To make wine, you can take any kind of cherry plum: yellow, purple or red. But experienced winemakers recommend using apricot or red cherry plum, as it has the highest sugar content.
Cherry plum makes excellent dessert and fortified wines. But cherry plum has a high content of pectin and young wine needs to be drained from the sediment for a long time, but the result will exceed all your expectations.
They also make cherry plums: liquor, liqueur, tincture
Simple cherry plum wine
To get dry wine, you need to take less sugar, somewhere around 200 g, for semi-dry 250 g, for semi-sweet 300 g, and for sweet 350 grams of granulated sugar.
Ingredients
Cherry plum – 3 kg
Granulated sugar – 350 g
Water – 4 L
Raisins – 100 g
Method of preparation
To make wine, cherry plum does not need to be washed, since wild yeast “live” on it, they start the process of natural fermentation.
We sort out the cherry plum, remove the stalks, leaves and spoiled berries. Then we knead it with our hands or with a wooden spatula (the bone must remain intact, otherwise the finished drink may taste bitter).
We transfer the prepared cherry plum fruits to a glass container, add water and unwashed raisins (the bacteria that are on it will speed up the fermentation process, but you can do without it if you wish). We cover the neck with gauze and put it for 2-3 days in a dark place with a temperature of 21 to 29 degrees before fermentation begins.
As soon as the first signs of natural fermentation appear (hissing, sour smell and foam), the cherry plum juice must be drained, and the pulp should be thoroughly squeezed with gauze.
Add granulated sugar to the container with fermented juice, mix thoroughly and put a water seal or a clean glove with a small hole on the finger (the container should be filled 3/4 of the container volume). We send our future wine to a dark place with a temperature of 18 to 25 degrees for 15–45 days.
As soon as the fermentation process is over, the young wine is carefully drained from the sediment and filtered using a home-made and purchased filter. Pour into glass bottles.
Before tasting, we keep the wine in a dark, cool place for at least 2 months.
If a precipitate occurs again, then step 6 must be repeated.
Polish cherry plum wine
Polish wine can be prepared using wild yeast or special wine yeast. Consider two cooking options.
Ingredients (option 1)
Cherry plum – 8 kg
Granulated sugar – 2,8 kg
Water – 4,5 L
Citric acid – 5 g
Feed for yeast – 3 g
Method of preparation
To make wine, cherry plum does not need to be washed, since wild yeast “live” on it, they start the process of natural fermentation.
We sort out the cherry plum, remove the stalks, leaves, seeds and spoiled berries. We interrupt with a blender or pass through a meat grinder.
Cover the container with prepared berries with gauze and put in a warm place until fermentation begins, it will take 2-3 days.
As soon as the first signs of natural fermentation appear (hissing, sour smell and foam), the cherry plum juice must be drained, and the pulp should be thoroughly squeezed with gauze.
In a container with fermented juice, add water, citric acid, half of granulated sugar and make-up (if it is not possible to buy make-up, you can continue to cook wine without it) and then put a water seal or a clean glove with a small hole on the finger.
After 14 days of active fermentation, we drain the liquid from the sediment, add the remaining sugar and the second half of the feed, and again install the water seal for another 2-3 weeks.
After 2–3 weeks, repeat step 6 and, after installing the water seal, transfer the container to a cool place until fermentation is complete.
It is advisable to drain young cherry plum wine from the sediment throughout the year, this procedure must be repeated every month (it may take less time and after 5-6 months homemade wine will not throw out the sediment).
Now cherry plum wine can be bottled. It is best to store the finished product in the cellar. The strength of the drink is around 17 degrees.
Ingredients (option 2)
Cherry plum – 8 kg
Granulated sugar – 2,8 kg
Water – 4,5 L
Citric acid – 5 g
Feed for yeast – 3 g
Wine yeast – 1 sachet
Method of preparation
We repeat the first 2 points from option 1.
From a third of granulated sugar and a third of water, we cook simple sugar syrup.
Mix the cooled syrup with prepared cherry plum, cover with gauze and put in a dark place for 2-3 days.
After the specified time, it is necessary to drain the fruit syrup into a separate container, and pour the cherry plum with new sugar syrup made from half the remaining sugar and half the water, cover with gauze and put in a dark place for 2-3 days.
After 3 days, drain the syrup again, and add the rest of the water to the berries, mix thoroughly and pour the resulting juice into a container for fruit syrup, and squeeze the cake through cheesecloth.
In the prepared wort, we introduce make-up and wine yeast, put a water seal or a clean glove with a small hole on the finger. We transfer the container to a warm place until the first precipitation of yeast precipitates.
We drain the young wine from the sediment, introduce the last part of granulated sugar, install the water seal again until the second precipitation of the yeast.
We again drain the wine from the sediment, put a water seal and transfer it to a dark, cool place until the fermentation is complete.
Next, repeat steps 8 and 9 from the first version of the recipe.
American plum wine
The American technology for making wine from cherry plum at home resembles the classic technology from grapes. And it’s quite easy to do so.
This recipe uses pectinase, which is an enzyme that breaks down pectin and allows the juice to separate from fruits with a high pectin content.
Ingredients
Cherry plum – 2,8 kg
Granulated sugar – 1,4 kg
Water – 4 L
Wine yeast – 1 sachet
Feed for yeast – 1 tsp.
Pectinase – 1 tsp.
Method of preparation
We sort out the cherry plum, remove the stalks, leaves and spoiled berries. Then add 1 liter of water and knead it with your hands or with a wooden spatula (the bone must remain intact, otherwise the finished drink may taste bitter). Leave for 2-3 hours at room temperature.
After the specified time, add the remaining water and pectinase to the container with cherry plum. Cover with gauze and transfer for 2-3 days in a dark, cool place.
After 2-3 days, strain the juice through a sieve or gauze and bring to a boil. As soon as the liquid begins to boil, remove it from the heat and pour in the granulated sugar. Stir and cool to room temperature.
In the cooled syrup, add make-up and wine yeast, put a water seal or a clean glove with a small hole on the finger. We transfer the container to a dark place and leave it for 4–6 weeks until the fermentation process is completed.
As soon as the wort has ceased to show all signs of fermentation, we drain it from the sediment.
It is advisable to decant young wine from cherry plum throughout the year, this procedure must be repeated every month (it may take less time and after 5–6 months homemade wine will not throw out sediment).
Now cherry plum wine can be bottled. It is best to store the finished product in the cellar.
Relevance: 31.10.2017
Tags: Wine and vermouth, Wine recipes