# Chocolate Covered Cherry Wine



## cmason1957

I started my chocolate covered cherry Wine right after Christmas, got the cherries for $0.33 per box . Added 48 boxes . This is what it is looking like now. Almost time to think about back sweetening.


----------



## cmason1957

Oh and that is candy cane Wine in the background. It has now cleared also.


----------



## saramc

Your candy cane wine is dark? My CCC wine is dark red. Weird.


----------



## cmason1957

Yeah, I wondered about that. I will probably be adding just a few drops of red food coloring to it. Oh, I bet it might be the white grape nice I added.


----------



## cmason1957

Dang auto correct on my phone. Grape juice.


----------



## CoastalEmpireWine

Do you have the recipe for this wine? I would really love to make this.


----------



## saramc

CoastalEmpireWine said:


> Do you have the recipe for this wine? I would really love to make this.



I would post a link to Winepress, where the recipe I used came from, but it was frowned upon last time I did that. So try this, I do believe it is the same recipe:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/wineblog8.asp
Scroll down to Nov 11, 2006, but there is good reading as you scroll to it.


----------



## cmason1957

The Jack Keller site is where I got the recipe from. I don't think i changed much about it, except I used a mix of dark and normal chocolate covered cherries. The ferment was very different from any other. The Chocolate raised up and looked like very thick mud. It cleated almost better than any other wine, which surprised the heck out of me. I back sweetened a bunch. I don't have my notes with me right now. I'll post the recipe later.


----------



## CoastalEmpireWine

Sounds awesome! How do you get the thick mud out though? Did you try stirring it up and mixing it in for the flavor? What did you back sweeten with? Thank you for your help


----------



## saramc

CoastalEmpireWine said:


> Sounds awesome! How do you get the thick mud out though? Did you try stirring it up and mixing it in for the flavor? What did you back sweeten with? Thank you for your help



You allow the thick gross lees to drop and you rack. You do this just a few times, the wine drops clear like any other wine given enough time. Any fudgy foam can be scooped off if it does not drop. I also transfer lees to smallest glass jar with airlock and pop in refrig, or cold garage in winter and in a few days even more liquid is available for topping up. If you need to backsweeten after stabilizing, you could use simple syrup. I talked to another who used maraschino cherry liquid, another who tweaked ACV with maraschino liqueur, another added creme de cacoa, another Godiva liqueur.


----------



## cmason1957

Scoping the fudged stuff of the top is exactly what I did. Everything else was just like any other wine.


----------



## wineforfun

Did you have to add any sugar up front to get the 1.090 - 1.100 SG?
I may give this a go after Christmas and the candy goes on sale.


----------



## cmason1957

I don't have my notes here in front of me, but I vaguely remember that we had to add some.


----------



## wineforfun

Ok, thanks. Ready for Christmas to get here so I can get some of the "after Christmas" cherries and get it going.


----------



## Tess

I like to try this. Every choc wine Iv seen in the store looks like choc Milk its not clear. lol


----------



## saramc

Tess said:


> I like to try this. Every choc wine Iv seen in the store looks like choc Milk its not clear. lol



Tess, like you I was appalled (and disgusted) by commercial chocolate wine but discovered when making it at home and when using unsweetened cocoa powder from Hershey's to high end dutch-processed unsweetened powders (to even using chocolate covered cherry cordial candies) the wine will clear if you have patience and rack properly. Didn't even use an end stage fining agent. No chocolate extracts or flavorings added, just good ingredients and patience. I have a chocolate raspberry chambourcin from 2011 that is still sitting in a carboy, does not even compare to the carboy of the same batch which was bottled last October. Crystal clear, fruit everywhere and kissed by smooth chocolate. Around seven months is when most of my chocolate wines, from cocoa powder, hit their clearing window. 

For fun, and because you can, take a finished wine of your choice and easily turn it into a chocolate wine... by adding one cup of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup-Regular or Special Dark- to one gallon of clear, stabilized, ready to bottle wine. It will drop clear in a week or so and then simply rack and you are good to go. It is not as good as a few years of cocoa powder doing its magic, but it converts any wine into a chocolate wine, even mead. Chocolate JMAO, quite nice.


----------



## wineforfun

*Choco Cherry Wine ?*

I just bought 24 boxes of milk chocolate covered cherries and 24 boxes of milk chocolate covered blueberries. I noticed on Kellers recipe it calls for 8 - 1lb. boxes of C.C. Cherries. The boxes I bought are 5.6oz., with 10 cherries per box. That means it will take approx. 24 boxes to reach the "8 - 1lb. boxes". It seems like way too many cherries. It will be 240 for a 1 gal. batch. 
I noticed cmason1957 used 48 boxes for what I assume is a 5/6 gal. batch, according to his pics.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## vernsgal

before any back sweetening what was the finishing SG? I started Jack Keller's (1 gal)Chocolate Maraschino wine back on Nov 1 . He uses the cherries and cocoa with honey instead of the boxed chocolates.SG 1.028 today. Does the recipe with boxed chocolates ferment dry?


