This is the time of year to get ready for Making Homemade Wines. Fall is the time to gather your ingredients whether they are fruit, berries, vegetable, nuts or honey.
Get out your wine recipes and select the wines you will be making this season. Make a grocery list of the ingredient you will need.
Start planning your weekend outings around the crop that is ripening at that time. Your best tasting wines will come from vine ripened fruit, but don’t wait until the fruit is past its prime. Early morning is the best time of day for berry picking. For more produce picking tips go to http://www.pickyourown.org/pickingtips.htm
If you can’t process your crop immediately freeze it. Remember you will be juicing it to make your homemade wine so the texture is not a consideration. However the fruit should not be moldy or spoiled. The quality of your wine is only as good as the quality of the ingredients.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to pick your own fruits, other good sources include:
- Farmers markets
- Roadside fruit stands
- Your friends, neighbors and relatives.
- And of course the grocery store.
Remember your ingredients don’t have to be fresh. Very good wine can be made from juice and reconstituted dried fruits e.g. raisins and currents. If using canned or dried ingredients, be sure to use a wine recipes made specifically for that purpose.
Making Homemade Wines can be a family pastime. Turn a weekend picnic onto a berry picking adventure. Remember to dress appropriately most berries have thorns.
P.S. My favorite berry wine is Oregon blackberry.
