Chokecherry Wine

[grapeman]

Well the Chokecherry bug should bite Barney. That is one of the wines Barney brought me. I opened the bottle a few days ago to give it a test drive. I have never had it before. The nose is strikingly full of wonderful cherry aromas. The color is a great one, clear and bright! It is full of tannins, which isn't surprisng considering how astringent the cholkecherries themselves are. This is a good tasting wine and I bet it would age well for years if anyone could keep it around long enough.


Now Barney, go back and do battle with those bears - for the chokecherries- I wouldn't actually wrestle them if I was you! Oh, and I would forget the bear poop wine!

 

[hannabarn]

Gosh! I missed your post Appleman. I'm glad to hear that you liked the chokecherry wine. I have only tried one bottle of it and it was pretty good but still young! It is now about 10 months old but I'm going to try it again about Thanksgiving> Should be better by then! Meanwhile I am still competing with the bear. He just breaks trees to be mean!!

 

[pelican]

Just bottled this batch today - would post pics but somehow the "album" on line that I post my pictures to from my cell phone is completely empty of all photos! Hoping it's just some kind of weekend website maintenance...

Meanwhile, the acid adjustment must have been OK on this batch (recall I had questions about how I had to add so many tsps of acid blend to have it test out properly) there is a tingly taste as a new young wine, but not a "biting" sensation. The color with a volume of wine came out a nice, dark rich red but hold it up to the light and it's a nice ruby color, very pretty. Taste is very good for so young (70 days since start).

Making way to start the Choc Raspberry Port, plus another kit I've had sitting in wait, and a few scratch juice wines to boot. My winter winemaking time is about to start here. It's also that time of year that I had better get more active collecting bottles as my 'supply' source will wind down on the volume of wine served and hence fewer bottles will be available. Either that or ramp up on emptying the ones I have filled already!

 

[xanxer82]

I've never had chokecherry wine or chokecherry anything for that matter. I will have to find some and give it a try.
I think I was bitten by a small bug there is a desire to try as many wines as possible.
I recently attended the Maryland Wine Festival and tasted at least 40 different wines. Alas no chokecherry there.
Can't wait to hear how the finished product turned out.

 

[pelican]

Chokecherry is our favorite 'fruit wine' - this is the fifth batch of it I've made (but the first 6 gallon batch). Taste testing at bottling showed this one has promise. I'll let this one get a bit of rest in the bottle and in a few more months the batch before this one should be ready for sampling. I make my chokecherry dry - other folks like a sweeter, fruitier dessert wine from chokecherry but our version is a dry table wine.

 

[xanxer82]

Very nice. You'll have to make a post and tell us how it turns out when it's rested.

 

[pelican]

Its been in the bottle for 3 weeks now, and I needed some dry red wine for stew... so chose this one. Of course, I had to taste it to see if it was suitable to cook with

and oh, yes, my my my it's fine for cooking. And for tasting.

This is "the best" of my chokecherry so far. There is a batch I did in the spring, which I had a taste test of when I bottled this one and it's got a ways to go - very astringent, bordering on bitter, not yet oooh nice.

In contrast, this taste I had said "fruity, noticeably chokecherry in the dryness sensation but smooth and pleasurable". I wish it was a decent time of day to have more than just the small taste test. It will go very well with the stew!!

 

[xanxer82]

Sounds like it's a versatile wine.
After playing around with some more juice kits and getting used to the process. (Racking for the first time ever today was an interesting experience) I'm gonna start to use fresh fruit. Maybe I'll get ahold of some chokecherry somehow.