Fruit wine: what it is, how it is made + a selection of 27 recipes
Obviously, grapes are also used to make fruit or berry wine. However, the wine made from it is always called grape wine, while wines made from other fruits and berries are called fruit or berry wines without often indicating which berry or fruit they are made from.
Over the centuries-long history of grape cultivation, people have greatly improved the quality of the original wild grapes and have developed many different varieties that produce wines of a wide variety of qualities. That's why grapes have taken a special place among other fruit plants.
Fruit wine can be made from all kinds of fruits, and even some garden plants, for example: watermelons, melons, rhubarb, parsnips, beets and some other plants.
The basics of fruit winemaking
Fruit wine is prepared in exactly the same way as grape wine, but as this business is relatively young, gardeners have not yet developed enough varieties of fruits and berries that would be suitable for making wine of any quality, just like grapes... Therefore, the production of fruit wines is somewhat more complicated than grape winemaking and has a number of features and differences.
List of all stages of fruit wine production
Preparation of fruits and berries for processing
Juicing fruits and berries
The study of the juice
Fortification, improvement of juice and preparation of must from it
Setting up for fermentation
Infection of wort with yeast fungi
Violent fermentation
The first transfusion
Quiet fermentation and care for it
The second and subsequent transfusions of wine
Maturation and aging of wine
Cleaning, clarifying and preparing wine for bottling
Bottling of wine into bottles
Preservation of wine and aging in bottles
Treatment of diseases and defects of wine
The difference between regular and fruit wine
During the preparation of many fruits and berries for juicing, it is often necessary to remove large grains, seeds (from cherries, plums, apricots, peaches) and crush or crush the fruit into smaller parts - all this does not have to be done in grape winemaking.
Juice extraction is carried out in the same way as in grape winemaking, but in fruit winemaking it is almost always necessary to improve the juice obtained, flavoring it with certain substances in order to obtain wine of the desired strength and taste.
Almost all fruits and berries contain very little sugar and a lot of acid, so their pure juice gives a weak wine, not strong, but too acidic. This disadvantage of berry and fruit juice has to be compensated for in various ways.
For example, to reduce the acidity, you have to dilute the juice with water, flavor it with lime and other salts, mix the juices of different fruits and berries to get wine of the desired strength - you have to add sugar, honey, etc. п., also add protein substances to increase food for yeast fungi, etc. п.
All this has to be done only because there are still few varieties of fruits and berries that produce juice containing enough sugar and acid to produce wine of the desired taste.
In grape winemaking, this is done less frequently, only when producing certain types of wines (sweetened, strong, semi-sweet, etc.).).
In all other respects, fruit wine is made in exactly the same way as grape wine, without any differences.
When making fruit wine, the following rules must be followed:
All utensils, tools and implements, as well as the employee's hands, must always be impeccably clean, after finishing work, everything must be thoroughly washed with soap (preferably baking soda), and rinsed with clean water before starting work...
Iron or copper utensils, untinned or tinned with lead, should be avoided, as they enrich the wine with harmful impurities and can spoil it.
If no other dishes are available, then using iron (tin) dishes, you should work quickly so that the juice does not remain in it for more than 15-30 minutes., rinse more often and do not leave juice in it for a long time.
It is better to use enamel, glass, clay or wooden utensils, also cleanly washed. Food-grade plastic is not recommended due to its unpredictable results, and correct labeling in this case does not provide a 100% guarantee.
A selection of fruit wine recipes from Vzboltai
Update: 29.12.2019
Category: Wine and Vermouth