Tinned Cherry Wine

• 2 16-oz cans of pie cherries (NOT cherry pie filling)
• 1-3/4 lbs granulated sugar if in water; 2 lbs granulated sugar if in light syrup; 1-3/4 lbs granulated sugar if in heavy syrup
• 3-1/2 qts water
• 1 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• Montrachet wine yeast

Heat water, but do not boil. Drain syrup from cherries and set syrup aside. Put cherries in nylon straining bag, tie end closed, set in primary. Add sugar to hot water and stir well to dissolve sugar. Add syrup (or water) from cherries. Pour the water/syrup over cherries in primary, cover with clean cloth and allow to cool to room temperature (about 4 hours). Add remaining ingredients except yeast and recover primary. Wait 12 hours, add yeast and recover. Ferment 5 days, punching bag down twice a day. Measure specific gravity. When S.G. reaches 1.020, drip drain (but don’t squeeze) the bag of cherries. Discard cherries. Allow wine to settle overnight and rack into secondary. Top up and fit airlock. Rack every 2 months for total of 3 times. Stabilize wine, wait 10 days, rack into bottles or into clean secondary to be sweetened to taste before bottling. This wine may be tasted in 6 months, but ages well.
[Author’s own recipe]