Creating Wine from Wild Plants

In Stalking the Good Life, the late naturalist Euell Gibbons wrote about wild berries. “Actually,” he wrote, “I begin picking berries about the time the last spring snow melts away.” He then describes in one chapter a succession of harvests of wild wintergreen berries (teaberries), strawberries, red raspberries, black raspberries, wineberries, dewberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, squaw huckleberries (deerberries), and elderberries. Elsewhere in the book he describes harvests of wild barberries, black haws, cherries, chokecherries, cranberries, grapes, juneberries, wild raisins, squashberries, shadbush berries, serviceberries, sarvisberries, sugar pears, and sugar plums. These are just some of the berries — but a sampling of what is out there — growing in the wild and available to be harvested and turned into wine.

No matter where you live in the world, you live but a short walk or drive away from more edible wild plants than you probably ever imagined. Ancient man was successful as a species because he was capable of eating a very large variety of plants and animals. Many plants bear fruit or other components that can be made into wine suitable for just about any palate. On the pages that follow, I will be describing but a few of the thousands of wild edible plants in the United States and Canada which are suitable in one way or another for winemaking. Readers living outside this geographic area should not turn away. Many of the plants featured herein have relatives scattered all over the globe, and I have consistently tried to identify the genus (and species) of each plant featured so that distant relatives can be identified and recipes adapted to suit them.

Adapting Recipes

Okay, you’re out walking in the woods and come across a thick stand of salmonberries. You pull a couple of plastic bags from your day pack and an hour later you’re heading for home with 8-10 pounds of sweet (but slightly tart), fresh fruit. You check your well-thumbed copy of First Steps in Winemaking and strike out. Then you fire up the computer and start burning up the search engines. Nothing! What to do? Well, hopefully you’ve got a bookmark set to The Winemaking Home Page and are therefore in luck. No, I don’t have a salmonberry wine recipe (yet), but I can tell you how to make salmonberry wine. More accurately, I can tell you how to adapt a recipe to serve your purposes, and that’s better than nothing.

The first thing you do is ask yourself, “What is a salmonberry similar to?” By similar, I mean most like in type of fruit, taste, pulp, firmness, color, skin or rind if that applied, and type plant. It is unwise to compare fruit from vining plants with fruit from bushes or trees unless there simply is no alternative. So, let’s compare the salmonberry with similar berries.

Well, it looks like a salmon-colored blackberry, but tastes more like a red raspberry, wineberry or thimbleberry.

Except, in reality, it tastes like none of these. Still, it comes closer in taste to a red raspberry than a blackberry, wineberry or thimbleberry. We might be able to narrow it down further, but this will do–quite nicely, actually. Start with a red raspberry wine recipe and go from there. But first, there are a few things you need to think about.

Fruit Content

With few exceptions, the more fruit you use in making a wine, the fruitier tasting it will be. This can be good or it can be too much. If good, so much the better. If too much, you have a problem. You can blend it with a complementary but weaker tasting wine or with a “second” wine made from the same fruit pulp as the first batch–if you happened to have made one. There really isn’t much more you can do. Why is this important?

It’s important for two reasons. When making a wine by recipe that specifies a varied quantity–such as 4-6 lbs–you can be assured that using the lesser quantity will make an acceptable wine, but using the larger quantity will make a fruitier wine. If you opt to use the larger quantity, you would be wise to also make a “second” batch using the pressed pulp from the first batch. This will always make a weaker wine, but one that is almost always acceptable on its own merit. More importantly, you’ll have that “second” wine to use in blending with the first batch should its taste be too strong for you.

But it’s also important when adapting a recipe for another ingredient. If the substituted ingredient lacks the fullness of flavor of the original ingredient called for in the recipe, you’ll need to adjust the quantity upwards to make up for what is naturally lacking. In the case of substituting salmonberries for red raspberries, I can tell you right off that salmonberries lack the flavor and aroma raspberries are so famous for. Thus, you’ll want to adjust the quantity upwards, but not too much. Berry wines should be subtle, not overpowering. My red raspberry recipe calls for 3-4 lbs of fruit. If using salmonberries instead of raspberries, use 4-5 lbs.

