washing your fruit prior to wine making

[Cxwgfamily]

I just saw a thread in the wine from grapes section regarding washing the grapes. It was a bad idea. But this got me thinking about washing fruit prior to wine making. I always wash my fruit prior to making wine. This is because I do not know the grower's chemical program and I want to make sure I get as much of the pesticides and herbicides off the fruit before starting the wine making process.

IS THIS GOOD PRACTICE or just PARANOIA?????

Feedback much appreciated. Thanks!

Cxwgfamily

 

[Scooter68]

Why not? You are correct, if you didn't grow the fruit you have no way of knowing what chemicals were used on them prior to your purchase. With wine grapes the growers know what they will be used for and who will be using them.

BUT how far to go with this.... Guess that depends on your preferences. I have washed or bathed my peaches purchased from an orchard, in a StarSan solution and then cut them up. I don't brush or scrub so I probably don't remove much in the way of chemicals but it's not hard to do this and it make me feel better at least.

 

[cmason1957]

I freeze all my fruit before I use it, but don't wash anything. It just adds water and cuts down on the the natural fruit sugars.

 

[Ajmassa]

Well the reason it shouldn't be done with grapes was said to be because it could water them down lowering the Sugar and acid levels.
But if your making fruit wine, isn't the majority of it from concentrate anyway? So washing fruit from chemicals potentially watering down wouldn't matter since you'd be adding water and sugar anyway right?

 

[Scooter68]

Well the reason it shouldn't be done with grapes was said to be because it could water them down lowering the Sugar and acid levels.
But if your making fruit wine, isn't the majority of it from concentrate anyway? .....

Not at all. My fruit wine is made from whole fruits. With my peach wine the only water I use is to dissolve the sugar for a simple syrup which amounts to 1 cup per gallon approximately. I use a concentrate for Black Current, and Cherry wines only because I don't have access those as fresh fruit at a reasonable price. All others are made from the fresh fruit only with only the minimum amount of water needed.

Secondly if I wash fruit I drain off the excess water - Lay the fruit on a towell until I'm ready to press or cut it up. So there is at most maybe 1/4 cup of water if I have a lot of fruit. When I pressed apples, again I only added the water in the simple syrup (6-7 cups of cut apples has given me right at 1 quart of apple juice. I don't put the fruit and water into my bucket. Washing fruit doesn't have to dilute anything if the water is allowed to drain off.

For fruits like blueberries, blackberries, black raspberries I never wash the fruit because it comes from our own bushes and vines, I know what if any chemicals have been anywhere near the plants. BUT with those last 3 fruits, they need water added because using 7-9 lbs of fruit per gallon of those plants is really wasteful in my opinion, 5-6 lbs of black berries, 5-6 lbs of blueberries or 5-6 lbs of black raspberries is plenty for a solid full bodied wine. In fact the most difficult batch of wine to keep balanced was a batch of blueberry made with 8 lbs per gallon, the acidity was crazy low from the start.

So the answer = No one way works for every situation.

 

[Cxwgfamily]

Thanks to all comments. I will continue to wash and let dry (I failed to mention that after washing I do a drying step). I feel I am slowly learning how to make wine.
Cxwgfamily