25 lbs pie cherries

[Arne]

Like the title says, 25 lb. pie cherries, picked, destoned and in the primary. Lots of picking, 5 Gal. ice cream buckets. Hope the wine is worth it, don't know what caused it but almost every cherry had a bad spot kind of like it had been hit by hail. So far this year we are lucky, the hail has not arrived here. Kind of leaning towards they ripened too fast.Only about a day from green to bright red. Don't know if that would make any difference, but have had the tree for at least 25 years and this is the first time we have seen these spots. Anyway, going to have pie cherry wine this winter. Looking forward to it. Arne.

 

[Scooter68]

Get ready for serious tartness. I've made 2 batches of tart cherry wine using a 3-1 ratio of tart to sweet. It's great but not to everyone's liking. Next batch (sometime this summer will be a 2-2 ratio. (I'm using cherry concentrate - each bottle makes a gallon of juice but I use 4 bottle for a 3 gallon batch.)
Funny thing about this wine is that the tart hits you right up front and at the end the sweetness just barely gets through and .... the SG as bottle with back-sweetening is 1.014 - you'd never guess it by the taste.

Keep us posted.

 

[Arne]

This stuff is what got me started making wine. Our little cherry tree went crazy one year and I went looking for something to do with the extra fruit. Been making it ever since, one of my favorite wines. Arne.

 

[Scooter68]

Yeah - Another Tart Cherry Wine Lover. In sharing mine not a lot of folks like it. Fine with me...More for ME.

We have two pie cherry trees, one is took a turn for the worse a couple of years ago. I've since added 3 more. Will be interesting to see how they all produce.
Varities I've recent planted
Romeo
Juliet
Carmine These 3 planted in a triangle - hope no tradgedy occurs

 

[Vinobeau]

I, also, make a fair amount of tart cherry wine. I always make it with 3 to 4 pounds per gallon. IMO, 5 lbs per gallon will make the wine too tart & bitter, especially if you don't back sweeten it. I believe that in my state, along with Cranberry, Tart Cherry wine is one of the favorites.

 

[Kantuckid]

My wife is a cook. We buy pie cherries in the can w/o the thickeners and I'd always wondered why they were not sold in frozen food case like strawberries, etc.? If you do a google search for MI tart cherries you'll find there are producers selling them in frozen volume sized bags. Much cheaper than the ~ $3 or more for a small can of pie cherries. Check it out.

 

[Arne]

Transfered to carboy. Been a bit as I started a batch of s.p. on the lees and it is about done also. Love the way the stuff takes off when you leave a bit of wine with the lees. Seems like the new sugar hits and the stuff is fermenting. Arne.

 

[JustJoe]

I have made wine from pie cherries for a few years but I always add elderberries. 15# each in a 6.5 gallon batch. The elderberries give the wine the tannins that cherries don't have and add a great color. The cherries add a great flavor the elderberries don't have. I ferment it dry and don't backsweeten. Great tasing wine is the result.