Cherry-plum is unpretentious, therefore many plant it on country and personal plots. With all its pickyness, this tree bears fruit very well. From its fruits make jam, jam. Wine from cherry plum at home is also worthy. It may resemble white or red grape wine - the color depends on the cherry plum variety.
Cooking Technology
Darker varieties of cherry plum are good for dessert wines, and table wines are more often made from yellow cherry plum. This is due to the different acidity and sugar content of these fruits. However, in the manufacture of cherry plum wine, if you do not know some features of the technology, difficulties may arise.
- If rotten fruit and litter fall into the wort, the taste and aroma of the drink will be spoiled. Therefore, it is necessary to sort out cherry plum carefully, without sparing a single fruit, the quality of which is in doubt.
- Often cherry plums are used unwashed, rightly believing that the wild yeast on its surface will provide fermentation. However, their strength may not be enough, so for safety, a catalyst in the form of raisins is added to the wort. If for any reason the fruit has been washed, wine yeast is indispensable. They should be added according to the instructions on the bag, usually 5 grams per 10 liters of wort is required. It is not necessary to add raisins when using yeast.
- There are stones in cherry plum. Many winemakers do not consider it necessary to spend time removing them. This work is laborious, but nevertheless not useless. The pits contain a small amount of prussic acid. In such quantities, it is not capable of causing serious harm to the body, but still not a harmless one. It is better to remove the stones from the cherry plum.
- The most serious problem faced when making home-made wines from cherry plum is the production of juice from it. In it, as in the plum, a lot of pectin, which is a gelling agent. It prevents the separation of juice. Pectinase, which is sold in specialized stores for winemakers, will help neutralize it. If you buy it does not come out, you will have to manage with the fact that you can press.
One should be prepared to lighten the plum wine because of the same pectin for a long time. But it is worth the wait - the finished wine looks amazing, has a delicate taste, a pleasant aroma.
Classic white wine recipe made from cherry plum
Composition:
- plum yellow - 4, 5 kg;
- water (pure, boiled or spring) - 6 l;
- granulated sugar - 0, 3 kg per 1 liter of juice;
- raisins (unwashed) - 150 g.
Method of preparation:
- Prepare the plum (sort, but do not wash). Clean pits.
- Mash fruit with your hands or pestle. Fill with water.
- Mix with raisins, cover with a cloth and place in a warm place where the temperature does not fall below 22 degrees. Stir every day.
- After 4 days, squeeze the juice with a press, filter, measure the volume.
- Measure out the right amount of granulated sugar and mix it with the juice.
- Put the juice in a 20-liter bottle, be sure to clean it, put a water lock on it. The bottle should stand still in the same warm room.
- Wait for the fermentation process to complete. You will guess about this when the gurgling stops and the flesh settles to the bottom.
- Pour the wine into another bottle through the straw, leaving the sediment first. This time close the bottle completely, take the bottle to a cool place (where the temperature does not rise above 20 degrees). There she will have to stand for two months.
- After the indicated time has elapsed, the drink must again be drained from the sediment and filtered, passing through gauze folded in several layers. After that, pour the wine into bottles and leave to mature in a cool place for another three months.
According to this recipe, it will be possible to make white table wine, rather weak (10-12 degrees), semi-sweet. If you want to get the wine sweeter and stronger - increase the amount of sugar. It is important that its amount does not exceed 0, 45 kg per liter of juice.
Recipe for red cherry from
Composition:
- plum (red) - 4 kg;
- water - 6 l;
- honey - 0.5 l;
- wine yeast - 5 g.
Method of preparation:
- Go through the cherry plum, wash it, crush it, trying not to damage the bones, remove them from the fruit mass.
- Heat water to 36-38 degrees, fill it with fruit.
- Pour in the yeast, stir, cover with something to protect against insects, put in a warm place.
- After one day, strain the liquid, squeeze the pulp well.
- Melt the honey so that it becomes liquid, cool it to about 36 degrees, mix with the wort.
- Pour the wort into the bottle with a narrow neck, install a water seal on it.
- Wait for the fermentation to end. It should happen in about 50 days. Drain the wine from the sediment, filter, pour into a clean bottle to settle the wort.
- After a couple of months, when the wine is lightened, drain it from the sediment, filter and bottle.
Homemade wine prepared according to this recipe is light and fragrant, with delicate honey notes. You can keep it for 3 years, and the most delicious it becomes only after a year. If you want to get a dessert wine in addition to honey, you should add sugar in it - 50-100 g per liter of juice. Add it at the same stage as the honey.
Homemade cherry plum wine (modern recipe)
Composition:
- plum (any kind) - 3 kg;
- granulated sugar - 1, 5 kg;
- water - 4 l;
- wine yeast - 5 g;
- feed for yeast (sold in wine-making shops) - 5 g;
- pectinase (extracted there) - 5 g.
Method of preparation:
- Carefully sort the fruits, wash them, let the water drain, clean them with clean hands, removing the bones. Mash the fruit mass, pouring into it water in the amount of 1 l.
- Cover with gauze, leave for 2 hours in a warm place.
- After the indicated time, add pectinase, pour in the remaining water, cover again with gauze, put in a cool place for the juice to separate, but fermentation does not start.
- After 2 days, pour the liquid into the pelvis, squeeze the pulp, adding squeezed juice there too. Bring to a boil, but do not boil. This action is necessary to deactivate pectinase.
- Wait for the juice to cool to a temperature of 36-38 degrees, add sugar, yeast and yeast to it, mix and pour it into the washed and dried hydrolock bottle. Put in a warm room for 30-40 days, until fermentation stops.
- Drain the liquid from the sediment and, overflowing into a new container, place it in a cool place for clarification. It will take about two months.
- When the wine is completely brightened, drain it again from the sediment and strain it, bottle it in which it will be stored.
The preparation of homemade wine according to the modern recipe is faster, but its organoleptic qualities are no lower than that of the beverage prepared by the “grandfather” method. The only thing to use it will have to spend a bit on the purchase of some components.
Even if we consider spending on sugar, wine yeast and other ingredients, home-made cherry plum wine is relatively inexpensive - you can’t buy it in a quality alcohol store for that kind of money. Meanwhile, it turns out so thin and pleasant to the taste that it can compete with expensive drinks.
