Dried Apricot Wine

I received a request a year ago for a fruit wine you can make in the winter, other than apple, that you would be proud to serve year-round. I almost didn’t reply because the answer is so obvious — dried fruit wine. I looked in my pantry and there were two pounds of dried Turkish apricots I picked up from Whole Foods. The wine just sort of made itself. I tasted it last night and drank half a bottle before I realized what I was doing. Need I say it? Fabulous!

You don’t need dried Turkish apricots for this recipe, but you do need dried apricots. Mine were sulfited to preserve the color and discourage bacterial attachment. Do not worry about the sulfites, please. Their amount is very slight, far less than you would get by adding a Campden tablet.

I used Demerara sugar, but you can use any light brown sugar you can find. Turbinado sugar would be a good substitute and is easy to find. If push comes to shove, use Light Brown Sugar, which is white sugar with molasses added.

• 2 lbs chopped dry apricots
• 1 can Welch’s or Old Orchard 100% White Grape Juice Frozen Concentrate
• 1 3/4 lb Demerara sugar
• juice of 2 lemons
• water to 1 gallon
• 1/4 tsp powdered grape tannin
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• sachet of Kitzinger’s Madeira, Red Star Premier Curvee or Lalvin EC1118 wine yeast

Bring apricots to boil in 3 1/2 quarts of water, reduce to simmer for 30 minutes, then strain into primary without pressing. Discard pulp or save to make jam or preserves. Add remaining ingredients, except yeast and nutrient, and stir well to dissolve sugar. When warm, add nutrient, and stir. When cool, add activated yeast as starter solution, cover and ferment in warm place for three weeks, stirring daily. Strain into secondary, top up to one gallon, and fit airlock. Rack after one month. Rack every 30 days until clear, rack again adding 1/2 teaspoon potassium sorbate and one crushed and dissolved Campden tablet. Set aside two months, then rack again. Sweeten to taste and wait 30 days to see if refermentation occurs. If not, bottle. Taste after six months, but allow one year for best quality and flavor. [Jack Keller’s own recipe]

This wine can be made using Flor Sherry yeast, but requires very careful measurement of sugar in the must — from the apricots, white grape concentrate and sugar added — so the potential alcohol falls between 14.5% and 16%% alcohol. This window is crucial to grow a flor. Ferment normally (anaerobically) to dryness, then move to a larger secondary to allow air in over the wine. Either seal mouth of secondary with cotton or cover with a double layer of muslin secured with a rubber band.

A flor does not develop under all conditions. A cooler temperature (60° is ideal) and high humidity are desired, but there is not much you can do about the latter. If floret’s do not develop within one month stabilize the wine and await yeast die-off — about 3 months. Rack and then rack again in 30 days. Sweeten to taste and wait a final 30 days to see if refermentation occurs. If not, bottle. Since the wine has been exposed to air, drink within one year.

If floret’s do develop, wait and they will form a complete flor over the wine, protecting it from further air exposure until the flor collapses. When that occurs, stabilize the wine. Sweeten if desired and wait a final 30 days to see if refermentation occurs. If not, bottle.