Cherry wine

[ChuckD]

A sweet cherry has mainly citric acid, I have seen the TA as low as .18% on ones I picked, commercial will come in at 0.8 to 1.0%, pH 4.2 to 4.6.
Pie cherry, what I grow is supermont variety, early crop to miss birds is TA 2.00%, if I risk some bird damage I have gotten it down to 1%, pH ranges 3 to 3.7, pie cherry is dominant malic acid. A side note Montmercy and Supermont are free stone, North Star is not free stone trait.
Astringent is stronger in choke cherry so I am guessing it is a wild character in prunis. We should be able to pull out that flavor with a light treatment of gelatin. It is age related and not in the new wine. (I should hunt out an old bottle to see if it goes away like other tannins) Next time I get enough I will pit the fruit first.
My target has been 4.5 pounds fruit per gallon but in the old days when I could pick 15 gallons at an Ex I ran higher.

Thanks. I planned on pitting and freezing first… or I should say my SIL will.

 

[wood1954]

Some of the cherry farms in Door county will depit your cherries

 

[ChuckD]

pie cherry is dominant malic acid.

Do you run MLF on cherry wine?

You said you grow “pie cherries” are they considered tart cherries?

 

[Rice_Guy]

I have not run MLF on cherry wine. ,, Have you taster Bing cherry wine? The acids seem off when there isn’t a good percentage of malic/ sharp flavor notes. That said to balance flavor I have back sweetened to 1.012 to balance the percentage acid. ,,, It would be interesting running two 3gallons one with and one no MLF and then doing bench trials to see what level of malic provides sharpness while decreasing the back sweeten sugar level.

If the SIL is willing to pit you should go for it. The lazy (not pitted) cherry is I nice wine and routinely gets a first place at club contest. ,,, High aromatics/ high solids is like a home made pie where you can double the fruit and not fill the pie with corn starch. ,,, What else, it is easy to bleach the red pigment in pie cherry, do not add meta to the 100% cherry off of the pitter !

 

[winemaker81]

Do you run MLF on cherry wine?

I wouldn't use MLF on any wine except grape wines that have a higher malic acid content. My understanding is that fruits high in malic need it for the taste, so MLF will ruin the wine.

 

[cmason1957]

I wouldn't use MLF on any wine except grape wines that have a higher malic acid content. My understanding is that fruits high in malic need it for the taste, so MLF will ruin the wine.

And sometimes, I'm not sure the same isn't true for grape wines, I may hold off on K-Meta and MLF for a long time when I make Chambourcin or some other grape wine this year, just to see what I think about not following convention.

 

[ChuckD]

, do not add meta to the 100% cherry off of the pitter !

So no k-meta prior to fermentation? What about after for stability?

 

[winemaker81]

And sometimes, I'm not sure the same isn't true for grape wines, I may hold off on K-Meta and MLF for a long time when I make Chambourcin or some other grape wine this year, just to see what I think about not following convention.

Yup. MLF is a technique that applies to specific situations.

 

[Vinobeau]

do not add meta to the 100% cherry off of the pitter !

Why??

 

[winemaker81]

Why??

K-meta can have a bleaching effect on the colors produced by some fruits.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Why??

Back in the old days a division of Riviana Foods made marichino cherries. The first step on the process was treat montmercy cherries with SO2 which removes all the color. ALL!

So no k-meta prior to fermentation? What about after for stability?

I have managed to use 0.2 gm K metabisulphite per gallon of diluted must without noticeable issue. When I have had an issue I dumped dry ingredients, including the K meta into a primary. At that concentration I lost color. ,,, yes I add meta at all rackings without noticeable color loss.