sloe wine

[WILDBREW]

ingredients for making 2 gallons.
2kg-ripe sloe's.
2lt-red grape juice.
2kg-sugar.
4-oranges(juice only no pith or pips)
1cup of strong tea(no milk)
1/2tsp-marmite(Optional)
1tsp-GP yeast compound.
water.
Method: Method: wash the sloes and discard any stalks,then add to the FV and cover then dissolve half the sugar in a pan of water,then pour the sugar syrup over the sloes and cover and leave to cool,when cool mash the sloes in the FV with a potato masher,the add the grape juice,tea the juice from the oranges,Marmite and yeast compound and cover and stir twice daily of 10 days after 7 days make some sugar syrup with the rest of the sugar then add to the FV when cool,after 10 days rack the fermenting wine from its sediment and strain into your demijohns.discard solids. top up to the neck with cold water and fully ferment out,when fermenting has finished,rack wine from sediment top up with water fit a cork or rubber bung and keep somewhere cool for 12 months to clear and muture.
NOTE: it is worth being patient and storing as long as you can up to 3 years. [:-)] cheers

[MKG]

Caution on this one, I think. Sloes are naturally high in tannin. Very high, in fact. That cup of strong tea won't do anything except make the wine bitter for longer - hence the long maturation period. I'd leave it out as being unnecessary.

A balanced sloe wine is drinkable within three months. At six months, it's exceptionally drinkable. At a year - well, I've never made one which survived a year.

Mike