The wine was made by my mother-in-law, and she knew a lot about good cuisine and generally cooked amazingly. Later, my children said that my grandmother even cooks pasta like no other.
I diligently learned to cook from my mother-in-law, but I didn’t even think about wine – why, when alcohol was in bulk everywhere, and friends often brought good wine.
As the unforgettable V. Vysotsky wrote: “… well, what can I say about alcohol – there is no lack!”.
And so, perestroika broke out. At first, we, like “the entire Soviet people, in unison,” rejoiced and waited for positive changes.
And changes followed, however, not at all there and not the ones we expected. Gorbachev decided to fight drunkenness, and then wine, vodka, and beer immediately disappeared from the sale … And then everything in general.
It was then that I took care of making my own wine, especially since there were enough chokeberries at the dacha, there were apples, and currants, and even a Kazanlak rose.
This story was shared with me by my subscriber Valentina K.
How it started
Picking chokeberries turned into an exciting game for us – children stubbornly searched for sweet berries, adults cheered them up, chuckling quietly.
From year to year, the mother-in-law lamented that, they say, there were not enough berries, not enough for everyone. I must say that there was still not enough wine for three families, at most, to sit a couple of times.
“First, the berries must be sorted out,” my mother-in-law instructed me, “remove the spoiled ones, then weigh them. Do not wash under any circumstances!
There are people who also do not cut branches and weigh them with them. But it seemed to me that their wine was squeezed out of a tree. For my taste, this method does not add pleasant notes to the wine.
Proportions
For a kilogram of berries there was 1 glass of sugar. Ready-made berries, about 5 kilograms, were mixed with half the sugar and kneaded with a wooden potato masher or with your hands.
That was the expanse for children! We stripped them down to their underpants, put an enamel basin with berries on a low stool, and the children, with enthusiastic squeals and screams, crushed and reaped the berries.
Then we put the puree into a glass dish – we had a ten-liter glass bottle with a wide mouth, closed it with a lid or a gauze cloth and left it to ferment for a week.
They say that it is necessary to put in a dark place, but I left it in the kitchen in a corner where direct sunlight did not fall. To prevent mold from appearing, I stirred the cake a couple of times a day with a long wooden spoon.
What to do next
A week later, the pulp and juice were separated from each other, and the actual preparation of wine began. The pulp, as the cake is called in science, was separated from the juice and squeezed out. It is possible through gauze, you can use your hands, you can use a press. My husband did this, and no press was needed.
Then the pulp was poured with cold boiled water, 1 liter per 5 kilograms of berries, the remaining sugar was added, everything was mixed well and sent to a glass or enameled container for another week for fermentation. Do not forget to cover with a lid or gauze and be sure to mix!
The juice was kept in another glass bottle. A water lock was placed on the neck, and I put on a rubber glove with one pierced finger on the neck.
The air does not pass inside, and the carbon dioxide released during fermentation is collected in the glove, gradually lifts and inflates it. This bottle with a raised glove stood on our windowsill.
We vote for reform! the husband joked.
After a week, you can drain the liquid, strain the pulp and combine the contents of two containers. To do this, remove the glove, carefully pour the juice strained from the remains of the berries into the bottle and put the glove back on. The bottle is placed where it stood.
Now, in order to obtain transparent wine, it is necessary to regularly, once every three to four days, remove the sediment and foam that forms on the surface. To do this, remove the glove and carefully, using a rubber hose, strain the wine into another container and put the glove back on. Flush the rest down the toilet.
After about two months, the wine brightens a little, the sediment almost does not appear, and you can start tasting and bottling.
If the wine is too sour, then you can add a little sugar, no more than 1 tablespoon per liter. It is better not to pour sugar directly into the wine, but put it in a gauze bag and lower it into the wine.
After the spill
Bottles with young wine are recommended to be placed in a dark cool place – such as a cellar – and keep the wine there as long as possible.
But I kept them on the mezzanine. It is dark there, but not so cold, although after the onset of cool nights, I opened the mezzanines at night and closed them in the morning. Yes, and these bottles did not lie for long – they drank before. But at the very least we managed to provide them with lying in a dark, cool place.
And friends and neighbors ran into young wine, and no speeches about patience could overcome the desire to try something new, their own, environmentally friendly.
Опыт
But once my thrifty daughter-in-law managed to save one bottle and put it on the New Year’s table. That was joy and surprise!
By December, chokeberry wine acquired a completely indescribable taste: moderately tart, sweetish-bitter, slightly sour, transparent and dark – similar to the color of marsala.
And the mother-in-law added the petals of the Kazanlak rose to the chokeberry – a three-liter saucepan for 5 kilograms of berries. I didn’t really like it – some kind of perfume smell appeared, but someone liked it. There are other additives – apples, raisins, currants.
And in general, in such a business as winemaking, both adherence to the recipe and intuition, as well as the desire to experiment, are important. Then you can please yourself and loved ones with unusual wine.
But for the first time, it’s better, after all, to get by with proven recipes, and then, after gaining initial experience, you can start exploring other options.
I consider it necessary to add that the method I have described by no means claims to be the only correct one. Everyone who is engaged in home winemaking has their own ways, which may partially or completely differ from mine.
Maybe someone will share their recipes for making wines from other berries and fruits? It is very interesting who makes it at home, who has what cooking technology, share your experience, friends!