# Choke Cherry Wine



## winemaker_3352 (Aug 9, 2010)

Racked my choke cherry wine for the first time back sweetened to 1.018 (might need to be a little sweeter). Tasted it and it didn't taste half bad. Was real astringent - other than that - it has nice aroma, body, and sweetness!!


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## djrockinsteve (Aug 9, 2010)

Alright and thanks to Doug (ffemt) I picked around 5 -6 pounds of choke cherries today. Then I bought 20 pounds of cherries from GFS (not cheap but still okay at $45.00 a case. With this I'll make a chocolate choke cherry wine (5 gal).

Jon you sweetened to 1.018 that's interesting as I didn't know how sweet to make it. I have a bottle of chocolate cherry wine here I'll take a gravity reading when it gets opened and see.

You said it was a bit astringent, anything in hindsite to offset that or will time remedy that?


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## winemaker_3352 (Aug 9, 2010)

I up'ed the tannin level a bit - b/c i added the welchs red grape concentrate instead of the winExpert.

I also added a full vanilla bean - which is more than what i was suppose to.

Back sweetening did help the astringent a bit - being that this is just a month old - it will just take some more time.


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## winemaker_3352 (Aug 10, 2010)

djrockinsteve said:


> Alright and thanks to Doug (ffemt) I picked around 5 -6 pounds of choke cherries today. Then I bought 20 pounds of cherries from GFS (not cheap but still okay at $45.00 a case. With this I'll make a chocolate choke cherry wine (5 gal).
> 
> Jon you sweetened to 1.018 that's interesting as I didn't know how sweet to make it. I have a bottle of chocolate cherry wine here I'll take a gravity reading when it gets opened and see.
> 
> You said it was a bit astringent, anything in hindsite to offset that or will time remedy that?



Let me know what your choc cherry wine SG is. I just sweetened to taste and that usually falls in the higher end of the medium sweet area. I might add a little more sugar later on - will wait and see.


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## djrockinsteve (Aug 10, 2010)

I have been making 2 different gravity's for my wines. My wife prefers dry but LOVES WINE. nuff said. Kids and griends like sweeter. I'll take 5 gallons and sweeten to a medium dry, bottle 2 gallons, then sweeten the other 3 gallons between 1.010 and 1.020 depending upon what it is.

I look at if the fruit is normally a sweet taste I'll make the wine sweet as opposed to something that is a little more dry. I like a variety.

No one has ever complained. I will let you know. Hope to start soon.


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## winemaker_3352 (Aug 10, 2010)

Yeah - i just started making fruit wines this year - and i have made those more on the sweet side.


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## pwrose (Sep 13, 2010)

hey jon hows the chokecherry doing now? Is it still bulk aging or have you bottled it yet?
If it is still bulk aging when are you due to rack it again?

I am still bulk aging mine but because I added the extra wine tannins (which I have learned now not to do with chokecherries) it is very harsh on the backend taste. I sweetened mine I believe to 1.022 or there abouts.

Just checking in on yours to see how it was going.


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## winemaker_3352 (Sep 13, 2010)

pwrose said:


> hey jon hows the chokecherry doing now? Is it still bulk aging or have you bottled it yet?
> If it is still bulk aging when are you due to rack it again?
> 
> I am still bulk aging mine but because I added the extra wine tannins (which I have learned now not to do with chokecherries) it is very harsh on the backend taste. I sweetened mine I believe to 1.022 or there abouts.
> ...



Yeah - mine is still in the carboy - it is still clearing - i won't bottle this for a while. Like you - i add tannins that i don't think it really needed. I found out later that chokecherries are high in tannins.

I will probably leave it in the carboy for a full year before bottling.

I still might sweeten some more - i did sweeten to 1.018 - but i might sweeten some more later depending on taste.

Is yours doing well?


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## pwrose (Sep 13, 2010)

Mine has cleared up pretty good considering that you can barley see threw this black wine in the first place. But I dont know if I will be able to keep it in a carboy that long, I might have to bottle this right after the first of the year. I will have the strawberries comming into season around Mar or so and will need all the carboys free by then. LOL


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## winemaker_3352 (Sep 13, 2010)

pwrose said:


> Mine has cleared up pretty good considering that you can barley see threw this black wine in the first place. But I dont know if I will be able to keep it in a carboy that long, I might have to bottle this right after the first of the year. I will have the strawberries comming into season around Mar or so and will need all the carboys free by then. LOL



Mine is in a gallon carboy - so they are pretty cheap for another. What size are you doing?


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## pwrose (Sep 13, 2010)

3 gallons this time,
I do plan on doing as much as 10 gallons next year if the trees do as good as they did this year. I will just have to put more effort into picking them.
I also think I will alter the recipe a little too,
1. take out the extra tannins
2. lighten up on the lbs per gallon ( I used 4 lbs per gallon this year, next year maybe 3 lbs per gallon)
3. keep the abv a little lower like around a starting SG of 1.070 - 1.075 instead of 1.090

So that is just some of my thoughts on this as of right now. I might even sweeten it up a little more than the 1.022.


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## winemaker_3352 (Sep 13, 2010)

pwrose said:


> 3 gallons this time,
> I do plan on doing as much as 10 gallons next year if the trees do as good as they did this year. I will just have to put more effort into picking them.
> I also think I will alter the recipe a little too,
> 1. take out the extra tannins
> ...




You know - those are great suggestions - i was thinking the same thing - they are very tannic - and less would probably be better. Also leaving out the addl tannins.


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## winemaker_3352 (Sep 25, 2010)

I racked and added super kleer - man this wine is very clear and has a beautiful deep red/burgundy color.

Taste is better - still astringent mabye a bit bitter - but much better this time around.

I also sweetened up a little more.


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## Julie (Sep 25, 2010)

Well I ended making a choke cherry blend, hopefully this comes out. 

I was making elderberry and I use the berries to make a seconds. So seconds was done and the berries still seem to have some juice to them, so my husband thought of using these berries and the 2 gallons of Welch's cherry juice I had on hand to make a 3g batch of wine. Did this and then thought of the 8# of choke cherries I had in the freezer so decided to add that and make a 5g batch. I am hoping this comes out good, the smell is better than any of my other cherries wine were.


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## winemaker_3352 (Nov 2, 2010)

Just racked my chokecherry after adding a super kleer - man it has a nice deep burgundy color. The taste is definitely coming around - it still has more time to go - but definite improvement from the last tasting.


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