Has anyone ever tried using pekmez as the basis for wine? I live in Turkey and it's widely available. I can't imagine why it wouldn't work, unless if the boiling-down process changes the sugar negatively somehow.
I've never seen it made, but basically people do this:
1. Get fruit and stomp on it to remove the juice.
2. Sometimes it's mixed with a kind of soil - clay and calcium carbonate - to neutralize the acid and clarify it.
3. Boiled once, to let the sediment sink.
4. Rest.
5. Boiled again, to caramelize the sugar and darken it and thicken it.
Pekmez has the texture of anything from maple syrup to blackstrap molasses, but is always very dark purple.
If I decide to try it, I'll have to choose between grape, mulberry, carob, fig, and pomegranate.
Any advice? I'm most concerned about the caramelizing of the sugar - would that affect wine badly?
Thx!
I've never seen it made, but basically people do this:
1. Get fruit and stomp on it to remove the juice.
2. Sometimes it's mixed with a kind of soil - clay and calcium carbonate - to neutralize the acid and clarify it.
3. Boiled once, to let the sediment sink.
4. Rest.
5. Boiled again, to caramelize the sugar and darken it and thicken it.
Pekmez has the texture of anything from maple syrup to blackstrap molasses, but is always very dark purple.
If I decide to try it, I'll have to choose between grape, mulberry, carob, fig, and pomegranate.
Any advice? I'm most concerned about the caramelizing of the sugar - would that affect wine badly?
Thx!