How Estonian berry wines are made

There are four wineries on the Romantic Coastline that, with care and love, add value to Estonian berries by making wines that are suitable both for our meals and for enjoying on their own. The coastline berry wines are quite different from classic grape wines, both in terms of technology and taste. Generally, the berries we grow here are two to three times more acidic than grapes and have a lower sugar content. And this also makes winemaking a bit different. In order to produce a wine with reasonable acidity, the acidity of the juice must be reduced. Therefore, water is usually added before fermentation, which is not necessary or is not permitted when making grape wine. Since, when making berry wines, the juice is not diluted very much in order to maintain all the flavours, this often results in wines with a more acidic and lighter structure. One also can’t get the desired strength for berry wines with- out adding sugar. There simply aren’t enough sugars in our berries, no matter how beautiful and sunny the summers are. In the case of grape wines, subsequent sweetening is not required.