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I have a neighbor with orange trees who lets the fruit drop. So I asked him if I could make wine from his oranges. In return for the oranges, I promised him some of the finished product. He agreed and pointed me to the tree with the oldest oranges. Apparently, some of these oranges had been on the tree for two years. So even though it was February, and Valencia oranges typically ripen in summer. I made this wine from Valencia oranges. These oranges were ugly! Ugly on the outside but sweet on the inside. Probably like people as they grow old. They had aged on the tree, like we age on the tree of life.

The recipe I made up for 5 gallons of spiced orange wine:
52 really ripe oranges
10 guavas (Hawaiian)
1 tin of frozen mango juice (from supermarket)
1 tin of concord grape juice (from supermarket)
9 lbs of honey
2 lbs of maple syrup
2 lbs of sugar
25 cloves
25 allspice seeds
5 gallons of filtered tap water to make six gallons total
5 Campden tablets

Directions:
Wash and cut the 52 oranges in half. Juice them and pour the juice into a primary fermenter. Add the frozen mango and grape juice. Heat up 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add your honey, maple syrup, and sugar while stirring—so nothing sticks to the bottom of your pan. Turn down the flame and let it simmer. While it simmers, bruise your allspice and gloves with a spoon and wrap them up in a coffee filter, wound up with a piece of thread so it looks like a big cocoon. Let the spices simmer for 5 minutes while you keep stirring. Let the water cool down slightly and pour into the primary fermenter. Bring the water level to 5 and 1/2 gallons with filtered tap water. Place the top on the fermenter and add water to the fermentation lock. When the brew cools to 75 degrees add 5 crushed campden tablets and close the lid. Adding the crushed campden tablets assures mass destruction of all bacteria—both good and bad. Mutual destruction of all the bacteria living in your fermentator. After 12 hours add 2-1/2 teaspoons of pectic enzyme. This is the magic stuff that will eliminate the pectic haze from all the orange juice. Eventually, you’ll want your wine to be clear and sparkling so you can convince people to drink it. Pectic enzyme will help you achieve this goal. Let the pectic enzyme sit in this sweet batch of juices for another 12 hours. Start your yeast starter per the instructions on the yeast you have chosen. I used champagne in mine, only because it was the only yeast I had at the time. You may want to use Lalvin D-47 or Montrachet yeast to add more flavor to the wine. What ever yeast you’ve chosen, it is now time to add it. Within 12 – 48 hours you should start to see the start of fermentation.

After 10 days or so when fermentation starts to slow down, rack your wine into a scondary fermenter, leaving behind your spice cocoon. Let it sit in a dark cold place for a month before racking again. Repeat the racking experience in a month. Each time you rack, try to avoid sucking up the yeast at the bottom of your fermenter. Each time you rack, you’ll come up a little short of your fluid level. It’s important to keep the level 3 inches from the top of your secondary fermenter. Add wine to “top up” with if your feel your brew needs more “body”. Or add brandy if you feel it needs more alcohol. After the third racking, let your wine age for 6 months in a dark cold bedroom closet. Then you should be ready to bottle.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 12th, 2006 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Wine Making. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.