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Ask Wine Wizard

Passion Fruit Wine

TroubleShooting

Larry Cummins — Negros Oriental, Philippines asks,
Q

Have you had any experience making wine from passion fruit concentrate? It’s hard to get any kind of concentrate here that is “pure”. But I did find some passion fruit concentrate in 500-mL bottles here in the Philippines. Directions are to add four bottles of water to one bottle of concentrate. Any thoughts about other fruits to add, such as guava, mangoes or lychees?

A
Well, 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 salads and the juice is made into popular juice drinks and cocktails. Its acidity (pH range 2.8–3.2) and low sugar content (15 Brix +/-) are the main winemaking challenges you will face. You will have to dilute your concentrate and add some additional sugar in order to target a pH 3.3 or above as well as 22–24 °B. Adding water will do a good job of bringing your acid levels down though because I don’t know the concentration of your bottle, it’s hard to say how much to add. That’s where your handy hydrometer can come in. As far as fruits to add, I would go with something lower acid (like apple juice) or even red grape juice (or concentrate), which will benefit your fermentation
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Response by Alison Crowe.