Black Currant Wine
By: Dominic Rivard
Published: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 5:14am

Ingredients




350 KG Fresh Black Currant berries
170 KG granulated sugar or 220L Invert Sugar
40 ml Fructozym P or 50g Lafase Fruit
400 grams Diamonium Phosphate
240 grams Fermaid K
250 grams EC-118 yeast or D-71
Some neutral “blending wine” may be required

Preparation

1 Crush and press the fruit, pump juice into tank 2 Add sugar, top up to 1000L. Adjust specific gravity to S.G. 1.090-92 3 Measure acids and adjust to a pH of 3.0 to 3.5 and T.A. of around 7-8 g/L. 4 Add enzymes at temperature of 20′C, let must stand for 6 hours or so. 5 Add DAP and Fermaid to the must. 6 Pitch in rehydrated yeast. 7 After wine has started to ferment, stir daily 8 Maintain a fermentation temperature of 18-21′C throughout the initial fermentation process (1.090-1.025) 9 At S.G 1.020 – 1.010, skim off surface any solids 10 Rack wine at S.G. 1.000 11 Once wine has finished its fermentation (< SG 0.996), stabilize with KMS 12 Rack the following day and fine with Bentonite (75 g/HL), gelatin and Isinglass as per standard additions. 13 Chill the wine to 0′C 14 Rack after 15-20 days and filter to 0.8 micron 15 Measure FSO2 and adjust to 60PPM. 16 Adjust acid to a TA of 7-8g/L 17 When wine is properly aged and developed (4-8 months), do final adjustments (blending, SO2, TA, pH, SG, RS, etc) 18 Adjust Residual Sugar of wine to 40-45g/L 19 Sterile filter to 0.45 micron. 20 Conduct all stability tests and adjust if needed 21 Bottle the wine

About


•	May need to blend finished wine with some neutral apple, pear or white grape base wines to adjust final taste profile. I feel that if any is used, it should not be any more than 15% of the total volume.
•	If wine proves to be too astringent or tannic at stage #17, a further heavier dose of gelatin may be required to lower tannic levels.
•	Small amounts of glycerin may be required at stage #18 to add body depending on your taste
The above recipe produces a fine wine that will get anyone who tastes it to instantly fall in love with the fruit…pretty much like I did.
I would love to hear your stories on black currant wine production or take a look at your own recipe formulations, better yet, would love to taste some of your wines, just drop me a note.
Until then, happy winemaking!