Fruit Wines and Fruit Winemaking – Part 2 of 2

I hope that this summer was a pleasant one for you and a productive fruit wine season. Here in Western New York the availability of summer tree fruits like apricots and peaches is winding down. For berries, cultivated blackberries and blueberries are still available, and locally grown blueberries will be available until the first frost. This year I managed to get strawberries, mulberries and blueberries for winemaking.

There is a terrific website that can aid you in locating pick-your-own farms across the country, and even in other parts of the world along with fruit availability and picking tips. Go to http://www.pickyourown.org. There is even a section of unusual fruit, their characteristics and availability. This resource is updated daily, and I’ve found U-pick places locally that I never knew existed. So, if this year was a wash because you weren’t quite sure where to pick, you can plan for next year.

I took a bronze for my 2005 semi-dry blueberry in the 2006 Western New York Home Wine Competition at The Niagara County Fair on August 6th. My sincerest gratitude goes out to my fiancée Patty Gniazdowski and my future mother-in-law Donna Hanel for the perennial help they offer me with harvesting, cleaning and crushing fruit. They are my right arm and make the whole experience more of a family outing. Kudos also goes out to Tom Chiappone of Chiappone Cellars Winery of Newfane, New York for hosting the event at his winery. If you visit his winery, try the Traminette, its awesome!

The recipe for this wine was a very basic one that I had found several years ago on Jack Keller’s Winemaking Homepage http://winemaking.jackkeller.net, a resource every home winemaker should utilize. I picked the berries at Childs Blueberry Farm in Humphrey, New York just south of Franklinville. Good wine always begin in the vineyard, orchard and field. The Childs family offers a superior product and this is attributed to their philosophy and methodology in cultivating blueberries. I encourage you to check out their web address, http://www.childsblueberries.com and visit their farm.

Below is the anaerobic fermentation presented in graphical form. A prototypal BubbleFlo was used with non-prototypal airlocks. After the wine finished the primary fermentation and was put in carboys, the degradation of the secondary fermentation by number of CO2 discharges per hour was closely monitored. I used Lalvin 71B-1122 (Narbonne) to ferment the wine.

As with any winemaking sanitation is the first concern. When underway, temperature control plays a large role in the quality outcome of the wine. This wine was fermented in a temperature range of 730 to 740 Fahrenheit, a temperature range many would say is a bit high for anaerobic. I won’t argue with that, but more importantly most winemakers have found that maintaining a consistency in fermentation temperature leads to a better outcome. Blueberry wine is usually a long fermenting wine regardless of the type of yeast used to do it. This one logged 863 hours (nearly six weeks) in anaerobic. It was the long, seemingly unending fermentation of blueberry wine that inspired the concept of the BubbleFlo.

We are heading for the grape harvest and locally the weather last April dealt a harsh blow to Western New York wine grape producers. A late spring freeze last April devastated wine grape crops locally. Last May the Amherst Times reported the losses in the affected counties.

Below are the estimated crop value losses for each affected county:

Estimate of -
County Total Acreage Affected Acreage Estimated Loss
Chautauqua 17,877 5,000 $7,000,000
Cattaraugus 517 414 $496,800
Erie 1,661 1,293 $1,552,000
Niagara 901 90 $108,000

Estimated crop value losses $9,156,800

Not to end on a sour note but, if you source your juice locally you may want to contact your supplier and find out if they were affected by the freeze and if it will impact your winemaking plans for this year.