Another thing to consider about fruit content is that when using less fruit rather than more, the lesser amount, if within the recipe limitations, will usually produce a wine that more closely approximates the taste of grape wine, albeit the approximation may take a leap of imagination. What I mean is this: in truth, grape wines do not taste like grape juice, and fruit wines should not taste like fruit juice. My favorite peach wine recipe calls for 3 lbs of peaches per gallon, but I will reduce the amount of fruit to 2-1/2 lbs for an exceptionally flavorable crop. Conversely, for a weakly flavored crop I might increase the amount to 3-1/2 lbs.

Sugar Content and Supplementation

More than anything else, it is the conversion of sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol by the action of yeast that makes wine. A critical amount of sugar simply must be present or you are wasting your time and ingredients. When this amount is absent, you must add sugar.

The amount you must add, of course, depends on how much is there to begin with. You determine this by using a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity (S.G.) of the diluted liquor. What I mean by prepared liquor is the combined ingredients in the recipes less the sugar and yeast. If you measured the S.G. of the fruit juice alone and added sugar to attain a starting S.G. of, say, 1.095, that reading would be meaningless the moment you added water and other ingredients. So, combine the ingredients less the sugar and yeast, measure the S.G., and then add sugar to raise the S.G. accordingly.

This is especially important when adapting a recipe to a substitute ingredient. The substitute ingredient almost certainly will not contain exactly the same natural sugar as the ingredient specified in the recipe. You then adjust the sugar content accordingly. This will probably mean an amount close to that called for in the recipe, but not exactly the same amount.

Sugar can be added in several forms and several ways, but usually this boils down to adding refined sugar or adding honey. Unless a recipe specifically calls for honey, I always use sugar, and unless it specifically calls for light or dark brown sugar, I use finely granulated white cane sugar. Cane and beet sugar are both sucrose and are chemically the same. Unrefined brown sugar can still be found, but it is imported these days and usually costs more than domestic brown sugar. Domestic brown sugar is really refined sugar with molasses added. It will affect both taste and color of the wine, but for some wines it is required. Corn sugar is dextrose, preferred for beer making but traditionally avoided by winemakers. Terry Garey and a few others say you can use it if you want to, but long ago I was taught “vinters scorn what comes from corn;” this ditty may be unfounded, but I’ve never wanted to risk a batch of wine testing its veracity.

Honey is another subject altogether. It comes in many, many flavors, depending upon the flowers the bees predominately visited while collecting pollens and nectares used to make it. These flavors do affect the wine, but so does the honey itself. Honey tends to mellow out a wine and contributes ever so slightly to body. Some people prefer it for that reason alone, while others prefer it for ecological reasons.

I use it only when the recipe calls for it, when I know the wine will otherwise be thin, or when I want to impart a specific flavor to the wine–such as heather, clover, orange, or mesquite.

My problem with honey is that it slows down the clarification process considerably. Honey contains pollen, and pollen takes a long time to settle out. Even when settled, it can easily be lifted from the lees by the siphoning action of racking, and then it must again settle out. If you filter your wine, this is much less a problem than if you don’t.

Acidity

Salmon berries are just a little bit more tart than red raspberries. This means it contains something red raspberries don’t contain, or lacks something red raspberries don’t. Tartness is usually caused by acid, but it could be caused by tannin, pectin, or simply a natural flavor. In the case of salmonberries, it’s acid. If the difference were great, you’d want to adjust the amount of added acid in the recipe to be adapted downward, but in this case the difference is so slight as to be negligible. Indeed, the amount of acid blend you might remove from the red raspberry wine recipe is so small that it might easily be absent depending upon how you measure 1/2 tsp. A pinch less might be justified, but that is only about 20-30 grains of the crystalline blend, and that is not worth fretting about.

On the other hand, if the berries were unusually tart, you might cut the amount of acid blend used by 1/8 to 1/5. You wouldn’t want to reduce it by more, as acid is essential to the health and reproduction of yeast.

Acidity should not generally be a worry if you have compared your fruit wisely and correctly. If in doubt, however, use an acid testing kit and adjust acidity to no more than 0.60% tartaric.

Wine Recipes:

Agarita Wine

Makes a potent dessert wine.

