[Curt]

I'm brewing up a batch of chokecherry and aronia berry wine in a port or dessert wine style. I have 18# of chokes and 10# of aronias in a 6 gallon batch. Sugared it up to a PA level of 15% and will most likely keep adding until the 1116 peters out and then hit it with a 750 of Everclear and sweeten to taste. I hope this one turns out nice, that's a lot of berries and picking in there.

[Northern Winos]

Curt....that wine [Port] for sure is going to be full flavored.

Do you grow your own Aronia Berries???
Have you ever made wine with just them???

We feel nothing can beat Chokecherry Wine.

We had one older plant of Aronia [Nero] that produced a few berries this summer....they seem to have good flavor. They sure hung on the plant nicely.

Our Soil & Water Conservation Office got us ChokeBerries [Aronia] this spring...They didn't have a cultivar name...hope they are the right ones, it just said Black Chokeberry [Aronia]

They grew real nice and we hope to get enough berries for juice and wine someday, we kept 12 plants and traded the rest of the packet to a friend inanother county for Native Elderberries....Those will be interesting as well..

[Curt]

I too just planted aronia bushes this summer but mine were full size landscaping plants that I got the 10# of berries of from. I hope they make the winter. We don't have any ground cover here yet. I made wine with just aronia once with a bunch of berries that a friend let me pick and it was lots "earthier" than chokecherry is.

[Northern Winos]

The bush I planted last year just had a few clusters...They tasted...'interesting'. I have mine growing where the garden is mulched with straw...so they should do okay.

I planted a row of Elderberries, Sandcherries and Nanking Cherries [from SWCS] for a living snow fence......well, for wine too....no mulch there....

We live north of Fosston....no snow here either.

[S S]

The bush I planted last year just had a few clusters...They tasted...'interesting'. I have mine growing where the garden is mulched with straw...so they should do okay.

I planted a row of Elderberries, Sandcherries and Nanking Cherries [from SWCS] for a living snow fence......well, for wine too....no mulch there....

We live north of Fosston....no snow here either.

Hi,

Chokecherry (bottled 11/21/07) is making its thanksgiving debut on my dinner table today. It's been an excellent wine to date; trouble is the chokecherries were very scarce in Grand Forks this year. Will have to make what's left last till next year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Steve

[Dominic Rivard]

I think Aronia wines are the best of the bunch. If not for the taste, certainly for the health benefits. This fruit has an amazing potential for both amateur and commercial winemaking. I am certainly going to be looking at this more seriously this year!

The Aronia port you are making certainly sounds like a very full flavoured wine with the fruit ratio you are making it with. Will certainly be able to handle the extra alcohol. Maybe some fortification with some alcohol or brandy? Could be worth a try I think.

This article may be of some interest: http://tinyurl.com/aroniawine

Cheers!

[Curt]

Dominic,
I added sugar until the yeast gave up (I figure about 16%) and then added a 750 of 95% Everclear to bring the total up to 18.5% or so. After 6 months or so to mellow out it should be great. I sweetened it with a can of frozen Pom/blueberry thawed and added full strength. Yummy so far!

[ecarufel2463]

I am just about to rack my wine off of the aronia berries and rasins. I have been reading about making a port wine, and was wondering if this is my best bet. I realize that I should have stopped my fermentation about half way to make a true port, but I was wondering if it is too late to do this. I have a wine stabilizer that adds sweetness. Can I add everclear and the sweetener and still have a good result? Should I blend it with another wine? I have a pinot noir that is aged about 6 months in the bottles. I was wondering if anyone can help. Let me know, and cheers.

By the way, thanks to Dominic for the info.

[Dominic Rivard]

I am just starting an aronia wine. I work for a commercial grower, and I froze about 6lbs of berries last fall. I was looking for any tips that anyone could give me. I realize that I am new here, but all I want to do is learn more. I have been making wine for about a year in a half now, and am really interested in it. I have been in the horticulture industry for about 10 years. I went to college for about 3 1/2 years for it. I am a Certified MNLA member, and would just like to broaden my education, along with enjoying some great wine!! Please let me know if anyone can help.

Aronia can be made in many different styles. I would say that the berry is very versatile and it will really depend on your taste and/or end market. Here is a sample recipe for aronia as a "off-dry" wine based on a 1000L volume. Its not an easy wine to make and obviously tackling this volume, you need to be pretty serious about it. It can be scaled back to a small trial amount.

Off-Dry Varietal Wines (Aronia)

Basic Ingredients:

* 400KG Fresh Aronia berries
* 150 KG granulated sugar or 200L Invert Sugar
* 40 ml Fructozym P (or equivalent)
* 400g Diamonium Phosphate
* 240g Fermaid K
* 250g EC-118 yeast
* Some neutral "blending wine" may be required

Method of Production:

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 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 (add 50-60 PPM)
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 7g/L (with potassium carbonate if needed to lower or addition of malic to increase)
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 40g/L
19. Sterile filter to 0.45 micron.
20. Conduct all stability tests and adjust if needed
21. Bottle the wine

Note:

* May need to blend finished wine with some neutral apple, pear or grape base wines to adjust final taste profile.
* Regular wine specs should be measured to be able to quickly adjust the recipe depending on its development.
* 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 if required.

Let me know if you need more as I could post recipe ideas for other styles of aronia wines.

Cheers!

Dominic

[Curt]

By scientific experimentation I've found out that this stuff sneaks up behind you with a two by four in hand and makes parts of the movies you're watching disappear completely. Sneaky stuff!