Cherry Wine Recipe

Cherry wine makes a deep red, fruit-forward country wine from a fruit many people grow in the backyard. This cherry wine recipe makes 1 gallon and scales to 5. It follows the cherry wine recipe in North Dakota State University Extension's guide to home winemaking (FN1638, reviewed in August 2026), with notes on the one thing that sets cherries apart from other fruit: the pits.

Sweet cherries, tart pie cherries and wild cherries all ferment. Sweet cherries give a softer, darker wine; tart cherries give a sharper, brighter one and need less added acid. Many home winemakers blend the two. Whatever you use, start with ripe, sound fruit, because the wine can only be as good as the cherries.

How Many Cherries for a Gallon of Wine?

NDSU's cherry wine uses 3 pounds of cherries per gallon, with water to fill the gallon and sugar to bring the specific gravity up to 1.085 to 1.090. That rate is in line with the general guidance in the same publication, which notes that many fruit wine recipes call for 3 to 5 pounds of fruit per gallon. If you want a heavier, more intense cherry wine, you can push toward 4 or 5 pounds; taste the must and expect a darker color and more acid.

Sweet, Tart or Wild Cherries

• Sweet cherries (Bing and similar dark varieties) give color and body. They are the low-acid choice, so keep the full teaspoon of acid blend.
• Tart cherries (Montmorency and other pie cherries) give a brighter, sharper wine. Taste before adding acid, and reduce or skip the acid blend if the must is already sour.
• Wild cherries such as chokecherries are small and mostly pit, so you need more weight of fruit for the same flavor. Pit handling matters even more here.

Fresh or Frozen

Frozen cherries are an excellent shortcut. NDSU notes that freezing and thawing softens fruit and helps juice extraction, and frozen pitted cherries from the store save the most tedious step. Use plain fruit without added sugar syrup or preservatives.

The Cherry Pit Problem

Stone fruit pits are the reason cherry wine needs a little more care than berry wine. NDSU's publication warns not to break the pits of stone fruits such as cherries or plums, because they contain a cyanide-forming compound that adds a bitter taste to the wine. Its cherry recipe gives two options:

• Pit the cherries. NDSU notes this makes them easier to crush. A cherry pitter speeds it up.
• Leave them whole and crush gently, taking care not to crack the stones, then keep everything in a straining bag so the pits come out with the pulp.

Do not run unpitted cherries through a blender or food processor. If you want a hint of the almond-like note some old recipes chase, get it from a splash of almond extract at bottling rather than from cracked stones.

How to Make Cherry Wine, Step by Step

Clean and sanitize every piece of equipment first: fermenter, bag, spoon, jug, hydrometer and tubing.

1. Prepare the Fruit

Wash and sort the cherries, pulling stems and leaves and discarding damaged, insect-infested or overripe fruit, as NDSU's recipe directs. Decide now whether to pit. If you leave the pits in, crush with a potato masher or by hand inside the bag, pressing just enough to split the skins.

2. Build the Must

Squeeze the juice through the bag into the fermenter, then tie the bag and leave it in if you want more color and flavor. Add water to fill the gallon, the acid blend, tannin, nutrient, pectic enzyme and the crushed Campden tablet. Take a hydrometer reading and add sugar until you reach 1.085 to 1.090; our sugar calculator works out the amount. The Campden tablet protects the must from wild yeast while it rests for 24 hours; our Campden tablet guide explains why one tablet per gallon is the usual dose.

3. Ferment on the Pulp

After 24 hours, add the yeast and cover the fermenter. Check the gravity after three to five days. When it has dropped to 1.020 to 1.030, NDSU says to lift out the bag, squeeze the wine from the pulp and move the wine to a glass jug with an airlock.

4. Finish Warm, Not Hot

NDSU's cherry recipe asks for a temperature of at least 68°F during the secondary stage, and not above 80°F. Cherry wine is finished when the gravity drops below 1.000 and stays put for several days; NDSU's publication notes that finished dry wine can read as low as 0.990. Our guide on how long wine takes to ferment covers what to do if it stalls.

5. Clear and Bottle

NDSU gives two ways to clear the wine: fining agents such as kieselsol and chitosan, or simply waiting several months for it to clear on its own. Rack it off the sediment before bottling and keep the jug topped up in the meantime. When it is bright, follow our steps on how to bottle and cork wine. NDSU's general advice is to age wine at least two months after bottling, and a year is better.

Cherry Wine Variations

Sweet Cherry Dessert Wine

Ferment dry, stabilize the wine, and then sweeten to taste before bottling. Sweetening an unstabilized wine invites a second fermentation in the bottle. A sweet cherry wine is a natural partner for chocolate desserts.

Cherry and Grape Blend

Replace a quarter of the water with 100% red grape juice without preservatives. The grape adds body and tannin and makes the wine taste more like a light red. Our guide on making wine from grape juice covers which juices ferment well.

Cherry Mead

Cherries and honey are a classic pairing. Ferment a traditional mead from our guide on how to make mead, then add cherries to the secondary jug for a week or two.

Common Cherry Wine Mistakes

• Cracking the pits. It adds bitterness that does not age out.
• Leaving the pulp in too long. Take the bag out at 1.020 to 1.030, as the recipe says, so the wine goes under an airlock while there is still enough fermentation to protect it.
• Fermenting too warm. NDSU caps this recipe at 80°F, and its general advice is that cooler fermentation keeps more of the delicate fruit aroma.
• Adding full acid to tart cherries. Taste first; pie cherries may need little or none.
• Bottling cloudy wine. Patience or fining agents fix haze; bottling does not.

In the United States, adults may make wine for personal or family use under 27 CFR 24.75, up to 100 gallons a year in a one-adult household and 200 gallons where two or more adults live. It cannot be sold, and making or drinking it is only for those of legal drinking age.