Is fruit wine in your future? It’s fun and easy

A friend of ours made some fruit wine from elderberries when we were in college, and it was pretty good. A little syrupy, but the price was right.

There are a variety of wines that can be made from fruit other than grapes. Elderberry is one. Cranberry, apple, rhubarb, persimmon, plum, pineapple, cherry and many other fruits can be used for winemaking.

The trick is to avoid fruits that have too much acidity. Most fruits other than grapes require the addition of sugar in some form. This is because they don’t reach the level of ripeness grapes can achieve.

As with wine made from grapes, you don’t want to use mediocre fruit for your fruit wine. You want superior fruit, well ripened and flavorful.

To add more aromatics and character to the wine, you can use grape concentrate. Texture and sweetness can be enhanced with raisins. Need more wine body? Throw in some bananas.

Making fruit wine at home is fairly easy. It’s best to follow a recipe (at least at first) and you’ll need some ingredients you might not have in your cupboards (like peptic enzyme and campden tablets). But otherwise, it only requires a little effort and some waiting around.

So, what kind of fruit wine are you making, and when can we come over and have a sip?

Dying to try some non-grape wine but not interested in making your own? One of our club members makes wine and spirits from Asian Pears–check out Subarashii Kudomono.