• 4 lbs agarita berries
• 3-1/2 lbs granulated sugar
• 1 tsp citric acid
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 7 pints water
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• Burgundy wine yeast

Wash, destem and crush (mash) the berries. You can also put then in a blender with a cup of water and puree them. Put them in primary with water, half the sugar, the citric acid, yeast nutrient, and the crushed Campden tablet. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with cloth, and wait 12 hours. Add pectic enzyme, recover, and wait another 12 hours. Add yeast, recover, and stir daily for 7 days. Separate pulp by pouring through a nylon straining bag, squeezing gently. Add remainder of sugar, stir well to dissolve, and pour juice into secondary. Top up and fit with airlock. Ferment 30 days, rack and top up, then rack again every 3 weeks until wine clears. Stabilize, wait additional 10 days, rack if required, then bottle. May taste after 6 months. [Author’s own recipe]

Barberry Wine

• 2-3 lbs barberries
• 2-1/2 lbs granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 5-7 pints water
• wine yeast and nutrient

Pick only ripe berries. Wash, destem and crush berries. Heat to low boil, then simmer covered for 10 minutes. Fold top berries under, recover and simmer another 10 minutes. Pour into nylon jelly-bag and allow to drip over primary until pulp is cool. Meanwhile dissolve sugar into 3 cups boiling water and allow to cool. Squeeze cooled barberry pulp gently and add juice to primary. Add all but one cup of cooled sugar-water to primary. Measure liquor and add enough water to bring to one gallon even. Measure specific gravity and add sugar-water until 1.090 achieved. Test for acid and adjust to .50-.65% tartaric (if required). Add jelly-bag, pectic enzyme and nutrients to primary. Wait at least 10 hours before inoculating with wine yeast. Cover well and set in warm (70-75 degrees F.) place, stirring daily. When S.G. drops to 1.040 (about 5 days), gently press jelly-bag to extract clear juice, discarding remaining pulp and seed. Siphon off sediments into secondary, top up, fit airlock, and set in cooler (60-65 degrees F.) place. Rack after 3 weeks and again after another 3 weeks. Bottle when clear. May taste after 6 months.[Author’s own recipe]

Black Raspberry Wine

Black raspberries make a fragrant, subtle wine. It can be made dry or sweet. The recipe below makes one gallon.

• 3-4 lbs fresh black raspberries
• 2-1/4 lbs finely granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp acid blend
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1/8 tsp grape tannin
• 7 pints water
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• Lalvin RC-212 wine yeast

Pick only dark, ripe berries. Combine water and sugar and put on to boil, stirring occasionally until sugar is completely dissolved. Wash and destem berries. Put in nylon straining bag, tie, put in botton of primary, and crush berries in bag. Pour boiling sugar-water over berries to set the color and extract the flavorful juice. Add acid blend, tannin and yeast nutrient. Allow to cool to 70 degrees F. and add one crushed Campden tablet. Cover primary with plastic wrap secured with a large rubber band. Twelve hours later add pectic enzyme and after an additional 12 hours add activated wine yeast. Recover the primary. Stir daily for a week, replacing plastic wrap if it looks like it needs it. Remove nylon bag and allow to drip drain about an hour, keeping primary covered as before. Do not squeeze bag. Return drippings to primary and discard pulp (or use to make a “second” wine). Transfer to secondary and fit airlock. Use a dark secondary or wrap with brown paper (from paper bag) to preserve color. Rack into clean secondary after two months. Refit airlock and rack again after additional 2 months. Wait another month, stabilize, wait additional month, Rack and sweeten if desired. Wait two weeks to ensure refermentation does not begin and bottle into dark glass. Drink after six months. This is an excellent wine, but don’t rush it! You must ferment the full 6 months and age another six. Serve chilled. [Author’s own recipe]

Black Cherry Wine

They make a decent wine, but it does not age well. Make plenty and drink at 6-18 months.

