St. Kathryn Cellars Blueberry Wine
St. Kathryn Cellars Blueberry Wine, one of our original wines in the St. Kathryn label since 1999, has always been one of our most popular wines, and it’s easy to gather why!
Delightfully refreshing, it’s bursting with the natural sweetness of blueberries – and everyone loves blueberries! And as you probably know, blueberry wine is quite rare, which is part of what makes it stand out as one of a kind.
Now, what makes our blueberry wine so special? Let’s break it down for you. Usually, blueberry wine is made with a combination of grape wine base, and blueberry juice, but not at St. Kathryn Cellars. Instead, we craft our blueberry wine authentically with 100% blueberry juice, fermented into wine.
This makes our blueberry wine stand out as a premier wine, as the “blueberry wine” flavor is completely authentic.
Blueberry Charm
St. Kathryn Cellars is nestled in Palisade, CO, right on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains where the Colorado River meets the Gunnison River. This region is renowned for its fertile soil and unique climate, which makes it ideal for growing a variety of fruits. Palisade in particular has even sometimes even been referred to as the “Napa Valley of Colorado.”
As bountiful as the area is, we do not grow blueberries, so we do have our blueberries imported from several states up north, in the Midwest, and on the East Coast. This makes our authentic blueberry wine even more of a dedication on our part, but we’re happy to do the job!
Not only is the blueberry aroma and flavor of our wine enough to remain among our best-selling products, but it is a healthy option for your choice of sipping. Ripe blueberries are rich with antioxidants that boost heart health and help fight cancer. They also contain a loaded amount of vitamin C. Prioritize your health with a bottle!
The Process Of Making Blueberry Wine
The process begins with the importation of ripe blueberries from our lovely friends out of state in Michigan, Maine, North Carolina, and Oregon. We bring the juice in, usually frozen and in need of thawing. Afterwards, we mix it and add in the sugar, doing so until we ensure the perfect mix to our standards, reaching 24%, which will ferment to 12% alcohol.
We then move on to the next step, pumping the mix into a tank. This introduces yeast, and the yeast does all the hard work of converting sugar to alcohol. We undergo this process once a year, reaching a typical batch of 1000 gallons in the tank, enough to give us the privilege of supplying you with this treat for an entire year.
We get a sense of blueberry goodness right from the start. During the settling period after fermentation, the yeast begins settling to the bottom. We then start with the process of racking, which consists of collecting clean wine off of the top, leaving the heavier than liquid solids at the bottom. The entire process typically takes 4-6 weeks to turn a batch of blueberry wine around.
Back-Sweetening Blueberry Wine
At St. Kathryn Cellars, we want our alcohol to be precise. This is why we ensure perfection with a process known as “back-sweetening.” This process consists of adjusting the sweetness of the product after fermentation.
To achieve a medium sweetness in the final product, we ferment the beverage until it is completely dry, then proceed with cleaning and filtering to ensure clarity and purity. Finally, we add sugar back into the beverage to reach the desired level of medium sweetness. By this point, we ensure that all the yeast is removed to prevent further fermentation.
Most of the St. Kathryn Cellars wines are sweet, so we are no stranger to the idea of “refermentation.” To prevent this process – of what could be additional fermenting – we sterilize the bottling line with flowing hot water, not steam, at least 180 degrees fahrenheit, to ensure sterility of the bottling line. Once the bottling line is sterile, we then begin bottling our sweet blueberry wine.
Pairing Foods With Blueberry Wine
Our St. Kathryn Cellars Blueberry Wine is wonderfully versatile. Its sweet and rich fruitiness pairs beautifully with a variety of foods. For cheeses, it complements creamy choices such as brie or camembert, enhancing their smooth texture while balancing their richness.
When matched with pork dishes, the wine’s fruit notes elevate savory flavors, especially in dishes like glazed ham or pork tenderloin.
Roasted duck, with its slightly sweet flavor, harmonizes beautifully with blueberry wine, as the wine’s acidity cuts through the richness of the duck while complementing its flavors in the way a sweet wine should.
For desserts, blueberry wine is an excellent match for New York cheesecake, as its fruitiness complements the cheesecake’s creamy, tangy goodness. Similarly, it pairs well with chocolate orange desserts, where the wine’s blueberry character enhances the citrus and chocolate combination.
Owner, Glenn Foster’s (see the History of Talon Wines) personal favorite pairing with the wine is a refreshing chicken salad with avocados, croutons, green lettuce, and onions. The blueberry flavor certainly mixes delightfully with the fresh and verdant elements of the salad, creating a well-balanced and enjoyable dining experience.
Ultimately, wine is about enjoyment, so feel free to explore and find what combinations delight your palate based on your own preferences!
Blueberry Drink Mixes
For an alternative twist, take a look at our Vanilla Cinnamon Mulled Wine Mix. Our Blueberry wine is best served chilled, but as versatile as it is, it also makes for a toasty cup of mulled wine on a chilly winter evening with this wine mix. The result is a cozy beverage that warms up your fingers, and gives you a homely taste of warm blueberry pie.
Other mixes that work well all depend on your preference of sweetness. If you have a sweet tooth, and are enthusiastic about maintaining the wine’s sugary flavor, the blueberry wine combines well with the citrusy sweetness of a lemon-lime soda. The soda adds a new dimension of introducing a fizzy kick to the sweetness of the beverage.
Alternatively, mix our blueberry wine with carbonated water to provide a more subdued sweetness, as the neutral, fizzy nature of the water dilutes the wine’s sugar content without altering its essential flavor. This mix is ideal for those who prefer a lighter, less sweet drink, allowing the wine’s fruity nuances to shine through in a more delicate manner.
