A few years ago I made a Seville orange wine and it was surprisingly good. The popular myth is that orange wine is so acidic taste like sick… not sick as in, “this wine is sick blud” but, “this wine tastes like vomit.” When I eventually popped one of mine open it was a sharp spritzer with a little natural sparkle and really really drinkable. Just enough effervescence to give it a little sparkle and an earthy rounded taste that was an age away from parmesan yuckiness.

CLICK HERE FOR THE SEVILLE RECIPE

CLICK HERE FOR THE SEVILLE TASTING

I have wanted to do a blood orange equivalent for a while and have finally got around to it as an experiment. Blood oranges are more traditional in taste as opposed to a Seville orange as they lack the added bitter and sour taste in addition to the natural orange sweetness. Blood oranges are very very sweet and with a unique taste that is less citrus and some what mellow to my taste buds.

Using the Seville recipe I have made a few alterations. The first was to up the fruit. Just adding two oranges from 18 to 20. I may adjust that further in future if I do make this again to perhaps 24. This is purely because blood oranges although tasty would be watery compared to Seville once fermented. In addition to the differences in fruit I am seeing this as an evolution with better methods used. I have thrown out the lemon based citric acid and adjusting with a more grape wine like tartaric acid. The citric naturally present in all citric fruit including blood oranges was first reduced using 10g per litre of calcium carbonate and then then adding tartaric acid to replace it and adjust to 0.6% I am hoping this can bring a more rounded taste to the wine to match the blood oranges. Another change will be that this wine will be stabilised and then back sweetened rather than left totally bone dry as the Seville version was. Blood oranges are really sweet so I think the finished wine needs to reflect this to be palatable.

I imagine that the reddish hue from the blood oranges is photo-sensitive so keep the wine in the dark as often as possble to retain colour. If colour does fade this will have little impact on flavout I imagine.

BLOOD ORANGE WINE RECIPE 4.5 Litres

20 oranges ( half the zest reserved)

400g raisins

Calcium carbonate to reduce acidity.

Tartaric acid to 0.6 (if using lemon juice add he juice of two lemons.)

About 550g sugar (approximate to 1.09SG)

Cup of strong tea

3.25ish litres of water

Yeast (I used god old 1118 champagne yeast though CY17 may be better)

Yeast nutrient

Boil at least 3.25 litres of water and throw in a tea bag (any American viewers this means an unsweetened plain breakfast tea) and leave to cool.

Roughly chop the raisins.

If waxed, wash the oranges and then use a peeler to zest half of them with as little pith left as possible.

Add the zests, raisins and juice the oranges and then add 1tsp of pectic enzyme to break down the pectin. Also add 10g of calcium carbonate to reduce acidity. Leave for 24hours for the pectic enzyme to do its work.

Use a hydrometer to adjust sugar to 1.09 starting gravity. Then add yeast nutrient then the yeast.

As no major solids are present no stirring is really needed though once or twice a day will be beneficial to keep the yeast hydrated.

Leave in primary fermentation and when it starts to slow rack into secondary with an air lock.

Rack when fermentation ends in about 5 weeks and again 12 or so weeks afterwards. Subsequent racks are only needed if there is a lot of sediment forming.

Before bottling stabilise and back sweeten to your own taste.

Drink a year after you started I imagine.