Choke Cherry Wine

[fabrictodyefor]

I'll try again on this thread....
On 2/1414, I made the recipe from the first page of this forum, using 9 qts home canned choke cherry juice and 8 cans Welches grape juice, added 7 lbs of sugar to get an sg of 1.088, added the remaining ingredients as listed. let sit 24 hours then pitched the RC212 yeast. On 3/1, at 0.999 I racked to a carboy. On 4/18/14 I thiefed a glass and the flavor is good...but there is no "mouth feel". I know a lot will improve with age, will the "mouth feel" improve? Or should I try and do something while it is bulk aging. Thanks!

 

[Julie]

add some tannins, this will help with mouthfeel.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

Thanks, Julie. I've added tannins during fermentation, but never while bulk aging. I will try that.

 

[Julie]

adding tannins after fermentation will help in mouthfeel, also, are you planning on backsweetening?

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

When do chokecherries bloom? Mine are waking up but havent seen any blooms on them yet. WVMJ

 

[Julie]

They should start to bloom in the middle of May. You going to make a choke cherry wine? Blend some with your elderberries, you will love it!

 

[fabrictodyefor]

adding tannins after fermentation will help in mouthfeel, also, are you planning on backsweetening?

I probably won't back sweeten. The other day when I tried it, it had great flavor, just no mouthfeel! But if you think it might help, I can always do a little taste testing with some simple syrup and see what happens. This is a first for me, the no mouthfeel, so I wasn't sure what to do. This is my second batch of choke cherry, my first was a choke cherry/apple juice concentrate and it is wonderful. My sister and I both are ready to go choke cherry picking again. We both gave some bottles of wine to the owners of land where we got our cherries and he is loving us to come back! He has 2 different kinds of choke cherries, the "black" one and also a "red" one. I hadn't realized there were different varieties.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Make your next batch a chokecherry mead (no I have not done one yet but make a lot of fruit meads), the honey adds a bit of body, toss in some tannins to and your going to need a big spoon to get it out of the bottle WVMJ

 

[byathread]

When do chokecherries bloom? Mine are waking up but havent seen any blooms on them yet. WVMJ

Here in Colorado they typically bloom late April to late May depending on elevation. Beautiful in bloom (and my bees like them too) and here at least they are tart and quite tannic. For me they're perfectly enjoyable to eat some out-of-hand. I did a tiny 1 gallon batch of off-dry chokecherry mead a couple years ago and kicking myself for not doing more as it was lovely and they're pretty common in town and wild on public land.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

Make your next batch a chokecherry mead (no I have not done one yet but make a lot of fruit meads), the honey adds a bit of body, toss in some tannins to and your going to need a big spoon to get it out of the bottle WVMJ

So if I do decide to back sweeten I'll try some honey! and if I ever get back to WV where my son lives I'll look you up and talk you out of some of those elderberries!