Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in cherry wine, enology, mead, winemaking on Nov 30th, 2007
Making red wine from cherries
I made cherry wine, in June 2006 and 2007, like a red wine from grapes. I crushed the fruit, adjusted the sugar and acid, and pitched the yeast. The sugar and acid profile of cherries is very different from that of grapes, so “adjusting the sugar and acid” is a much […]
Posted in cherry wine, enology on Jul 31st, 2007
Too much acid, but I don’t dare neutralize it
I pressed the cherry wine four weeks ago, and looked in on it yesterday. It’s had time to settle, and the clear wine has a lovely dark color. It tastes tart, though, and when I measured the total acidity (TA) I could see why. It was 11 […]
Posted in cherry wine on Jul 3rd, 2007
I pressed the cherry wine last night. I got just under three gallons of free run, and another half gallon or so after pressing.
The photo is from last night and shows the free run wine in a carboy. It’s foamy because I just poured it in through a funnel, and it’s still fermenting. You can […]
Posted in Recipes, cherry wine on Jun 30th, 2007
I made the case for white wine from cherries a while back, but when I made cherry wine yesterday it was a red. I bought 43 or so pounds of Bing Cherries, and after setting aside 4.5 lb for cherry liqueur, I had about 38 lb left for wine. They’re dark skinned cherries with red […]
Posted in cherry wine, mead on Jun 28th, 2007
An opportunity needs to be siezed
Safeway is having a sale, cherries for $1.49/lb, and that got me thinking about honey varietals. Let me back up a little. About this time last year, I bought 40 lb of cherries, some from Safeway, and made cherry wine. After I pressed the wine, I made cherry mead in […]
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine on Jun 19th, 2007
When selecting my cherry trees, I was thinking in terms of making red and white wine from sweet and tart cherries. I need clear juice to make white cherry wine and red/black skins to make red cherry wine. That means at least four different cherry trees: two tart and two sweet, and at least one […]
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine, enology on Jun 17th, 2007
Isn’t cherry wine is supposed to be red?
I mentioned white cherry wine in passing here, but most people think of cherry wine as a red. The only commercial cherry wine I’ve tried is a red - crushed, fermented on the skins, then pressed. Every recipe I’ve seen involves either fermenting on the skins or fermenting […]
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine, gardening on Jun 14th, 2007
Surefire is one of four cherry trees growing in my bonsai orchard, and the only one that will produce fruit, if just a handful, this year. It’s a tart cherry with red skin, flesh, and juice; I can’t wait to make red cherry wine and liqueur from it.
I bought the tree this year, so I […]