 1.14, 1.33 Brix - perhaps too high
Pectic enzyme                      6 g
Yeast Energizer                    3 g
Red Star Curvee                   1 packet

This is a little more sugar and cherry concentration than last year's 36 pounds of cherries. The plan is to make a desert wine, and that is why it is so strong.
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