The National Association of Wine and Beer Makers (Amateur)
COUNTRY RECIPES
This page contains winning Country Wine Recipes from previous National shows. Click here for more information about the National.
Definition of Country Wines - wines produced in the home from ingredients that are available from the larder/freezer, the garden, the countryside or the green grocers.
Ingredients from the larder - this can be dried fruit of all kinds - raisins, currants, sultanas. They come from grapes and have been either dried in the sun or by other means. They need to be thoroughly washed in warm water to get rid of dust, oils etc and should then be soaked for 8-12 hours in cold water with a Campden tablet then rinsed again to sterilise them. They can be minced, but this could reintroduce an infection. Other dried fruits, e.g. peaches, figs, dates etc, may be roughly chopped after the washing and soaking process has been carried out. Dried fruits such as cherries, sloes, elderberries, bilberries should be washed in the same way, but de-stoning is unnecessary unless the stones have been broken. Fruit juices in cartons should be checked before using them in wine to see if they are fresh juices or diluted concentrate and what preservatives have been used. Fresh juices are best; any with a lot of sorbate can give "geranium" odours and flavours.


Elderberry Dry 1994 Citrus Sweet 1994 Dry Gooseberry 2010 Carrot Wine Sweet 2013

Elderberry Dry 1st 1994
Supplied by Ian Harrington

Ingredients
2 lb / 900gms Elderberries
2 lb/900gms Californian Raisins
l/2pt / 280mltsRed grape concentrate
3/4pt / 360mlts Honey (ACACIA)
1/4 tsp Minevit or 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 tablet Rohament P
1 tablet Red wine yeast (Chianti if available) or 1 No.3 Gervin yeast
No sugar is added to this recipe

Method
Place raisins in a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute, then remove from heat and drain water off the raisins. Repeat twice more. This removes the oil. Put raisins and elderberries in a bucket and pour 5.1/ 2 pts of boiling water over the contents.
Stir in the honey, add grape concentrate.
Leave to cool. Add nutrients and make up to 1 gallon. Add 1 crushed Rohament P tablet and yeast then leave on pulp for 6 days. Rack off into a demijohn.
Ferment out to dryness which in this recipe is normally 1000 sg.
I use American oak shavings to oak this wine. Weigh 1 oz and place it in a sieve. Pour boiling water over the shavings. Transfer into a dish with a drop of water and place in a microwave. Cook on high for 3 minutes to kill any bacteria. Remove from the microwave and force the shavings through a funnel into a clean demijohn and rack the wine on top of the shavings. Leave for 3 to 4 weeks (dependent on strength of oak flavour preferred). Rack off the oak. Add 1 Camden tablet and leave to stand for 6 months to 1 year. I would normally rack the wine off twice in the year so that it does not stand on the sediment.
I use this recipe to blend with other drier red wines.

Citrus Sweet  1st 1994
Supplied by Steve Pearson

Ingredients
3 litres Orange Juice
1 kg Solvino Kit (White)
1 lb Raisins
Vitamin B1 tablet
Peel of 2 oranges
No.3 Gervin Yeast,
Nutrient, Pectolase,
8 oz Sugar
1 pint of water

Method
Put juice, raisins, white kit into bucket.
Add water. SG 1084. Add nutrient, pectolase and yeast. Ferment on the raisins for 5/6 days, then strain. Add 4oz sugar and another 4oz 2 days later. When finished add sulphite and clear. Sweeten to approx 1040, adjust acid if required.
Add the zest of 2 oranges for bouquet and flavour. Leave to mature.

Dry Gooseberry
Members Recipe 2010 National
Supplied by Andrew Bristow
Won by Charles Hill

Ingredients
2lb gooseberries
4 oz strawberries
0.5lb ripe bananas
2 litres White Grape Juice
21 oz sugar
Rohament 'P' Enzyme (optional)
Pectolytic Enzyme
Amylase Starch Enzyme
Bentonite
Yeast and Nutrient

Method
1. Put 1.5 pints of boiling water on the gooseberries and strawberries (frozen or fresh). When cool add a Campden tablet and Rohament 'P'. Leave for 24 hrs mashing with a potato masher.
2. Dissolve 21ozs sugar in 1pt of boiling water and put into a demi-john. Strain the fruit into the demi-john. Simmer bananas (sliced without skins) in 0.5pt boiling water for 20 minutes and strain into the demi-john.
3. Add white grape juice. When cool, add pectolytic enzyme, amylase, nutrient, yeast and bentonite. When initial fermentation has subsided and SG drops to just above 1.000, rack to a clean demi-john and top up to the neck with white grape juice.
4. When fermentation stops, add a Campden tablet, and, if not clear, finings.
5. This wine was the winning Dry Gooseberry Wine in 2008.

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Carrot Wine Sweet
Members Recipe 2013 National
Supplied by Ted Jordan
Won by Alan Bailey

Ingredients
6lb Carrots
2˝lb Sugar
1lb Raisins
2 Oranges
2 Lemons
˝ tsp Tannin
1 tsp Bentonite
1 tsp Pectolaze
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
Good quality yeast


Method
1. Scrub and slice the carrots, and put them in a saucepan with 1 gallon of water.  Bring to the boil then simmer gently till soft.
2. Strain the liquid onto the sugar, raisins, zest and juice of the oranges and lemons, into a fermentation bucket.  Stir well and leave the mixture to cool. When cool, add the tannin, bentonite, yeast and yeast nutrient.  Cover and leave to ferment for 5 or 6 days, stirring daily.
3. Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh bag into a demijohn.  Put in a warm place to ferment out to Dry.  Sweeten to taste.
4. Rack into a clean Demijohn and store for about 6 months, racking as necessary.  Drinkable after 6 months but better left longer.

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Last updated: 11/04/19
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