In the Pacific Northwest, wild blackberries grow in extraordinary abundance. They're actually sort of a nuisance. The Himalayan blackberry is in fact an invasive species, and they grow at astounding rates. Consequently, I have access to an abundance of blackberries that fruit in the late summers here, and after years of making jams and sauces, I finally got around to making some wine out of them.
My first go-round was mediocre, to be sure. It was two winters ago. I bought a home winemaking kit billed as "Everything But The Fruit" -- which was perfect for me, because fruit was all I had. And wine was made. And drunkenness was achieved. And there was muted self-satisfaction. In truth, while drinkable, it was hooch. Period. Slightly on the funky side, but after back-sweetening it heartily you could drink enough of it to get yourself fairly toasty.
In any case, now I had the equipment. More wine would surely follow.
It turns out, with a modest investment in some hardware, a modicum of easily attainable know-how, and bit of patience (more on that later), quality wines can be made at home out of just about any fruit or vegetable. I'm not exaggerating. People make wine out of some weird things sometimes. They're not all winners, to be sure, even if technically wine. Some people make certain wines (i.e. onion wine, beet wine) just to cook with. If it grows out of the ground or can otherwise be plucked off a plant, you can make wine out of it.
In any case, I kept things simple. Since then I've made two more blackberry batches, two strawberry batches, a blueberry batch, two berry blend batches, a plum batch, and one batch of concord grape wine, all from fresh fruit. I've also made concord grape wine, mango wine, strawberry watermelon wine, and white grape wine all from bottled juices -- and let me say that bottled juices make truly drinkable wines, even if they may not be the absolute best. Most of the wines were made from buying frozen fruit in bulk from a local grocer wholesaler, and my average cost per bottle is about $2. In a couple instances I came into free fruit like the blackberries and then the cost goes down even more significantly.
The *only* hard part is the waiting. Aging the wine is a important component of final quality, and your patience is greatly rewarded. Wine can be drinkable and will get ya drunk after only a few weeks time. A quality wine, however, should be aged a year or more to achieve its best balance and character.
Anyway, this past President's Day weekend, I bottled up 4 batches I had started last spring and summer: the lemon, the plum, the blackberry 2.0 and the strawberry 2.0. And these wines are *good*. The oldest had been aged nearly 9 months, the youngest only 6, but I'm proud of them. As soon as it gets a bit warmer around here and I can maintain fermentation temps in my basement, I'm getting back at it.
Attached are before and after bottling pics of my little wine room, and a pic of the lemon, plum and strawberry bottles.
My first go-round was mediocre, to be sure. It was two winters ago. I bought a home winemaking kit billed as "Everything But The Fruit" -- which was perfect for me, because fruit was all I had. And wine was made. And drunkenness was achieved. And there was muted self-satisfaction. In truth, while drinkable, it was hooch. Period. Slightly on the funky side, but after back-sweetening it heartily you could drink enough of it to get yourself fairly toasty.
In any case, now I had the equipment. More wine would surely follow.
It turns out, with a modest investment in some hardware, a modicum of easily attainable know-how, and bit of patience (more on that later), quality wines can be made at home out of just about any fruit or vegetable. I'm not exaggerating. People make wine out of some weird things sometimes. They're not all winners, to be sure, even if technically wine. Some people make certain wines (i.e. onion wine, beet wine) just to cook with. If it grows out of the ground or can otherwise be plucked off a plant, you can make wine out of it.
In any case, I kept things simple. Since then I've made two more blackberry batches, two strawberry batches, a blueberry batch, two berry blend batches, a plum batch, and one batch of concord grape wine, all from fresh fruit. I've also made concord grape wine, mango wine, strawberry watermelon wine, and white grape wine all from bottled juices -- and let me say that bottled juices make truly drinkable wines, even if they may not be the absolute best. Most of the wines were made from buying frozen fruit in bulk from a local grocer wholesaler, and my average cost per bottle is about $2. In a couple instances I came into free fruit like the blackberries and then the cost goes down even more significantly.
The *only* hard part is the waiting. Aging the wine is a important component of final quality, and your patience is greatly rewarded. Wine can be drinkable and will get ya drunk after only a few weeks time. A quality wine, however, should be aged a year or more to achieve its best balance and character.
Anyway, this past President's Day weekend, I bottled up 4 batches I had started last spring and summer: the lemon, the plum, the blackberry 2.0 and the strawberry 2.0. And these wines are *good*. The oldest had been aged nearly 9 months, the youngest only 6, but I'm proud of them. As soon as it gets a bit warmer around here and I can maintain fermentation temps in my basement, I'm getting back at it.
Attached are before and after bottling pics of my little wine room, and a pic of the lemon, plum and strawberry bottles.