How to make a Delicious Ruby Mulberry Port

Here in Australia, many a backyard garden is home to a Mulberry tree and during the months of September/ October the tree wil be full of ripe juicy mulberries.

Mulberries on their own, do not produce a particularly good wine, the results being rather thin and lacking body and flavour, however by building up the body with DrinkART 'Fireside' port concentrate the results can be very rewarding, Ruby Port concentrate will give essential nutrients and added body and one of our favourite recipes is for a Ruby/Mulberry Port as follows

INSTRUCTIONS

The total volume after racking and clearing was 20 litres....

Red stained fingers and clothes gave a first hand insight into the Port to come. After collecting a couple of large buckets full of juicy black mulberries we washed the fruit and removed the stalks. In several batches we slowly brought the berries to a slight simmer with just a small amount of water. (Approx.. a quarter the volume of berries). Once they had reached a simmer and the juice was releasing we cut off the heat and added 1.5kg white sugar.

Note: we preferred to bring the fruit to a slight simmer rather than the normal practice of adding Campden Tablets to the fruit to inhibit any wild yeast. Extra juice is released this way with the heat but do not boil.

We mashed the fruit and poured all ingredients into a wide opening fermentation bucket. (Mulberries release a lot of juice so donÕt add much water to start with) There should be enough liquid to cover the fruit pulp. We allowed the juice and pulp to cool before adding the Port yeast supplied with the Port concentrate and 2 teaspoons of Fermaid Yeast Nutrient

Fermaid Yeast Nutrient is a superior yeast nutrient as used by leading wineries.

The lid and airlock were put into position and fermentation commenced very quickly. We fermented the 'must' for approximately 5 days then strained the juice into a demijohn, squeezing out and discarding the berry pulp. We then added 2'Fireside' Port concentrates and adjusted the total volume to approx. 23 litres by adding some cool boiled water .

Fermentation was allowed to continue in the demijohn under airlock until nearly finished.

We then stopped fermentation at S.G. 1010 by syphoning off the sediment We had chosen to make this Port slightly sweet with a full fruity aroma and this can be achieved by stopping fermentation early leaving some unfermented berry and grape juice in the Port.

An Hydrometer is essential to gauge when to stop the Port from fermenting.

Allow the Port to ferment until the bubbles escaping through the airlock become VERY SLOW (on average this takes approximately 2-3 weeks) Now use your hydrometer to gauge the NATURAL GRAPE SUGAR left in the Port. When the S.G. reading is between 1015 and 1010 it is time to STOP the yeast from fermenting further by syphoning the Port out of the demijohn and into a clean container (mixing bucket) or another demijohn. Discard the sediment in the demijohn and return the Port.

STABILISE YOUR PORT

Add 2 crushed Campden tablets per 5 litres and the recommended dose of K40 wine stabiliser (instructions on bottle) and stir them into the Port. The Port will fizz for a few minutes as any gas trapped during fermentation is expelled. The campden tablets and stabiliser will prevent the port from further fermentation and thus the remaining grape sugars remain as natural flavour enhancers.

MATURING

Allow the Port to clear and settle and rack when further sediments form. You may need to rack the Port several times until it is a deep clear ruby red colour.

TRADITIONALLY BRANDY IS ADDED TO PORT TO FORTIFY

All commercially prepared Port are blended with Brandy and we highly recommend this step for an improved flavour. Simply add a cup (per litre or to taste) of Brandy to your Port during maturation. This will also help mature the port , enhance the flavour and fortify the port..

To Bottle and mature: You can bottle your Port into either:

• sterilised red wine bottles with wine corks (suits long storage)
• Sterilised Port bottles with push in corks (stand up bottles only)
• Demijohn with a swing clip seal or
• mature in Oak casks suitable for Ports or Spirits. (fortify with Brandy to improve keeping quality)

Note: this recipe can easily be halved to make approximately 10 litres. You will only need approximately one large bucket full of Mulberries, 750gm sugar, and 1 Ruby Port concentrate.