Not everyone has the opportunity to make wines from fresh grapes. In this case, ordinary raisins come to the rescue – dried berries sold all year round. They are the basis of the recipe. Next, I will tell you how to make raisin wine at home, we will look at the full technology. Get a moderately strong and very tasty drink.
To make wine, you need large, fragrant raisins, minimally processed with preservatives, so that wild yeast, which is needed for fermentation, remains on the surface. It is better to buy in the market, avoiding the cheapest varieties. All containers must be pre-sterilized with boiling water and dried.
Ingredients:
- raisins – 1,2 kg;
- sugar – 2 kg;
- water – 7 liters.
raisin wine recipe
1. 3-4 days before working with berries, prepare a starter that activates fermentation. To do this, pass 200 grams of unwashed raisins through a meat grinder, pour into a half-liter jar, add 2 tablespoons of sugar and a little water (should cover the raisins), mix. Tie the neck of the jar with gauze, then put the future sourdough in a warm (18-25 ° C) place and wait until it ferments: foam, hiss, and a slight sour smell will appear.
2. Pour 1 kg of unwashed raisins, 1 kg of sugar, then pour 7 liters of water into the fermentation tank. Fill the container no more than 75% of the volume to leave room for foam and carbon dioxide. Mix well until the sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Add wine starter (do not strain) to the must prepared in the previous step.
4. Install a water seal of any design or a medical glove with a small hole in one of the fingers (made with a needle).
Attention! A pierced glove must be well tied to the neck of the container, otherwise it will fly off during the fermentation process.
5. Transfer the container to a dark place (can be covered) with a temperature of 18-26°C. After some time, the glove under gas pressure will inflate and rise (the water seal will begin to bubble). This means that fermentation is proceeding normally.
After 4-5 days, add a new portion of sugar (500 grams): open the water seal, drain 250-300 ml of must through a tube into a separate container, dilute sugar in it, pour the finished syrup into a fermentation tank, put it under the water seal again. After another 5-6 days, repeat the procedure for adding sugar (500 grams) according to the described technology.
Raisin wine ferments 25-60 days. You can proceed to the next stage only after the glove is completely deflated (the water seal does not blow bubbles for 2-3 days), there is a dense layer of sediment at the bottom, and the wort itself has brightened.
If fermentation lasts longer than 50 days, in order to avoid bitterness, you need to pour the wine into another container without sediment at the bottom, then put it under a water seal to ferment.
Part of the resulting wine can be distilled. It will turn out “Peysakhovka” – Jewish raisin vodka (moonshine).
6. Drain the young wine from the sediment through a thin tube, making sure that the sediment at the bottom does not get into the wine during pouring. Try the drink, you can add more sugar to sweeten it or fix it with vodka (alcohol 40-45%) in an amount of 2-15% by volume. To the top (preferably to minimize contact with oxygen), fill storage containers with wine.
7. Keep the wine for 3-6 months in a cool (6-16°C) dark place, for example, in a cellar. Aging significantly improves the taste of raisin wine. As sediment appears, filter the drink by pouring it through a straw into another container (at first every 10-15 days, then less often).
After maturation, the wine can be bottled for storage and hermetically sealed with corks. In the cellar or refrigerator, the shelf life of homemade raisin wine is up to 3 years. Fortress – 11-12 degrees (without fixing).
PS Raisin wine is prepared even by professional winemakers. In the Italian region of Valpolicella (near Verona), Amarone wine is sold. For its preparation, the grapes are first dried in the sun. In such a drink, the concentration of all substances is three times higher than in other wines.