# Can I use montmorency cherries?



## Allen (Oct 5, 2009)

I have 3 montmorency cherry trees. These are the somewhat sour cherries for baking. Can I make a cherry wine from these? I'm sure I can add sugar to sweeten it, but would the wine be any good?


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## Huh? (Oct 5, 2009)

Certainly.


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## St Allie (Oct 5, 2009)

Sound like they will make a nice wine.. Crabapples make nice wine too and they are pretty much inedible!

Let us know how you get on ..

Allie


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## Allen (Oct 5, 2009)

I found this recipe on the net. I don't know how many pounds of fruit I will get off the trees, but that will determine the size of batch I make. They aren't ready until mid June, but I will report back then!






> I make the Montmorency Wine every year and it is awesome and so far I have not found anyone who doesn't like it.. I just made up this years batch using 100 lbs of cherries and it looks like I will have about 20 gallons of finished wine when it is done. I am sure you will enjoy it. Like alot of folks here I am constantly tweaking my recipes to try to make them better and throw stuff together based on past knowledge. But I know it can be confusing when you are trying to divide or multiply ingredients from a basic recipe to get to where you want to be. So I looked through notes from past batchs and put together a basic recipe using your 35 lbs of cherries, and this is what I would do if I had them. The one thing about cherry wine is that you don't what the alcohol level to high or it tastes like cherry rocket fuel. Shoot for about 1.090 to 1.095 and you will be happy with the end product. Also, I usually use Cotes Des Blanc, but I also like 71b and I am using it on this years batch.
> 
> The only thing you may have to adjust slightly is the SG by adding some sugar or some water to get it where we need it. The main reason is that it is hard to judge the exact sugar content of the frozen concentrate. It also may seem weird that I am only adding 5 gallons of water (1 gallon to 7 lbs cherries) but in reality there is slightly over 1.5 gallon of liquid being added due by the dissolved sugar, and the concentrate. Also the wines I have made using 1 full gallon of water to 4-5 lbs of cherries before sugar and using no concentrate seem thin and light bodied. But if you would like to add an extra gallon of water and an additional 2 lbs of sugar to the below recipe, it will still come out great.
> 
> ...


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## St Allie (Oct 5, 2009)

That sounds doable Allen..

what did you normally do with all the cherries?.. Do you can them?

If you haven't already got some bird netting.. you might want to get some beforehand.

Allie


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## Allen (Oct 5, 2009)

We usually have a neighborhood cherry picking party, and make pies. We have 3 trees that are 12 years old, and about 12' high.

Can we freeze them & make wine later?

We definitely have to time it just right to beat the birds.


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## St Allie (Oct 5, 2009)

Freezing them works really well.. it bursts the cell wall structure and improves the juice and colour extraction. Pretty much freeze everything except citrus for winemaking.


I would be making jam and jars of brandied cherries for xmas presents..hehhehe

I can't grow cherries .. our winter isn't cold enough in auckland.


Allie


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## Allen (Oct 5, 2009)

St Allie said:


> Freezing them works really well.. it bursts the cell wall structure and improves the juice and colour extraction.



Good to know!



St Allie said:


> I can't grow cherries .. our winter isn't cold enough in auckland.
> 
> 
> Allie



Well, since I have something special, I will try not to let you down, and make some AWESOME wine with it!

The neat part is, a friend of mine bought us one cherry tree when our daughter was born in 1997, as a "Birthday" gift. So, we went out & bought two more to keep it company. So...The cherry trees do have some special meaning!

Won't he be suprised when I bring him over a couple of bottles of cherry wine from the tree he bought for us, all those years ago!


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## JezterVA (Sep 28, 2010)

I think this is the recipe that I'll use as well. I have 17 lbs in the freezer right now. I'll just halve it and go that way. How much yeast though? No one ver gives yeast measurements. Full packet? 2 full packets?


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## Allen (Sep 28, 2010)

Since you "revived" this post, I'll have to give a report:

I ended up getting 62 pounds of cherries off my 3 trees .
I pitted, then froze for about a month. I added sugar to 1.085 SG, then fermented just the pure cherry juice, with no additives. With a little bit of back sweetening (10 tsp sugar/750ml), it came out pretty darn good.

As a matter of fact, I had a tasting at a local restaurant/wine bar, and it was a big hit. At the tasting, I had mead, cherry, Concord, and a cherry/concord blend. Personally, I liked the blend the best.


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## JezterVA (Sep 28, 2010)

That's awesome. I'm glad it turned out well. So how about that yeast? I'm planning on putting it in the bucket on Thursday.


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## Allen (Sep 28, 2010)

I used Lavlin 71-B. The reason is, cherry's dominate acid is malic acid, and 71-B is known to lower the malic acid level. One small packet will be more than enough for the size you are doing.


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## JezterVA (Sep 28, 2010)

Awesome!! I'm getting excited to get it started. Thank you.


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## St Allie (Sep 28, 2010)

how many bottles did you get out of it Allen?.. and how many are left?



Allie


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