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Blackcurrant wine
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Blackcurrant Wine (& Mead)

Blackcurrant wine is a lovely deep, flavorful wine. Dark and intense, this berry wine is rich and easy to make at home.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time10 days
Additional Time30 days
Total Time40 days 30 minutes
Author: Ashley Adamant

Ingredients

  • 5 lbs blackcurrant fruit fresh or frozen, see notes for juice
  • 2-¼ pounds cane sugar about 4-½ cups
  • Water
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • ½ tsp acid blend
  • 1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
  • Wine Yeast see note
  • Optional ~ Campden Tablet and Potassium Sorbate for Stabilizing I do not use these

Instructions

  • If using fresh fruit wash to remove any lingering insects. If using frozen fruit, thaw. 
  • Place thawed fruit in your wide-mouth carboy and cover with boiling water. Mix in the sugar, acid blend, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient. Stir until dissolved.
  • You will add your wine yeast once the mixture has cooled. Rehydrate yeast for 10 minutes in room temperature water before adding to the carboy.
  • After adding the yeast, top with enough water to leave around 2 inches headspace at the top of your 1 gallon carboy. 
  • Seal with a waterlock and allow to ferment in primary for 10 to 14 days.
  • Rack to a clean fermentation vessel for secondary, leaving the fruit and sediment behind. Top with water again to bring the water level to just below the neck of the carboy and seal with a waterlock.
  • Ferment in secondary for 2 to 3 months for wine and 2 to 6 months for mead. Multiple rackings may be needed during this time to help clarify the wine.
  • Taste wine and backsweeten if needed. See notes below in regards to backsweetening.
  • Once ready, rack into wine bottles and seal with wine corks.
  • Allow to bottle age for at least 2 months to up to a year.

Notes

Fresh Fruit or Juice

You can substitute juice for fresh or frozen fruit in this recipe. About 1 quart of blackcurrant juice will be needed for a 1-gallon batch of wine. If using fresh fruit, it is recommended that the fruit be frozen first to help break down the pectin. Freezing fruit for just 1 week will reduce the pectin content by half.

Yeast

For blackcurrant wine, some good yeast choices include Montrachet yeast, Lalvin 71B RC212, and Lalvin 71B-1122. See notes within the article for specific qualities of each yeast.

Stabilizing and Back Sweetening

If your wine seems too dry for your taste at the end of secondary, you have the option to backsweeten it, Rack the wine to a new container so as to not stir up sediment, and add 1 Campden tablet and a ½ teaspoon potassium sorbate to stabilize the wine. (If you skip this step, the added sugar will reactivate the yeast, a rapid ferment will occur, and your bottled wine may burst given the pressure.)
Wait 24 to 48 hours after stabilizing your wine for all the yeast to die off, then sweeten the wine by making a simple syrup(combine equal parts sugar and water in a heated saucepan and add to your wine). Try adding ½ cup of sugar at a time to your one-gallon wine at first.