How to Make Wine With Dried Fruits

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grape juice. Similar beverages made from other fruits are more properly called fruit wine or country wine. Fruit wines are most easily made from whole fruit juices but can also be made from dried fruits. This is a similar process to making fruit wines from juice except that it involves the additional step of reconstituting the dried fruit with water.

Things You'll Need

• 9 pints water
• 3 pounds raisins
• 2-gallon stainless steel pots
• Strainer
• 2 oranges
• 2 lemons
• Orange squeezer
• 2 ½ pounds sugar
• Carboy
• 1 ounce yeast
• Filter
• Wine bottles
• Corks

Instructions

1. Boil nine pints of water and chop up three pounds of raisins. Add the raisins to a large steel pot and pour the boiling water over the raisins. Allow the raisins to soak for 48 hours while stirring them occasionally.

2. Crush the raisin pieces thoroughly by hand and pour this mixture through a strainer into another pot. Squeeze the juice of two lemons and two oranges to this liquid and bring it to a slow boil.

3. Pour the still boiling liquid over 2½ pounds of sugar in a carboy and stir it thoroughly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Allow this solution to cool and sprinkle the packet of yeast on top of it. Stir the yeast in thoroughly.

4. Store this mixture, now known as must, in a dark place at room temperature for about 14 days. Pour the wine through a filter into bottles and cork them. Allow the wine to age as desired.

5. Use this technique for other types of dried fruit. Popular choices include currants, prunes, apricots, or mixed fruits. Citrus fruits will have too much acid to allow fermentation. The specific amounts of fruit and sugar can vary somewhat, depending on the amount of natural sugar that the fruit contains.

References

• Winemaking Secrets