Friday, November 26, 2021

Homemade Wine

Homemade?  Well, hardly.  But it was easy and fun and tasted good.
 
I've had this recipe in my "To Try" file for quite a while.  It's super-simple and definitely cheating when it comes to actually making wine at home.  But last week I decided to give it a go.
 
Here's the recipe:
 
3 cups frozen unsweetened fruit, thawed
(The fruit can be any kind of  berry:
raspberries, strawberries,
blueberries, etc.)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 bottle (720 ml) dry white wine
 
In a large bowl, combine fruit and
sugar, stirring until well coated.
Stir in wine until sugar is dissolved.
Cover and chill 5 days.
Strain wine through a fine sieve.
Store in the refrigerator.
Serve chilled.
 
Now you know why I say it's a "cheater" wine.
 

In hindsight, I realize I should have chosen another wine other than my favorite Middle Sister Sweet & Savvy which is a moscato.  The end product would have been better (I'm thinking) if I had used a dry white wine (well, duh) as suggested in the recipe.  I should have grabbed the vinho verde that was right next to my Sweet & Savvy.
 

I combined my blueberries (they were wild blueberries) and sugar in my two-quart Pyrex pitcher.  Next the bottle of wine was poured in and I stirred until it seemed the sugar was dissolved.  A plastic wrap cover was wrapped over the top and I placed the container on a shelf in my pantry where it would have no problem staying "chilled" these days.
 

After the 5 days were up, I strained the liquid into my one-quart pitcher.
 

The blueberries looked none the worse for wear so I put them in a refrigerator dish to save for some other use.
 

I labeled the cover of the blueberry dish so no one would eat them with their breakfast oatmeal and get an early morning buzz.  (Actually, I did eat them with my oatmeal and they were fine.  So was I.)
 

Then I poured the homemade (ha-ha) blueberry wine back into the wine bottle and put it in the refrigerator.
 
How was the taste?  Probably a smidge sweeter than most people would like.  But, obviously, that was because I used the moscato wine.  Papa Pea said he'll gladly sip a glass of it in the evening while in his reading chair.  Daughter said it tasted exactly like Welch's Grape Juice.  "Exactly," she repeated.  Does it taste like blueberries?  Yes, I think that flavor does come through.  I know I'll have no problem helping to consume the bottle.
 
I'm eager to try the recipe again.  And I'll definitely use the bottle of vinho verde I have because it's a dry wine and I think the light touch of fizziness it has will add greatly to the end product.  Hmmm, will the fizziness dissipate during the 5 day wait period?  Even if it does, I'm sure it'll be drinkable.
 
Cheers! 

9 comments:

Leigh said...

Even if it is "cheater," it's a pretty neat experiment. One of my elderberry wines was too sweet (the batch I added cinnamon to) so we mixed it with seltzer water to dilute it, sort of like a wine cooler (I think). It was very good that way!

Mama Pea said...

Leigh - Oh, yes, adding seltzer water to your (truly) homemade wine would give it the pizazz to cut the sweetness a bit. Plus, your brew would be so much healthier than the commercial wine coolers!

wyomingheart said...

Great experiment! We make wine here on the ridge, but i like that your recipe calls for dry white wine, which I won’t drink, but I think I could be persuaded by this new discovery! Thanks Mama Pea!

Mama Pea said...

wyomingheart - I envy you being a good wine maker. (The real kind of wine maker!) The drier the wine, the harder the time I have drinking it, but I know that's not very popular. Good to hear you feel the same way I do. Let's stick together, okay? ;o)

Rosalea said...

Interesting experiment. Careful about consumption though...t'would be a shame to have wobbly stitch lines on your quilting projects! I'm with you and wyomingheart on the dry wine. Did you ever make wine with your haskaps as you once mentioned you might try?

Mama Pea said...

Rosalea - Our daughter is the one who's most interested in actual home brewing so we've handed all our wine making equipment over to her and I know (someday) she will make that haskap berry wine we've all fantasized about. It hasn't happened yet.

P.S. My quilting stitches have been known to be wobbly without any help from wine sipping! ;o)

Ratana said...
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Retired Knitter said...

Oh, that sound wonderful!! Savor it.

Mama Pea said...

Retired Knitter - I finished the last of it last night while sitting on the couch (after a much too busy day!). I found it strange that the wine altered this way didn't give me any kind of a buzz. (I'm not much of a drinker and usually have to stop after a small amount of any wine because it affects me so much. Must have been the effect of those anti-oxidant loaded blueberries!)