Last summer was a big year for my friend Craig's backyard cherry trees. He has two trees -- each three maybe four years old -- and last year was the first year that they went off. The boughs were loaded with Black Tartarian and Rainier cherries. So heavy, in fact, that we decided to use three gallons worth for some old fashioned homemade cherry wine. Neither of us had made it before and we decided to use Sandor Ellix Katz's basic fruit wine recipe from his book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods.
A year later, as in just last week, we siphoned the five gallons into 20-plus wine bottles. And into our mouths. It's delicious! We couldn't be happier with it. We first drank it at room temperature and it was great. (We had an impromptu bottling party and clinked glasses on the front porch.) Once we chilled it, though, is when the real magic happened. I think the best way to describe our cherry wine is as a nice, nuanced pinot noir fortified with the flavor but not the weight of a tawny port. It's not too alcoholic -- I'm guessing 11 percent -- typical for wine -- but it does sneak up on you. That might have to do with the fact that it's hard to stop drinking...
If you want to read about how we made it check out my post from last summer -- Homemade Cherry Wine Pt. 1.
Ten bottles of cherry wine for us and ten for our friend Craig.