• 6-8 lbs black cherries
• 2-1/2 lbs granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1/2 tsp citric acid
• 5-1/2 pints water
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• wine yeast and nutrient

Pick only ripe berries. Wash and destem cherries, discarding any that are not sound and blemish free. Chop the fruit as best you can. It is not necessary to destone the cheries, but discard any stones that crack or break open. Put in crock with water, stir in crushed Campden tablet and, 24 hours later, pectic enzyme. Cover and set aside four days. Pour through nylon sieve or jelly-bag and squeeze well to extract all possible juice. Add sugar, citric acis and nutrient and stir well to dissolve sugar. Transfer to secondary, add yeast starter, fit airlock, and set in warm place (70 degrees F.). Rack after initial fermentation subsides (14-21 days), top up with cold water, refit airlock, and ferment to dryness in cooler place (60 degrees F.). Rack again and bottle. For sweeter wine, stablize and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar-water before bottling. Taste after 6 months or allow to age one year. Drink within 18 months. [Adapted from C.J.J. Berry’s 130 New Winemaking Recipes]

Chokecherry Wine

• 2-1/2 lbs fresh wild chokecherries
• 2-1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
• 1 tsp acid blend
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1/4 tsp grape tannin
• 7 pints water
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• Champagne or Sauterne wine yeast

Pick only ripe berries. Destem and destone berries, put in blender with one cup of the water and chop. Pour into nylon straining bag, tie and put in primary with half the sugar and the remianing water, acid blend, tannin and crushed Campden tablet. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover primary and let stand 12 hours. Add pectic enzyme and let stand another 12 hours. Add yeast, stir and cover again. Gently squeeze bag twice daily to extract juice. After seven days, drain bag and squeeze well to extract as much juice as you can. Add remaining sugar and stir well to dissolve, then pour into secondary and fit airlock. Use dark fermenter or wrap brown paper around secondary to preserve color. Ferment 30 days, rack, rack again in two months and again after additional two months. If you are going to sweeten, add stabilizer, wait 10 days, then add no more than 1/4 cup sugar dissolved in 1/8 cup water. Bottle in dark glass or store in dark place. May taste in six months, but best aged a year. [Adapted from Dorothy Alatorre’s Home Wines of North America]

Dandelion Wine

• 3 qts dandelion flowers
• 1 lb golden raisins
• 1 gallon water
• 3 lbs granulated sugar
• 2 lemons
• 1 orange
• yeast and nutrient

Pick the flowers just before starting, so they’re fresh. You do not need to pick the petals off the flower heads, but the heads should be trimmed of any stalk. Put the flowers in a large bowl. Set aside 1 pint of water and bring the remainder to a boil. Pour the boiling water over the dandelion flowers and cover tightly with cloth or plastic wrap. Leave for two days, stirring twice daily. Do not exceed this time. Pour flowers and water in large pot and bring to a low boil. Add the sugar and the peels (peel thinly and avoid any of the white pith) of the lemons and orange. Boil for one hour, then pour into a crock or plastic pail. Add the juice and pulp of the lemons and orange. Allow to stand until cool (70-75 degrees F.). Add yeast and yeast nutrient, cover, and put in a warm place for three days. Strain and pour into a secondary fermentation vessel (bottle or jug). Add the raisins and fit a fermentation trap to the vessel. Strain and rack after wine clears, adding reserved pint of water and any additional required to top up. Leave until fermentation ceases completely, then rack again. Set aside 2 months and rack and bottle. This wine must age six months in the bottle before tasting, but will improve remarkably if allowed a year.

Highbush Cranberry Wine

• 3 lbs ripe highbush cranberries
• 1 lb minced or chopped golden raisins or sultanas
• 2-1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
• 7 pts water
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 packet Champagne yeast

Wash three pounds of cranberries and sort for soundness. Put the water on to boil. Meanwhile, coarsely chop the cranberries and put in primary with minced or chopped golden raisins or sultanas. Pour sugar over fruit and boiling water over all. When cooled to room temperature, add pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient. Stir, cover with sterile cloth and set aside for 12 hours. Add yeast, recover and stir daily. After 14 days of fermentation, pour through nylon straining bag, squeeze to extract all juices, transfer to secondary, and fit airlock. Rack after 30 days, top up, refit airlock, and ferment to dryness. Rack into bottles and age at least 9 months before sampling. [Author’s own recipe]

Red Clover Wine

• 1 qt fresh red clover flowers
• 1 pint white grape juice (reconstituted from concentrate)
• 2-1/4 lb finely granulated sugar
• 2 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1/4 tsp tannin
• water to one gallon
• wine yeast

