Hi Wal

This sounds like an interesting brew, do you have an idea as to what type of
red wine might be best. There are a lot choises (cost and variety) out
there.

Thanks
Brian

Snip

> I have not come across a detailed Italian recipe but here is a French
> variant (Vin de cerises) -
> Visciolato/Vin de cerises/Cherry-flavoured wine
> 1 kg of washed and de-stemmed whole cherries (including pits)
> 1 cup of water
> 200 g sugar
> 500 ml alcohol (50%bv)
> 2 litres red wine
> 1) Put the cherries in a pot with the water and sugar. Cook for 30
> minutes. Strain and allow to cool.
> 2) Add strained syrup to alcohol and age for 2 weeks.
> 3) Add the cherry infusion to the wine. Bottle and age.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Here is an old traditional method from an Italian site -

Vino di Visciole
http://www.bebleserre.it/vini.htm)

In July place 1 kg of the sour cherries in a large glass jar. Add
600-700 g of sugar and place in a warm place to ferment for about 1
month. Allow to age until the time of the grape vintage.
During vintage add 1 kg of the fermented sour cherries to 1 litre of a
red wine for the secondary fermentation. Allow to ferment together
until February, then remove the sour cherries.

wal
NB: Note 2) in the French recipe below has been changed (1/2 of the
syrup used only)

--- In Distillers, "waljaco"  wrote:
> Visciolato is a fortified sour cherry flavoured dessert wine that is
> still made on a small scale in the Marche region of Italy. The main
> flavouring ingredient is the wild visciola cherry which belongs to the
> sour cherry species (Prunus cerasus).
> There are 2 ways of making Visciolato -
> 1) The cherries are dried, crushed and added to the previous years
> wine. Refermentation begins which is partially blocked by the addition
> of alcohol, retaining the residual sugar for sweetening.
> 2) A syrup made from the cherries is added to a red wine must which is
> not allowed to ferment to dryness by the addition of alcohol.
> Some versions also add spices such as cinnamon, cloves, orange and
> lemon peel.
> It was the custom to celebrate the birth of the first son with a glass
> of Visciolato and to hold back a part of a barrel of the year of birth
> for his wedding day.(
> The practice of adding cherries to wine recalls the pracice in Belgium
> of adding cherries and raspberries to lambic beer during the secondary
> fermentation stage in the casks. Lambic kriek is made by adding
> cherries to the casks of beer, together with some young lambic, at the
> rate of 1 kg/5 litres. The sugars in the cherries and young beer
> create a new fermentation which proceeds to dryness.
> I have not come across a detailed Italian recipe but here is a French
> variant (Vin de cerises) -
> Visciolato/Vin de cerises/Cherry-flavoured wine
> 1 kg of washed and de-stemmed whole cherries (including pits)
> 1 cup of water
> 200 g sugar
> 500 ml alcohol (50%bv)
> 2 litres red wine
> 1) Put the cherries in a pot with the water and sugar. Cook for 30
> minutes. Strain and allow to cool.
> 2) Add half of the strained syrup to alcohol and age for 2 weeks.
> 3) Add the cherry infusion to the wine. Bottle and age.
> wal