Strawberry Zinfandel Wine Recipe
Posted by: Greg on September 13th, 2009
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Back in Feburary, strawberry season was kicking into high gear in Southeastern Louisiana and the sweet fruit was plentiful. Normally, every year around this same time, I purchase enough to make a batch of traditional strawberry wine, but this year, I strayed away from the norm and purchased some of the sweet fruit to make Strawberry Zinfandel.
Before I purchased the sweet fruit, I tried to search the internet for a working recipe, at least something that could guide me on how to make the wine, but there was no recipe to be found. With no recipe, I more or less winged it and came up with my own recipe. I wasn't really sure how it was going to turn out, until just recently, when my wife and I tasted a sample of the wine and we was totally blown away.
The wine is still young, it is only 7 months old, but it's flavor and arouma is remarkable to say the least. I think this batch has a better taste than the strawberry wine I made a month later. We bottled the wine and we will stick this wine away for at least another year before we share it with friends and family, that is if we decide to share it!! HAHAHA
Below is the recipe that I came up with. The below recipe is for a 5 gallon batch of wine.
Ingredients
2 - 46oz cans of Sun Cal concentrated white zinfandel grape juice.
15 lbs (3 lbs per gal) of fresh strawberries.
Enough water to bring to 5 gallons
6lbs of sugar
10 tsp (2 tsp per gal) of Acid Blend
5 tsp (1 tsp per gal) of Yeast Nutrient
5 tsp (1 tsp per gal) of Pectic Enzyme.
5/8 tsp (1/8 tsp per gal) of Tannin.
1 packet of Lalvin RC212
Starting SG: 1.084
pH: 3.2
TA (Total Acidity): 0.60%
Directions
For maxium juice extraction, freeze the fruit a month prior to making the batch, but before freezing the fruit, pick over the berries carefully. Watch for mold or rot. Discard anything that looks bad. Wash the berries in cool water, and drain, freeze.
Defrost the berries and put the fruit in a nylon straining bag and place bag into the primary fermenter, then squish them with clean hands or a sanitized potato smasher.
Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and let the liquid cool down to room temperature before pouring it over the nylon straining bag. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover primary and set aside for 12 hours.
After 12 hours, add activated wine yeast and recover primary. When active fermentation slows down to an SG reading of 1.030 (about 5 days), gently squeeze the straining bag to extract juice and let it drain and discard pulp. Rack to secondary (carboy) and fit with airlock. Leave in secondary until wine has completely fermented dry (SG reading of 0.992) around 3 weeks. Rack off of sediment into a clean carboy , top up and refit airlock. Let wine clear and rack again to a clean carboy. After additional 3 months, stabilize with ½ teaspoon dissolved potassium sorbate, sweeten if desired and bottle. Bulk age wine for at least 7-12 months before bottling. I would stick the bottles away for at least another year before consuming.
