Cherry Wine Recipe – A Full Flavoured Red
Cherries make wonderful fruit wine with a great depth of flavour. Out of all the fruit wines I make I think cherry wine has the best colour and it always comes out better than you expect, there are other health benefits too. If you can source some cherries for yourself this cherry wine recipe is definitely one to try.
In temperate northern regions, there is usually an abundance of cherries during the summer, either from a pick-your-own farm or lots of people grow the trees in their gardens. I live close to a pick-your-own farm which has rows of cherry trees which makes picking enough to make wine pretty easy. However, one great thing about this recipe is you can use frozen or canned cherries and the wine is just as good as using fresh cherries.
This means you should be able to make this cherry wine year-round as most grocery stores will have cherries of some sort, either fresh, frozen or canned year-round.
Table of Contents
Fresh & Frozen Cherries
Cherries are a bold flavour and this flavour really does well even after freezing the cherries. The real difference between frozen or fresh cherries is the texture and for us winemakers the texture is not really an issue for us. In fact, freezing cherries is actually beneficial as it breaks down the structure of the fruit which when thawed will release more of the sugars and juices we want in the wine.
Canned Cherry Wine
In fact, even canned cherries will work on this recipe. Usually, canned cherries are in a light syrup which can also be added to the wine as long as there are no preservatives in it. Using canned cherries in this cherry wine recipe is exactly the same, you just need to work out how many cherries are in the can, usually, there is a net weight that you can use to work this out.
If you are using the syrup from the tinned cherries you will want to decrease the amount of sugar you add. The can will usually detail how much sugar is in the syrup on the nutritional information or you can use a hydrometer to work it out.
Sweet or Sour Cherry Wine
This is my personal preference I have most often used sour cherries for this recipe but if you use sweet cherries you will, of course, end up with a slightly sweeter wine. It is also worth trying a mix of both sweet and sour cherries so you can balance the sweetness yourself, you may have to experiment a little to get the perfect mix but it is definitely worth it.
Preparing The Cherries for Wine Making
It is important to destone the cherries.
Getting the cherries ready to make wine is simple but a little labour-intensive. You will want to wash them thoroughly and remove any bad cherries. As well as this you will need to remove the stems and destone the cherries. As we are going to be mashing the flesh we do not want the stones in the wine as the insides of cherry pits are toxic if you consume enough.
Most of the time frozen cherries are pre-prepared so this makes them great for making cherry wine.
Equipment You Will Need To Make Cherry Wine – Makes 1 gallon / 4.5 litres
- Large Stock Pot
- Small Fermenting Bucket
- Demijohn
- Syphon
- Fine Straining Bag
- Potato Masher
- Airlock & Bung
Cherry Wine Ingredients
- 4.2 litres Water
- 1.6 kg / 3.5 lb Cherries destoned (sweet or sour or mix)
- 1.1 kg / 2.5 lb Sugar
- 1/8 tsp Tannin
- 2 tsp Acid Blend (for sweet cherry wine only)
- 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
- 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
- 1 Campden Tablet
- 1 Sachet Yeast (Lallemand EC-1118 is a good choice but experiment with others)
Cherry Wine Recipe Method
1. Start by heating half the water and all the sugar in a large pan. Heat gently to dissolve all the sugar and stir to prevent any scorching of the sugar on the bottom of the pan. Bring the sugar solution to a boil for a few minutes and then turn off the heat.
2. In a sanitized fermenting bucket, place the fine-straining bag and add the prepared, washed cherries. Take the potato masher and pulp the cherries to extract the flavour and the juices. Secure the pulp in the straining bag and then pour over the boiling sugar solution. Mix thoroughly and then pour the remaining cool water to bring the temperature down.
3. Add the tannin, yeast nutrient, and acid blend if using sweet cherries and then the Campden tablet. Mix thoroughly throughout the must then secure the lid for at least 12 hours.
4. After 12 hours add the pectic enzyme and mix thoroughly, secure the lid and leave for a further 24 hours.
5. After 24 hours add the yeast by sprinkling it onto the surface of the must. Secure the lid and airlock and allow to ferment for around 2 weeks.
6. After two weeks it is time to remove the straining bag and what remains of the cherries. Lift the bag out and let it drain but do not squeeze. Cover the cherry wine again with the lid and let is settle for a couple of days before racking to a demijohn.
7. Once racked into a demijohn allow the wine to condition for at least three months racking to a new demijohn once or twice when sediment builds up. The wine ages well and can be left up to 6 months before bottling.
This cherry wine is great as it is but if you prefer a sweeter wine then back sweetening it is the way to go, if you use sweeter cherries you will often end up with less tart wine anyway so always sample before sweetening.
I feel like your ferment would be finished in the primary if you left for two weeks yet alone the wine picking up off flavours and aromas if you left the cherry bag in that long. Your fruit without a doubt would start to rot. A week max in MHO!
2 weeks is not that long. The fruit is in an airtight fermenter which is quite low in oxygen so any mould is inhibited. I have left fruit in the fermenter for two weeks without a problem so far.
Cheers
I left mine for 2 weeks and followed the recipe to a tee. Used sour Evans Cherries from my own tree.. location is central Alberta Canada. First time making wine and this is spot on to my taste preference. I am on day 50, just racked to a clean demijohn and did a taste test. Very light, not too sweet and a little tart, with an excellent cherry flavour. The colour is fantastic and I couldn’t be happier so far. I froze enough cherries to make 3 more batches. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Sounds great!
At this point, when an while it ferments, Alcohol is being made, which will preserve the fruit and keep it from rotting in the vessel.
So it would be fine for 2 weeks with the alcohol content around 20% I believe most wine is give or take.
I have followed recipe and the wine has just been put into demijohn but it is very dry, is there anything I can do at this stage?
If you want to sweeten the wine it is best to do this prior to bottling. Take a look at this guide on how to sweeten the wine.
I received 2 lbs of Dried Tart Cherries (sugar infused). Can I use them for wine, if so how should I prepare them?
I have some tart cherry trees and,while reading the recepy,I wonder about the ingredients.
If I have more cherries, should I follow the recipy and exponentially increase the
ingredients including the yest? Also, can I use a 5 gal water bottle (BPA free plastic)as
carboy for fermentation? As you can see I’m new at this and any and all information are
greatly appreciated.
Thank you
You can follow the recipe and double the ingredients if you use double the amount of cherries for example. One sachet of yeast will be enough to ferment up to 25 litres so you will only need more than one of you make more than this.
Used Rainiers from my Daughters tree on this. Just pulled the fruit from it this morning. Going to let it rest a day or two and rack into carboys. I see many recipes say to add campden when racking. This one doesn’t mention. Do you recommend campden at racking? But initial taste has a nice cherry flavor, and a nice tartness. Happy so far.
I have used Campden when racking before. It acts to prevent oxidation so is particularly useful if you are going to age the wine for a long time. If you rack and introduce a lot of air, either by bubbling or splashing a Campden tablet may be worthwhile. I have found for wines that are drunk quickly that it doesn’t make much difference.
Hello to all friends. I live in Iran. And I want to make wine with cherries. Can anyone guide me in Persian? Thank you
My wine has been in the primary for nearly 3 weeks and is still actively fermenting. As a side note I only used cherry juice so I have no fruit to remove. Should I move to secondary? Or wait til fermentation slows? I am just nervous about off flavors. Any suggestions?
Wait till the fermentation is starting to slow before racking. You can rack while the airlock is still bubbling but it is best to wait until it has started to slow down.