First Time Cherry Wine

[SeniorHobby]

So the time to spray is at the flowering stage? Does anybody have a named spray that they use? I think that they cherry's were fine until they got a little close to being ripe, then the flies (mostly) started hanging on the fruit. Has anyone hung one of those fly catcher bags in the cherry tree? So inside the cherry a little brown texture is ok? I thought that meant it was overripe which is a no no with fruit and making wine. Has anybody checked the sugar content? If the Cherrys pull off easy then they are ripe, I got the impression that by that time they were rotting inside.

 

[Hazelemere]

Next Friday I’ll be heading over to my brother's house to make cherry wine. He and my SIL picked and pitted about 40 lbs of tart cherries last summer and want to learn wine making. This is what I was thinking.

40 lbs of cherries with enough water to make 10 gallons in the brute.
Pectic enzyme
Acid blend to pH of 3.4 if needed
Sugar to SG of 1.00
Fermaid O according to label added in thirds.
71B yeast starter with GoFerm.
Oak chips?

Press at SG of 1.01
Age in glass for 4 months.

Any suggestions? Do tart cherries have tannins? Are the oak chips needed? Oak during aging?

My SIL likes a really, really syrupy sweet wine so we will be ruining more than half of it . I like off dry and will leave a few bottles dry or lightly sweetened.

You won't need oak and the cherries will give you all of the tannin that you need. Adding tannin with or without oak will make the wine taste tangier so you will need more sugar to balance the flavour. I'd use 71B yeast to get the malic acid down.