Name: Cherry Wine
Yield: 4.5 litres
Ingredients: 2 kg cherries; 1 kg sugar; 4.5 l water; 1 tsp acid blend; 0.25 tsp wine tannin; 1 tsp pectic enzyme; 1 campden tablet; 1 tsp yeast nutrient; 1 sachet Lalvin 71B

About this recipe

Easy homemade cherry wine recipe for one demijohn (1 gallon). Sweet or sour cherries, sugar and patience. Worth the purple fingers from stoning.

Ingredients

cherries2 kg

sugar1 kg

water4.5 l

acid blend1 tsp

wine tannin0.25 tsp

pectic enzyme1 tsp

campden tablet1

yeast nutrient1 tsp

sachet Lalvin 71B1

Method

1

Destone the cherries and mash in a sterilised bucket

2

Dissolve the sugar in hot water, cool, and pour over the fruit

3

Add the acid blend, tannin, pectic enzyme and a crushed campden tablet, cover and leave 24 hours

4

Add the yeast and nutrient

5

Ferment 5 to 7 days, stirring daily

6

Strain into a demijohn, top up to 4.5 litres and fit an airlock

7

Ferment out for 2 to 5 weeks

8

Rack off the sediment

9

Age at least 6 months before drinking

Brewer's notes

Sour cherries make the better wine if you can find them, morellos ideally, but sweet supermarket cherries work with the acid to sharpen them up. Destone the lot. It is tedious and your fingers will look fingerprinted, but the stones bring a harsh almond edge. Ferments dry with 71B; sweeten at bottling for something nearer a dessert red.

Country Wine · Country Fruit Wine · Still · Dry–Medium

Elderberry Wine

Elderberry wine is one of the most celebrated homemade fruit wines in British winemaking tradition. Dark, full-bodied, and rich with tannin, a well-made elderberry wine is often compared to a robust red grape wine. This elderberry wine recipe guides you from hedgerow to bottle, using fresh or frozen elderberries that are at their peak in September and October. High in antioxidants and deeply flavourful, this is a country wine that genuinely rewards patience; it only improves with 12 months of ageing.

by @essesser

Country Wine · Country Fruit Wine · Still · Dry–Medium

Plum & Sloe Country Wine

Plum and sloe wine is a deeply flavoured, tannic country wine that makes excellent use of late-summer and early-autumn hedgerow harvests. This homemade plum wine recipe combines the rich, jammy sweetness of Victoria plums with the astringency of sloe berries to create a beautifully balanced, port-like country wine. It's one of the finest recipes in the British country winemaking canon, robust, complex, and absolutely stunning when aged for a year or more.

by @essesser13.1% ABV

Country Wine · Country Fruit Wine · Still · Off-Dry

Apple & Cinnamon Country Wine

Apple and cinnamon country wine is a wonderfully warming homemade fruit wine that tastes like autumn in a glass. Made from fresh-pressed apple juice or windfall apples, this easy apple wine recipe is spiced with whole cinnamon sticks for a comforting depth of flavour. Unlike hard cider, this country wine ferments with added sugar to reach a fuller body and higher ABV. It's a brilliant way to use a glut of garden apples and requires no specialist equipment beyond a fermentation bucket and demijohn.

by @essesser12.5% ABV

Cherry Wine