From Fruit, Wine: Muscadine follow-up, and some new projects!

Don't let the goofy label fool you; this is definitely not for sale!

All good things take time and one thing I've learned over the years is patience. Whether it's waiting for cured meat to dry, eggs to hatch, pregnant sheep to give birth ... the end product is always completely worth it.

Wine, however, really takes time. A lot of time. After about 6 months of fermenting, racking, and letting it settle, I finally bottled the muscadine wine. While totally drinkable at this point, many sources make it clear that muscadine wine is best after aging in the bottle for about a year.

With so much pulp from the fruit, it was hard to take SG measurements!

Not to let things go idle, I thought I'd make some small batches of some other fruit wines. Since we had a ridiculous amount of citrus and still had a bunch of ripe persimmons leftover, I put together a couple gallons of the persimmon wine and a gallon of orange wine. The left-most batch of persimmon wine was made mostly with peels and stems and was impossible to get a specific gravity measurement. As you can see, it was extremely active in fermenting and kept blowing through the top. I ended up combining both batches of persimmon wine and moved them to a bucket for primary fermentation.

I've since racked them over for secondary (longer-term) fermentation. You can see the sediment build-up at the bottom of each of the little carboys. Racking off the wine will remove some of the sediment and help to clarify the wine. After about six months, these should be ready for bottling.

Fruit wines are easy enough. Fruit, sugar, water, yeast, and some minor additives (to ensure a healthy ferment) are all you really need. I've been spending a lot of time reading through Jack Keller's recipes. Can you believe there's a turnip wine? I think I may have to try it just for the heck of it!

The bottles of muscadine are tucked away in the closet for long-term storage. I may crack one open in about 6 months to see how the flavor has changed, but the bulk of what remains after some Christmas gifts will be left undisturbed.

Do any of our wonderful readers make wine? I'd love to know what you might have going on right now!