Homemade? Well, hardly. But it was easy and fun and tasted good.
I’ve had this recipe in my "To Try" file for quite a while. It’s super-simple and definitely cheating when it comes to actually making wine at home. But last week I decided to give it a go.
Here’s the recipe:
3 cups frozen unsweetened fruit, thawed
(The fruit can be any kind of berry:
raspberries, strawberries,
blueberries, etc.)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 bottle (720 ml) dry white wine
In a large bowl, combine fruit and
sugar, stirring until well coated.
Stir in wine until sugar is dissolved.
Cover and chill 5 days.
Strain wine through a fine sieve.
Store in the refrigerator.
Serve chilled.
Now you know why I say it’s a "cheater" wine.
In hindsight, I realize I should have chosen another wine other than my favorite Middle Sister Sweet & Savvy which is a moscato. The end product would have been better (I’m thinking) if I had used a dry white wine (well, duh) as suggested in the recipe. I should have grabbed the vinho verde that was right next to my Sweet & Savvy.
I combined my blueberries (they were wild blueberries) and sugar in my two-quart Pyrex pitcher. Next the bottle of wine was poured in and I stirred until it seemed the sugar was dissolved. A plastic wrap cover was wrapped over the top and I placed the container on a shelf in my pantry where it would have no problem staying "chilled" these days.
After the 5 days were up, I strained the liquid into my one-quart pitcher.
The blueberries looked none the worse for wear so I put them in a refrigerator dish to save for some other use.
I labeled the cover of the blueberry dish so no one would eat them with their breakfast oatmeal and get an early morning buzz. (Actually, I did eat them with my oatmeal and they were fine. So was I.)
Then I poured the homemade (ha-ha) blueberry wine back into the wine bottle and put it in the refrigerator.
How was the taste? Probably a smidge sweeter than most people would like. But, obviously, that was because I used the moscato wine. Papa Pea said he’ll gladly sip a glass of it in the evening while in his reading chair. Daughter said it tasted exactly like Welch’s Grape Juice. "Exactly," she repeated. Does it taste like blueberries? Yes, I think that flavor does come through. I know I’ll have no problem helping to consume the bottle.
I’m eager to try the recipe again. And I’ll definitely use the bottle of vinho verde I have because it’s a dry wine and I think the light touch of fizziness it has will add greatly to the end product. Hmmm, will the fizziness dissipate during the 5 day wait period? Even if it does, I’m sure it’ll be drinkable.
Cheers!
