# Vidalia Onion Wine



## ericonthehill

I started a batch of Vidalia Onion wine today. Using 2 different recipes as reference. This is suppose to be a pretty good wine from what I've heard. My 3 yr old son was the one to give me the idea. ..He also wants it to be green. So I guess I'll be adding food coloring at the end, before bottling. This will be just a 2 gallon batch as that's all I have room for.


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## ericonthehill

2 lbs Vidalia onions, 2 lbs. potatoes, 1 lbs. Golden raisins, 1 lbs. regular raisins, 10 lbs. granulated sugar, 2 tsp yeast nutrient, 4 tsp. acid blend, 2 campden tablets, and water to make up a gallon before adding raisins. I pureed raisins in the food processor. Boiled chopped onions and potatoes, then poured thru strainer into primary, poured onto sugar. Added raisin puree after must cooled. At room temp I added other ingredients I listed above. Will add 1 tsp. of pectic enzyme later tonight. I'll pitch yeast tomorrow with a starter with lalvin 1116. I'll post more as I go.


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## ericonthehill

Has anyone else made Vidalia Onion Wine? Or something similar? I'd like to hear how it turned out!!


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## pjd

Ericonthehill,
I have made vidalia wine. I use it for cooking. Right now I have a nice batch of Angus Burgers soaking in Vidalia Onion wine and Jalapeno wine. They will be on the grille soon!


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## Rodnboro

I have a 1 gallon batch bulk aging now. I added 2 jalapeno peppers to spice it up. It smells good and is clearing ok at this time.


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## Runningwolf

pjd said:


> Ericonthehill,
> I have made vidalia wine. I use it for cooking. Right now I have a nice batch of Angus Burgers soaking in Vidalia Onion wine and Jalapeno wine. They will be on the grille soon!


 SLOW DOWN THERE PHIL....you're half way between Julie and I. I'll give her a call and we'll be on our way! They sound good! Thats about an hour drive for both of us.


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## Julie

Lol Phil like Dan says!!!


Ericonthehill, one question, why the potato. I would be concern with this wine not clearing with a potato in it.


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## ericonthehill

Both recipes I'm using as reference call for it. Not really sure why. But both say that it ends up being an exceptional wine.


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## ericonthehill

Pitched yeast starter yesterday morning. It's been working like crazy since a few hours after that. It has a harsh smell to it, but what can you expect from onions! I'll check the sg sometime this weekend. Starting sg was at 1.130. Apparently the onions were extra sweet. I should have added the sugar after i checked the sg to bring it to the target sg of 1.100...oh well. We'll see what happens. At the worst I'll end up with a great marinade and we already fried up and ate the pulp.


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## ericonthehill

Wine is clearing nicely now. It's separated into 2 seperate gallon jugs. One is staying dry, and is at 18% abv. The other I back sweetened with corn sugar, and is 14% abv. So far it has a golden raisin color to it, and the onion aroma is not nearly as prominent. Time will tell what it will be like when finished, but so far it's coming around nicely.


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## ericonthehill

Tried a bottle of the back sweetened batch on Monday. I was pleasantly surprised! If you can imagine a wine with the Vidalia sweetness with out any hint of onion flavor, that's where it's at right now. Atleast the first half of the bottle. Lower half had a bit of onion flavor to it, so I used it for marinading my chicken before smoking. This wine calls for atleast a year of aging, possibly 2 years. So I'm quite happy with it so far.


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## roadwarriorsvt

It sounds too good to be used as a marinade!


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## ericonthehill

This was the bottle that's been sitting in my fridge, that wasn't full enough to let age more. There is no way I'm using the any more I have as marinade.


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## ericonthehill

I'm thinking of making a 3 gallon batch of this again. The last batch has really impressed! And I just cleared up space in a 3 gal. carboy...hate to let that space go to waste!!


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## Thig

ericonthehill said:


> Starting sg was at 1.130. Apparently the onions were extra sweet. I should have added the sugar after i checked the sg to bring it to the target sg of 1.100...oh well.



10lbs of sugar for a one gallon batch sounds extremely high, no wonder the starting SG was so high.

I live about 25 miles from Vidalia, Ga so I get all the Vidalia onions I want when they are being harvested. I need to try this one.


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## andy123

Sounds great. My wife and I seem to be onion lovers, I joke with her that that is why we never seem to have company. I may give this a try. Thanks


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## ericonthehill

At first I thought the sg was to high. I went by the recipe for the most part. In the end I'm very glad I did it the way I did. I haven't tried it lately but last time the first half the bottle was awesome!


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## ffemt128

I keep telling my wife we need to try a batch of this. We're open to experimenting with wines.


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## ericonthehill

If you like vidalia onions as an additive in your meal cooking you'll most likely like this wine. Nothing goes to waste either. That part of it made it easier to try it out.


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