----------



## cmason1957

Yes, I did use 48 boxes for a 6 gallon batch. It has turned out okay, but not great. To me, it tastes just like eating a chocolate covered cherry from the box. 

I don't know that I am making this again this year, but when I walk into Wal Mart and see the boxes at $0.33 again, I may change my mind. My wife might not be very happy with that idea, I haven't discussed it with her.

Also, I was absolutely amazed how clear this got all on it's own. I don't recall adding any clearing agents and it is clear as a bell.

I know it seems like a lot of cherries, but I used way more than that in the cherry wine I made.


----------



## wineforfun

Were the 48 boxes the smaller ones, like I am talking about? The ones that only have 10 pieces of candy in them?
I am looking at using 24 boxes for a 1 gallon batch, according to the recipe stating "8 - 1lb. boxes". 
At that rate your batch would have been wayyyyy under the recommended number of boxes. 
A 6 gallon batch with the size of boxes I bought would need 144 boxes to meet the recipe.

I am confused whether I am using too many boxes, although the recipe says "8 - 1lb. boxes".


----------



## kryptonitewine

I'm gonna use actual chocolate covered dried cherries. Just trying to figure out how much to use. I have about 10 lbs.


----------



## cmason1957

I did use the boxes with 10 pieces of candy in them. Mine were 6.6 oz or something like that. I seem to remember reading on the Jack Keller site, but it is down now, so I can't check, that he had subsequently made it with smaller and smaller sized boxes and it came it just as good. 

I may have just misread the recipe and not noticed that he had 1 lb boxes the first times he made it. I do know what I made has a nice chocolate taste, with cherry overtones.


----------



## wineforfun

Ok, thanks for the reply. I am going to scale it down then from your numbers. I will probably use 8 boxes of the 5.6oz I have or maybe 10 tops. I am only making a 1 gal. batch so will just cut your numbers in sixths.
If yours tastes pretty good with 48 boxes for 6 gal., then mine should be good with 8-10 for 1 gal.
Worse thing to happen is I have to dump it. 

I just know looking at 24 boxes of the cherries there is no way that can be right for 1 gallon. The cherries alone will fill up the primary to 1 gal., without the addition of water.


----------



## vernsgal

wineforfun said:


> Worse thing to happen is I have to dump it.



That's why 1 gal. tests are good! lol


----------



## buckhorn

WineForFun - Have you started your batch yet?

I am planning on starting a 1 Gal batch of CCC wine next week. Like you I thought the 8 lbs sounded like a LOT, esp. thinking of how much sugar is in the candy and what would the SG be. I was trying to decide how many cherries I wanted to use. 

I have read someplace else that the recipe Jack Keller has on his site gives a wine with more of an almond taste (caused by the cream in the cherries) - after seeing this thread, I think I am going to go with about 10 boxes in my 1 gal batch.

Good luck and keep us posted so I can follow your progress in relation to mine.

-Brian


----------



## wineforfun

No I have not started it. Probably will be a month or so. Trying to free up some carboys(don't want to buy more).
I am going with 9 boxes. I have chocolate covered cherries and also chocolate covered blueberries. I will make a gallon of each.

I will definitely keep my progress posted on this thread when I start it. Please do the same with yours.

I still can't believe that is correct, 8lbs., for 1 gallon. And as cmason1957 posted above, he used 8 boxes per gallon, and said it turned out good.


----------



## wineforfun

I started this batch finally. Mixed everything up Sunday, pitched the hydrated yeast last night. Looks like chocolate pudding. Hard to imagine this is going to be clear and wine someday.

I went with 9 boxes (10 cherries in each box) and not the 8lbs. that the recipe called for. That has to be a typo as with the 9 boxes I used, my primary was 1/3 full before pouring the boiling water over it. Also, this amount of candy had my SG at 1.092 without adding any sugar.


----------



## wineforfun

Got this one clear and backsweetened. Also added 5oz. cherry vodka to it to hopefully add some cherry flavor to it. Doesn't taste too bad right now. Semi-sweet with a hint of chocolate covered cherries. I may throw a maraschino cherry in the glass of wine and see how that goes. If I get this figured out, I will start my chocolate covered blueberries.


----------



## Alex80

Sound like the best wine for my wife, we both love chocolate. I'll try that recipe for sure.


----------

