Tomato wine has been around from the mid 1800s but has never been very popular. Although it resembles white wine in aroma and taste it is also rather acidic which may account for its lack of popularity and the fact that it is not produced commercially except by Pascale Miche of Belgium. His grandfather first began making tomato wine during WWI and now Pascale makes and sells it. My grandmother, Helen S. Wright, includes a recipe for it in her book Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines, published in 1909. Her recipe calls for red tomatoes but green ones can also be used.
In the words of my grandmother:
Take ripe, fresh tomatoes, mash very fine, strain through a fine sieve, sweeten with good sugar to suit the taste, set it away in earthen or glass vessel, nearly full, cover tight, with the exception of a small hole for the refuse to work off through during its fermentation. When it is done fermenting, it will become pure and clear. Then bottle and cork tight. A little salt improves its flavor; age improves it.
To buy Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines by Helen S. Wright Click Here.
Karen Meyers