On Dec 23, 2:31 pm, "Pavel314" > wrote:
> "jim" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
>
>
> >A friend of mine asked this question a while ago but the question
> > didn't really get an answer I could use so I am going to try to
> > rephrase it to see if anyone can help. I live in the UK. Access to
> > reasonably priced wine grapes is extremely limited and I am not
> > wealthy at the moment. I could make expensive crushendo style kits
> > once a year - I have a gallon made from my parents-in-law's
> > grapes...
>
> > The red wines I like to buy are heavy, tannic and oaky. I also like
> > wines which are fruity and have bite. A simple smooth, oaky / berry
> > flavour is great too... I want to make a staple decent country red
> > wine, preferably one I can make all year round. The thing is that I
> > want it to have properties similar to the reds I like to buy. So I got
> > to thinking of how I might achieve this. So far my brain is saying
> > maybe an elderberry and blackberry base with a few canned
> > blackcherries, some raisins and some oak chips, a touch of tea even,
> > might make the kind of effect I want. I am only 18 months into my
> > winemaking career, so I have yet to taste more than 3 of the 30 wines
> > I have in progress. Within the next year I guess I might be able to
> > make more educated guesses.
>
> > This is probably a very common newbie question. Has anyone ever
> > devised a recipe with this aim in mind?
>
> > Jim
>
> I make an elderberry blend that turned out very well. I started making wine
> about 12 years ago because we had several Concord and Delaware vines on the
> property and most of the fruit was going to waste; you can only eat so many
> grapes in a season. The wines were nice and fruity with a good bouquet but I
> wanted more "depth" to the taste.
>
> Noticing that we also had several elderberry bushes growing here and there,
> I was reminded of the elderberry wine motif from "Arsenic and Old Lace." So
> I ended up experimenting with pure elderberry wine, elderberry melomels and
> the grape/elderberry blend which I call "Isaac Wine."
>
> The 2001 recipe can be found at:
>
> http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rbfarm/mwine.html
>
> This recipe calls for boiling the elderberries but I've taken to adding the
> elderberries raw in more recent vintages with no noticeable difference.
>
> By strange coincidence, I pulled a bottle of my 2002 Isaac for dinner last
> night. It had aged well. Maybe next time I'll try one of the last few
> bottles of the 2001 Isaac.
>
> You mentioned blackberries; I made a 3-gallon batch this year with equal
> parts of elderberries, blackberries and Concords. I'll post the results in a
> year or so.
>
> Paul

Very interesting, thanks for sharing the info Paul. I will let you
know how my blackberry wine gets on too. If it continues as it is it
should be wonderful.

Jim