Topic: Country-Winemaking
Fruit & Grape Blends
MEMBERS ONLYWhen a wine comes up lacking, the solution may just be blending a totally different type of wine with it. Grape wines and wines made from other fruits often have complementary characteristics that lend themselves as a key ingredient in the other.
Boysenberry Wine: My “out-of-season” winemaking adventures
FREEA winemaker and his brother team up to create a boysenberry wine. Join along on their adventure to crafting the perfect summer sipper.
Stone Fruit Wines
FREEAlso known as drupes, stone fruits offer some advantages over some other types of fruit for making wine. Learn some basics of making stone fruit wines.
Tips For Making Cantaloupe Wine
MEMBERS ONLYBecause cantaloupes have high pH, my guess is that the red speckles you’re seeing in a layer on top of your wine are bacteria colonies and no, they are not to be expected. According to a fruit pH chart I found online from Clemson University, the pH of cantaloupes usually falls in the range of
Dealing With Acid Issue on a Raspberry Wine
MEMBERS ONLYI really applaud you for keeping such detailed records and testing regularly. This really helps me when diagnosing issues and coming up with ways to help. I want to start off by saying that raspberries are a really high-acid fruit and that high titratable acidity won’t necessarily track with the pH like it does in
7 Country Wine Recipes
MEMBERS ONLYFruit wines are generally the first thing to come to mind when we hear “country wine,” however the term is much more encompassing than that. We share seven recipes from Jack B. Keller Jr.’s new book release Home Winemaking: The Simple Way to Make Delicious Wine that illustrate just how broad an array of ingredients the term includes.
Backsweetening Fruit Wines
MEMBERS ONLYBacksweetening is a popular method to balance and bring out the fruit character in fruit wines. We enlist two experts to share their tips to backsweetening success.
Making Berry Good Wines
MEMBERS ONLYRelative to grape wine, “berry wine” is a diverse category, encompassing anything from strawberries to blueberries to uncommon local berries few have heard of. The general idea is the same as making red wine: Crush and ferment berries, press or strain, rack and age, bottle, voila! But where grapes, if variety is well matched to
Yeast choice for a fruit wine
MEMBERS ONLYYou want to know what my standard, go-to, never-fail, keeps-most-wines-happy yeast is? It’s called Prise de Mousse, EC1118, Davis 796 or Premier Cuvee. Why all the names? I guess so a lot of different companies can sell it to appreciative winemakers like me. Whatever you call it or buy it as, make sure it’s fresh
Blending Fruit Wines
MEMBERS ONLYCountry wines made with multiple fruit varieties can be blended prior to fermentation or after. Learn how two professional winemakers decide when to blend, as well as the other considerations they account for when making these lovely summer sippers.
Off The Beaten Path: Spice, herb, and vegetable winemaking
MEMBERS ONLYPhoto by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus These wines are not common in the commercial marketplace where dry grape wines dominate. There are some fruit wines, of course, and a few novelty wines made with coffee or chocolate. You can find mulled or spiced holiday wines to serve warm in the winter. Among the small group
Non-Grape Winemaking
FREECountry wine is the informal term that has been used for years to define fermented beverages made from ingredients other than grapes. This can include fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs. Wine made
Making Raspberry Wine
FREECountry Wine Case Study: Ingredients 5.0 lbs. (2.3 kg) fully ripened or frozen raspberries placed in a fine mesh straining bag 7 pints (3.3 L) water 2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) corn sugar
Passion Fruit Wine
MEMBERS ONLYWell, I will admit I have never made a passion fruit wine (living in Napa, those pesky grapes just seem to be the most convenient sugar source at hand) but I will give you what advice I can. Passion fruit (or Passiflora edulis) is a popular worldwide flavor. The fruit is eaten in desserts and
How To Date A Country Wine
MEMBERS ONLYWell well, what do you know? That’s a question I’ve never been asked before in all my years of writing this column! The spirit of the vintage laws for commercial wine is that the year on the label, if one is listed, reflect the year that the fresh fruit was grown. This is so consumers
Sediment In A Fruit Wine
MEMBERS ONLYI definitely would re-think your pre-bottling aging and fining procedures. Many wines, especially those made with fruit other than grapes, are susceptible to flocculation (a fancy term for sediment) and visible fallout. Wine is a complex chemical soup and many reactions take place over time; wine isn’t always what it seems to be in early
Country Wine: Non-grape winemaking
FREECountry wine is the informal term that has been used for years to define fermented beverages made from ingredients other than grapes. This can include fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs. Wine made
Making Berry Fruit Wines:Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYCountry wines come in all different styles and varieties, but berry wines are perennial favorites. Summertime brings with it a bevy of fresh, ripe berry options to craft some fine berry wines. Two berry wine experts share some winemaking advice. Sandi Vojta, Winemaker at Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City, South Dakota. Sandi is a
Overspiced Wine Situation
MEMBERS ONLYThere’s nothing like a wine with what I call “the elbows sticking out” to ruin one’s mood. Especially frustrating is when one has followed a recipe or kit instructions to the letter only to find that the procedure has yielded less than satisfying results. Spices and other added flavorings in home winemaking are one of
Aging Country Fruit Wines
MEMBERS ONLYWine is a dynamic chemical soup, constantly changing, evolving, reducing and oxidizing. From the moment it is made, its fate is sealed. Yes, it will improve, mature, reach a peak, and then it will decline and eventually become undrinkable. The best we can do is make it in such a way that it ages gradually,
Fining Fruit Wines
MEMBERS ONLYThe short answer is that yes, I would absolutely cut down on the amount of clarifying agent you use if you don’t have enough wine volume for the recommended 5 gallon (19 L) batch listed on the packet. Because I don’t know what is in your “pre-measured packet,” it’s hard for me to get into
Making Country Wine from Berries
MEMBERS ONLYSummer is the time for berries, and that means berry wines. Loaded with flavor and unique aromas, chilled berry wines on warm summer afternoons lend credence to the lyrics, “It’s summertime, and the living is easy . . .” Here are 15 summer berries suitable for wine that you can ferment as soon as the
Preparing Country Fruit
FREEHow should fruit be prepared before using it to make country wines? Let’s have a look…
Blending Fruit and Grape Wines
MEMBERS ONLY“Blending is a natural procedure, honest, necessary, and in accordance with historical events.” With that quote, eminent wine authority Emile Peynaud gives us permission to play with our wines. While he was addressing grape wine in his classic Knowing and Making Wine, I think his sentiment applies even more to the wide, wonderful world of
“Fruit Floaties” — Strawberry Wine
MEMBERS ONLYI just saw your picture and wow, that does indeed look like a floating brain — or two! Luckily, that is a great shot of what I would call typical “fruit floaties” combined with some of the fruit’s natural pectin, and I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. You see, when you make wine