Best Cherry for Cherry Wine

[David219]

I've seen a number if recent posts about cherries and cherry wine. We are heading up to Michigan next week. If cherries are available, I plan on getting some. I've never tried making a fruit wine before, but a cherry wine seems really attractive to me.

I've read a number of threads, and I'm a bit fuzzy on what type of cherry to choose. Some have written about a "cough syrup" taste with some cherries. I want to avoid that flavor profile...I don't like it when I encounter it in grape wines, either.

Would pie/tart cherries be the better choice over sweet cherries? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[Turock]

We've made cherry wine from sweet and sour cherries, and my opinion is that the sour cherries make a better wine. The cherry flavor is most evident with sour cherries. We always order cherries from Michigan, thru a local orchard, and I heard that Michigan has no cherries this year. My wild cherry trees never even bloomed, this year. It was too hard of a winter last year.

We've made lots of cherry wine and never had cough syrup taste. Use 10# per gallon, no water, and you'll have a great wine. It even retains that tart cherry flavor. A real nice wine.

 

[David219]

Thanks for the reply, Turock. That's disappointing about the cherry crop...maybe I'll look for another fruit wine to try. Cherries just seemed like a perfect fit, given our travel plans, location, time of year, and all.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[spaniel]

I've made several cherry wines, the black sweet cherries worked best IMHO, although there was a wild tart cherry we tried once that was excellent.