Our pickers do great and incredibly fast work of hand-picking our grapes when it’s time for harvest. They inevitably miss some on the vine and as someone who loves canning, I would be remiss to not make good use of this delicious fruit.
I’ve shared the recipe we used for making our first batch of Chardonnay Jelly from our Naramata Bench vineyard. NOTE: we prefer using the reduced sugar version. Also, since we’re at altitude we’ve increased the cooking time slightly in order for proper jelling; adapt the recipe as appropriate for your altitude level. As this is my first time using wine grapes for jelly, I welcome your suggestions for improvements…
Ingredients:
8 cups of Chardonnay grapes
1.5 cups of unsweetened grape or apple juice
1.5 packages of no sugar needed Bernardin Pectin
4 cups of sugar
1/3 tsp butter
Directions:
1. Prepare canner, jars and lids
2. Crush grapes in saucepan with 2 cups of water. Boil gently for about 7 minutes. Press pulp through sieve to remove seeds.
3. In large stainless steel saucepan combine prepared fruit and fruit juice. Stir in butter (to reduce foaming) and pectin, until dissolved.
4. Over high heat bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring frequently
5. Add sugar. Stirring constantly, return mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil hard about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, skim off foam if necessary.
6. Fill and process jars according to Bernardin instructions.
We recommend this for brunch on toast (served with a glass of our Chardonnay naturally), or serve as a canapé on crusty French bread with goat cheese.
