Background:
I'm a new wine maker and have successfully completed and been pleased
with a couple of wine kits. I have really enjoyed many of the cherry
products from the region and while in Traverse City, MI I attained
~130 LBS of IQF (individually quick frozen; no pits) tart cherries.
They are still frozen and I have around 90 LBS left after making 5
Gallons of cherry infusion, an excellent cherry ale, and quite a few
pies.

Inspirations:
Chateau Chantal Cerise
A sweet cherry desert wine from the peninsula. From the bottle:
"Beginning w/ whole, tart cherries we distill the fruit to its essence
(156 proof), then blend it with partially fermented cherry wine."
http://chateauchantal.com/

Homemade Cherry Infusions
2 Cups Sugar, a sun tea jar full of tart cherries and about 1 Liter of
either bourbon or vodka. It's been a big hit at my house for years
(we served 2 gallons of it this New Years Eve 2007 and the entire 5
gallons of cherry ale).

Research:
As this is my first "scratch" batch I've taken a lot of time to review
and research this ng, the incredible Home wine makers manual at
http://www.geocities.com/lumeisenman/contents.html, as well as notes
from a class I took here in Cincinnati, Oh taught by Walt Huber.

I spent a lot of time browsing online; http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/
is incredible, and I think that the recipe discussed on this ng he
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.c... 9fdde6a5acfe
is the one I'd like to go with (not the first recipe) the Berry Port
recipe from:
http://www.geocities.com/lumeisenman/chapt21.html

The discussion leads me to believe this is a very promising recipe.

Recipe:
BERRY PORT
(Makes five gallons, US measurements)

6 lbs Blackberries
6 lbs Loganberries
6 lbs Blueberries
6 lbs very ripe bananas
2 lbs dried dates
2 lbs dried figs
4 1/4 gallons of water
10 lbs white granulated sugar
1 level teaspoon yeast energizer
6 level teaspoons acid blend
2 1/2 level teaspoons grape tannin
1 level teaspoon pectic enzyme
5 Campden tablets


Questions:
Should I swap all of the fruit with cherries; 24 LBS?

I'm using tarts instead of sweet cherries; obviously a lot of the
process is to taste. I think I'd like to try and make a sweet viscous
port. I'd like this to be a real crowd pleaser- something you would
almost pour over ice-cream or cake. Changes you'd suggest to the
initial recipe?

Would glycerol help to get me that full body mouth feel? I realize
this is putting the cart before the horse..

I've read that cherries are extremely high in malic acid; would it be
worthwhile to try and balance out w/ citric acid from another fruit;
for example blueberries as 10-20% (20 LBS Tart Cherries / 4 LBS
Blueberries)? If so, source suggestions for blueberries- would frozen
bagged from the grocery be ok?

To calculate the fortifications is it simply solving for X, where .15%
would be my calculated alchohol %,.45 is a 90 proof liquor, and .20 is
my target alcohol %?
.15(5 gallons) + .45(x gallons) = .20(5 gallons +x gallons)
x = 1 gallon
that seems kind of high

I'd like to fortify some of the resulting wine with bourbon instead of
everclear to 20%; that explains the above selection of a 90 proof
liquor. Is this going to be worthwhile? Are any of the bourbon
flavors going to come through? I suppose if it's a actually a gallon
addition per above they sure would. Would it be worth using something
high end like Blantons?

I would also like to do a chocolate cherry port, but have been unable
to find a way to add some chocolate flavoring to the wine. The best
lead I found from this ng was the recipes starting with 16 boxes of
chocolate covered cherries. Any suggestions here? Ideally I'd split
the batch at some point and infuse somehow?

Any other comments or input on the recipe?

Thanks in advance for all of your thoughts and comments on this
recipe. Regardless of what direction I finally choose I'll be sure to
post the process and results to the new group; this place is an
invaluable reference!

Liam