Other Black Cherry Wine

Are there any kits available for black cherry wine with a white wine base? I know this sounds a little weird, but a friend is convinced she wants to make something like this. I suggested buying cheap chablis and squirting some Black Cherry Mio into the bottle. LOL.

Any thoughts?

If you don't want to wait until cherry season to make this and want to experiment a little, try http://labelpeelers.com/wine-making/fruit-wine-base/vintners-best-cherry-fruit-wine-base-128-oz/ . Now this is a tart cherry wine base, not necessarily a black cherry wine base. Maybe you could add some dark fruit like blackberries to it? Also, I haven't tried this flavor base yet so not sure if you will get a cough syrup like wine from it.

I am doing the red raspberry and added a 1L red grape concentrate to it so I could make 6 gallons. Also put a bunch of frozen red raspberries in a paint strainer bag and floated it in the must. I squeeze it once a day and there is very little left already (and it just started fermenting, must have been the 12 hour rest with pectic enzyme and the freezing that helped).

Just some thoughts. Maybe even order a WE VR white kit and add some frozen black cherries? Or, if you are patient, wait till cherry season and make it from 100% fruit. They have a few good tart cherry threads going in the Country Wine Making section of the forum to help you along.

Hope this helps.

Edit: They do have an Island Mist kit, but it was red wine based not white. http://labelpeelers.com/wine-making...it-wines/island-mist-black-cherry-pinot-noir/

I know there are Island Mist kits with cherry flavors, but that's about as far as I've gotten.

If you wanted to go an alternative route:

Now I'm not positive, so don't quote me. But I've been looking into doing some cider batches with cherries added in secondary, and almost every thread/post/article I've found mentions using tart/sour cherries over sweet. *Supposedly* sweet cherries produce a medicinal taste in the finished product; I have no clue if this is only when fermented dry or if they're added to backsweeten after stabilization.

(Tart and sour are used interchangeably with these cherries.)
Montmorency cherries are the standard tart cherry in the US because they're used in pies. They have a bright red skin, but are yellowish on the inside due to lack of pigment. Fresh Morello cherries are, to my knowledge, absolutely impossible to find in the US (being 6 months out of season can't make it easier). They are supposed to be more sour than Montmorency, are more firm, and have a deep red pigment all the way through. One page I found said they have a pretty unique taste. The third sour cherry I've managed to find are Balaton cherries. I haven't found much on these regarding fermentation, but what I've read suggests that although they are sour cherries, they're sweet enough to be eaten fresh. They also are a deeper red and have pigmentation all the way through the fruit.

If you decide to go for frozen, Gordon Food Service has fairly large bags of pitted montmorency cherries, and they tend to be very low cost for most items. I can't speak for the quality of their foods since I've only purchased equipment from them before. If you want to do a quick and easy alternative just for the sake of experimenting, RW Knudsen has a pretty good variety of juices from concentrate without preservatives. I've used their "Just Tart Cherry" juice multiple times (montmorency cherry juice) and have seen a Black Cherry juice as well. You should be able to find these juices in your grocery store. There is definitely a difference in brand though - I've tried the Lakewood brand tart cherry, and it was much sweeter and less tart than RW Knudsens.

If you do happen to find morello cherries, I'd love to know where - all I can find right now is 2.2lb packages of pureed cherries from France for ~$150 in shipping without any mention of preservatives.

Pittsburgh127 said:

Are there any kits available for black cherry wine with a white wine base? I know this sounds a little weird, but a friend is convinced she wants to make something like this. I suggested buying cheap chablis and squirting some Black Cherry Mio into the bottle. LOL.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I tried to attach a link for you, but my technology challenge got the best of me. If you do an internet search for "Black Cherry Wine", you'll find a few that come up, I definitely saw a WE Island Mist kit......................

Pittsburgh127 said:

Are there any kits available for black cherry wine with a white wine base? I know this sounds a little weird, but a friend is convinced she wants to make something like this. I suggested buying cheap chablis and squirting some Black Cherry Mio into the bottle. LOL.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Tim,

I don't know of any white cherry kits.

I think you'll have to make a white kit and tweak it.

If it were me, I would make a white kit fermented to dry, stabilize with sorbate and kmeta, and then backsweeten with frozen cherry concentrate to taste.

Heather

heatherd said:

Tim,

I don't know of any white cherry kits.

I think you'll have to make a white kit and tweak it.

If it were me, I would make a white kit fermented to dry, stabilize with sorbate and kmeta, and then backsweeten with frozen cherry concentrate to taste.

Heather

Click to expand...

Thanks Heather. That is the exact approach I was thinking of. I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot. I'll report back on how it works out.

And thanks to everyone who responded. Your ideas are very much appreciated.