Cherry Wine

[Ziggg]

I'm wanting to start a 1 gal test batch of Cherry Wine.
I have some Montmorency Tart Cherry Juice... I saw it at the store and just thought that it might make some tasty wine

I want to add some dark chocolate and cinnamon to it but I'm not sure how much to add and when to add it.
Anyone have some advice on adding spices?

Thanks

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Ziggg and welcome.
I would add spices to your secondary rather than ask the yeast to ferment on them. By adding later you are using the alcohol to extract the flavors you want rather than the water. Water is also a solvent but it extracts some different flavors than the alcohol does. In addition, by adding the cinnamon to the secondary you are far more able to monitor the level of flavor and rack the wine off the spices when it meets your approval. I would use cinnamon sticks and not powder.

Chocolate is another story. It's not so easy to create a chocolate character in a wine. You might add dark chocolate bars but that might give you a hint of chocolate - and that might be all you are looking for. Or you might add roasted cocoa nibs but then cocoa nibs is not really the same as chocolate which tends to taste the way it does because of the amount of cocoa butter (I think). A third option is to add chocolate malt (as used in brewing) . This barley has been toasted until it is almost burnt and its flavor very strongly resembles the flavor of a bar of dark chocolate bar and that flavor is one that infuses alcohol (beer or wine). Here you might use 2 oz of crushed grains but if you are making a cherry wine and are using juice and not fruit and water then you might simply boil the grains in a little water and add that tea to the juice in the primary (once the boiled tea has cooled sufficiently).

 

[my wine]

Welcome Ziggg! There are several threads in this forum that have chocolate recipes you might look over. I also found this that might help.

You probably want to use a product called Dutched Cocoa, most of the taste none of the oils.

It seems oils and clearing seem to be common issues when using different methods to add chocolate flavor to wine.

 

[winemaker81]

I've used chocolate extract in beer, it should work fine in wine. I purchased at my local shop, although Walmart carries at least one brand.

 

[Raptor99]

According to the label, that one includes vanilla extract as well. Interesting!

 

[RolandD]

Last month, my wife and I, along with a group of friends, visited Pirtle Winery in Weston, MO. We all found their cherry chocolate wine delicious. I decided to try and recreate it in a cider. I already had a satisfying Tart Cherry Cider recipe, so all I needed was an efficient way to add chocolate flavor.

After mining the internet and, specifically, this forum, I settled on trying Olive Nation Chocolate Extract. An afternoon of bench testing lead us to decide that 7.5 ml of extract per cup of cider, or 4 oz per gallon to be perfection.