Dried Cherrry Wine

[ramsis23]

Just started a 2 gallon test batch of cherry wine modified from Jack Keller:

1.5 lbs dried sour cherry
1 lbs fresh cherry pitted
dried hibiscus flowers
20 black peppercorns: crushed
0.25 lbs dried blueberry
1 lb blueberry honey
1 lb buckwheat honey
4 oz of dark chocolate
Montrachet yeast
1 tsp pectic enzyme
2 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp tannin
2 tsp yeast nutrient
applewood chips

Boiled dried fruit, hibiscus, applewood, peppercorns, honey for a few minutes. poured hot on the fresh cherries. Allowed must to sit for a day before adding nutrient and yeast. specific gravity: 1.14. So far it is fermenting away in the primary.

Any thoughts?

 

[BernardSmith]

First thought is that there is a great many ingredients in that wine. I try to go the simple route myself so I wonder what the benefit is of adding peppercorns and buckwheat honey. (no irony intended - I am just curious). Also 2 C of honey in 2 gallons as the significant source of sugar would seem a mite light in terms of your starting gravity. Do you know what it was? I am thinking that there may be not much more than a potential of 3 or 4 percent alcohol by volume - which is fine if that is what you want but that is more like a beer than a wine, No? Of course those dried cherries may have far more sugar in them than I imagine but they would need to have a great deal to raise the gravity to around 1.080 or 1.090.

 

[ramsis23]

The black peppercorn are to give it a slight pepper finish. honey just has a deeper flavor. The specific gravity was around 1.14. I think the added sugar came from the dried fruit. Around 50% of dried fruit weight is in sugar.