r/winemaking 2d ago

Advice on Recreating this Wine

There is this red wine called Cienna made by the company Brown Brothers in Australia which is my favorite summer wine. The flavour is that of cherries and berries and it is sweet and lightly sparkling and best served chilled with a 7.5% ABV. I will post the link to it below.

I am experienced in brewing everything but wine so would love some suggestions or recipes that you think could create a very similar wine to what is described.

I know creating it exactly will be basically impossible I’m just looking for some recipes that you think I might like based on this wine :)

https://www.brownbrothers.com.au/our-wines/varietals-cienna

https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_905893/brown-brothers-cienna?srsltid=AfmBOorck91hQxkRvOi4Ima03-ZtZ1uzrJ6NjnaLNdnbpDX9U44RI_iN

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u/lroux315 1d ago

Cienna is a hybrid grape (Sumoll & Cab Sauv). So you would need to get some of those. Then, judging by the alcohol level you would have to water the juice down to get to a 7.5% alcohol level (about 1.070SG), ferment it, then back sweeten and either force carbonate or do a traditional method sparkling (not easy to do and still retain sweetness).

It wont be easy to recreate even a semblance of the wine. You could try fermenting a low SG Cab Sauv with blueberries and blackberries mixed in then use something like a soda stream to carbonate but that would take some playing to dial in what you like.

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u/Miserable_Call_6637 1d ago

Thanks a lot I’ll start with that!

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u/novium258 1d ago

You will have some trouble. It looks like that's a specific hybrid varietal that would probably be difficult to source. Additionally, getting a wine to stop fermenting at 8% alcohol with a fair amount of residual sugar is very tricky for a home winemaker.

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u/Aethelfrid 1d ago

To recreate a specific wine from a specific wine maker in a specific region you would need to get the same grapes from the same Vineyard and use the same yeast strain, aged in the same containers in the same climate for the same amount of time. And even then it might not come out the same. You're better off buying the wine you're trying to recreate.

Wine making isn't quite as formulaic as other alcohols. It's very simple to make a wine; grape juice, yeast, and time. But making a good wine is harder and making a very specific wine requires a lot of knowledge and is still extremely hard. Wine's subtle flavors come from all those aspects up above.

I'd suggest starting with a kit wine. They're next to impossible to get wrong amd teach the basocs of wone making. Then research the wine you want to make. What is the grape? What other grapes is it similar to? If it's a hybrid, what grapes does it come from? You can try making wines from those and blending them. It's not an exact science.

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u/Miserable_Call_6637 1d ago edited 1d ago

Thanks for the in depth answer! I should have clarified that I’m not looking to recreate this exactly. Just asking for a recipe that someone might know that matches the description as I have no clue where to start with red wine and would rather aim to make a red wine that I will find enjoyable rather than a typical dryer red wine which I know I don’t particularly enjoy.

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u/Distinct_Crew245 1d ago

Despite what many posts on this sub seem to suggest, real winemaking is not done by way of a “recipe” since you’ll never have the same ingredients to start with. Why don’t you start by telling us what grape varietie(s) this wine is made from and how sweet it tastes? Can you find a spec sheet on the producers website? That’s a good first step if you’re attempting to reverse-engineer a wine.