Fruit Wine: Cranberries, Blueberries & Beyond

On her classic song, “Summer Wine,” Nancy Sinatra croons:

Strawberries, cherries, and an angel’s kiss in spring,

My summer wine is really made from all these things…

Sinatra was not a winemaker (she was, of course, a saucy, boot-wearing femme fatale), but she is quite right about the vast possibilities of fruit fermentation.

You might ask, if wine is made from grapes, aren’t all wines fruit wines? The answer is technically yes, but categorically, no.

Grapes differ from other fruits in that they naturally strike the right balance of essential winemaking ingredients: sugars, acids, and tannins. During the fermentation process, a winemaker introduces yeast which transforms sugar into alcohol. Then, precise amounts of acid and tannins round out the flavor, resulting in a palatable, alcoholic beverage.

So why do you see things like blackberries, strawberries, and cranberries on wine shelves across the country? Throughout American history, from homesteaders to homebrewers, there has been a storied exploration of the fermentation process. We can thank our early settlers for discovering that, with some tinkering of sugar, acid and tannins, a variety of fruits have the potential to become delicious and captivating wines. Today, fruits allow winemakers to diversify their offerings while embracing local crops.

Fruit wines tell a story of the native flavors found in different geographic regions. Take Sorrenti Family Estate’s Cranberry Blush, for example. A best-seller for decades, this wine showcases the cranberry, a fruit which inhabits bogs local throughout the Poconos. In fact, Sorrenti Family Estate’s grounds are situated just under a twenty-minute drive from the Tannersville Cranberry Bog Preserve, one of Pennsylvania’s first nature preserves. In addition to cranberry, other lovely local flavors showcased in our wine include blueberry and blackberry.

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Interested in learning more about our fruit wines?

• All of Sorrenti Family Estate’s fruit wines are made with100% pure locally sourced fruit.

• Strawberry Bianco is the newest addition to Sorrenti’s list of fruit and fruit-infused wine. Perfect for the hot, sticky months of summer, Strawberry Bianco is a semi-sweet white wine infused with strawberry fruit for a tart finish. Try a refreshing glass on your next visit while kicking back on the outdoor seating that stretches across our property grounds!

• Along with our apple fruit wine, made with 100% locally grown apples, we also bottle our own hard apple cider. “Nick’s Hard Cider” is a semi-sweet sparkling hard cider with 8% alcohol.

• Visit SorrentiFamilyEstate.com for more!