CANADA RED CHOKECHERRY WINE - 2003

This was not a great year for chokecherries. A cool wet spring and a dry summer left most of the trees devoid of these purple gems. So, I was so happy to stumble upon some Canada Red Chokecherry trees (prunus virginiana) that were just loaded with fruit. They were ripe at the end of July and I picked over 26 pounds and put them into the freezer.

September 2, 2003

The chokecherries were thawed and placed in the primary.

Four gallons of boiling water were added and the cherries were crushed using a paint stirrer. After the must had cooled down some, pectic enzyme was added to help break down the pulp.

September 3, 2003

After maceration for 24 hours, the juice was strained from the pulp and the pulp squeezed by hand to get as much as possible. This yielded about 5 gallons of juice. The pulp was reserved to make a second wine. The chokecherry must had a beautiful deep red/purple color. And the aroma was very cherry. The flavor seemed a little light, so I decided to add a gallon of apple juice. Yeast nutrient, tannin, tartaric acid and some lemon juice were also added. Sugar was added to bring the gravity up to 1.096. Lavlin EC1118 yeast was sprinkled on top of the must. For the second wine, 1 gallon of apple juice and 2 gallons of water were added. Nutrients, tannin, acid and lemon juice were added and it was also innoculated. Now the wait begins.

Chokecherry Must after straining from the pulp.

September 5, 2003

Both batches are beginning to ferment quite strongly.

September 6, 2003

Fermentation is going very vigorously.

September 7, 2003

The fermenting juice was transferred to secondary containers and placed under airlock. The juice fermentation batch had a gravity of 1.002. This was transferred directly to a 6 gallon carboy. The second pulp fermentation batch was strained and placed in a 5 gallon carboy. The gravity measured 1.024. You can see the pulp that made it through the straining bag settling out quickly.

September 19, 2003

Fermentation is pretty much done on both batches and they are ready to be racked off the gross sediment. I will probably do that this weekend. Notice how much darker the color looks when most of the yeast is no longer suspended in the wine. The color difference from the juice fermented and the second wine is almost indistinguishable.

September 21, 2003

Both batches were racked off the gross lees into clean carboys. The gravity of the first batch was 0.995 and the second was 0.990.

November 23, 2003

Both batches of chokecherry wine have cleared very nicely. The first run batch has a deep red color, good body. It had a little bit of harshness in the finish. Sugar was added to bring it up to about 1% residual to round out the flavor. It is not sweet by any means and a nice balanced red wine. The second batch is a little lighter in color and has more of the harsh chokecherry tannins. This was sweetened to about 3% residual sugar which seems to be just about right for the balance. These will be filtered and bottled in the near future.

January 24 , 2004

The wines were filtered through a number 2 pad and bottled. Click the labels below for the detailed wine log.