This year has seen an abundance of blackberries that has been made into a port, wine and mixed with elderberries to make Elder and Black with a few left over added to gin. The year previous it was rather slim pickings as a lot of the blackberry bushes had been trimmed back and the weather damaged a lot of them remaining, I did get enough for a gallon of wine making 6 bottles though.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL BODIED BLACKBERRY WINE RECIPE

As this was made in a small batch I nothing to lose and decided to try and modify my recipe. Most recipes just use blackberries and rely on them totally for tannin and acidity. This means that blackberries make a medium bodied wine and it is probably better suited to a 12% ABV so that the alcohol does not taste too hot. To add more body I upped the blackberries adding 200g extra to 2.2kg as well as 100g of raisins.

CLICK HERE FOR THE TRADITIONAL MEDIUM BLACKBERRY WINE RECIPE

The effect has been dramatic pushing the wine from medium to full bodied. More tannin has added from the extra skins and raisins creating more mouth feel and the wine is thicker with a velvet feel as you drink. Colour is far darker compared to last years changing from a bright red that allowed light through to a thick black gloss. The taste is also deeper and richer with a less pronounced blackberry base though there is certainly more than a hint being joined by a cherry and slightly nuttier addition. This seems to handle the alcohol creating a more balanced wine.

As the wine is more tannic I gave it longer to age. Usually a blackberry wine is matured for 12 months and it can even be drunk at 9 months. This has taken 15 months and will continue to mature possibly up to 24 months. It is not that this is necessarily a better wine though I do think I prefer it as it is more complex and like a traditional grape wine.