Bring 1/2 gallon water to boil and dissolve sugar in it. Destem and wash the flowers and put in primary. Pour boiling water over flowers and add grape juice, acid blend, tannin, yeast nutrient, and water to bring up to one gallon total liquid. When lukewarm, add yeast. Knock down cap 2-3 times daily. After 7 days, strain liquor into secondary and fit airlock. Rack after 60 days, top up, refit airlock and set aside 4 months. Wine should be clear. Stabilize, wait 10 days, rack, sweeten to taste, and bottle. Wait 6 months before tasting. [Adapted recipe from W.H.T. Tayleur’s The Penguin Book of Home Brewing & Wine-Making]

Red Raspberry Wine

• 3-4 lbs fresh red raspberries
• 2-1/4 lbs finely granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp acid blend
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1/8 tsp grape tannin
• 7-1/2 pints water
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• Champagne wine yeast

Pick only ripe berries. Combine water and sugar and put on to boil, stirring occasionally. Wash and destem berries. Put in nylon straining bag, tie, put in botton of primary, and crush berries in bag. Pour boiling sugar-water over berries to set the color and extract the flavorful juice. Add acid blend, tannin and yeast nutrient. Allow to cool to 70 degrees F. and add crushed Campden tablet. Cover primary with plastic wrap secured with a large rubber band. Add pectic enzyme after 12 hours and wine yeast after additional 12 hours, resecuring plastic wrap each time. Stir daily for a week, replacing plastic wrap if it looks like it needs it. Remove nylon bag and allow to drip drain about an hour, keeping primary covered as before. Do not squeeze bag. Return drippings to primary and use bag of pulp for “second” wine if you made a double recipe (combine bags, but only make one gallon of “second” wine). Continue fermentation in primary another week, stirring daily. Rack to secondary, top up with water and fit airlock. Use a dark secondary or wrap with brown paper (from paper bag) to preserve color. Ferment additional 2 months, then rack into clean secondary. Refit airlock and rack after additional 2 months. Wait another 2 months, rack again and bottle into dark glass. Drink after one year. This is an excellent dry wine, but don’t rush it! You must ferment the full 6 months and age another year. Serve chilled. The “second” wine uses the same recipe, but without the Campden tablet or pectic enzyme–and the sugar water MUST be cooled before pouring over fruit or you will kill the yeast still in the fruit. [Adapted from Terry Garey’s The Joy of Home Winemaking]

Staghorn Sumac Wine

• 5 lbs ripe staghorn sumac berries
• 3 lbs finely granulated sugar
• 1 gallon water
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 packet Lalvin 71B-1122 (Narbonne) or RC212 (Bourgovin) wine yeast

Wash to remove dust and insects. Put clusters in container, cover with water and mash or crush the berries with 4″ x 4″ piece of hardwood. Strain juice into primary through clean muslin to remove plant hairs and pulp. Add sugar, crushed Campden and yeast nutrient and stir well until all sugar is dissolved. (NOTE: Sugar could be dissolved in boiling water beforehand but must cool to room temperature before pouring over sumac fruit.) Cover primary and set aside 12 hours. Add activated yeast, recover and stir daily. After 14 days of fermentation, transfer to secondary, and fit airlock. You should have more than one gallon of wine, so use a one-gallon secondary and a 1.5-liter wine bottle fitted with a #2 bung and airlock. The wine in the smaller secondary is what you will use to top up the one-gallon secondary. Rack, top up, and refit airlock every 30 days wine is clear and drops no sediments during 30-day period. Stabilize, sweeten to taste if desired, refit airlock, and set aside for 10 days. Rack into bottles and age at least one year before sampling. [Recipe adapted from Steven A. Krause’s Wines from the Wilds]

The Author:

Jack Keller is president of the San Antonio Regional Wine Guild. He is a schooled historian, dry-fly fisherman, collector of stamps, Hummel figurines and Christine Rosamond lithographs, and lives with his wife Donna and English Springer Spaniel Colita in Pleasanton, Texas. He works for the United States Army Medical Research Detachment (San Antonio) of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is a prolific award-winning winemaker and has authored many articles on home winemaking and other subjects. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net

© Copyright Jack Keller. All rights reserved.

Photo. Brigitte Werner