Wild apricot vermouth

Wild apricot vermouth 

A wine containing spices and herb is called as vermouth. The wine also has medicinal value. Vermouth of different spices level, sugar levels and alcohol level was produced and the product was evaluated for its various physio-chemical and sensory qualities. The product has besides alcohol, spices extracts imparting polyphenol, sugars, minerals, acids thus it is many times better than liquor from nutrition point of view. The technology can provide safe product to the consumers.


Vermouth is reported commercially from grapes and is of two types, Italian (sweet) and French (dry type). The alcoholic beverage contains a number of nutrients, vitamins and various phytochemicals therefore, these are considered as beneficial for health consumption in low and moderate quantity. Although the vermouth is prepared from grape, it is not documented if same a product can be prepared from wild apricot fruit. Earlier preparation and evaluation of wine from this fruit was standardized. Effortsto prepare vermouth were made and process with respect to alcohol content, sugar level and spices quantities were made. Evaluation of vermouth showed it to be an acceptable product.


Wild apricot (Prunus armenica L.) is commonly known as chulli, zardalu, sarha (Himachal Pradesh); chuari, zardalu (Hindi); gurdalu, cherkush (Kashmir); chuaru, chola, kushmaru (Kumaon); chult (Laddakh); zardalu (Punjab). It is found growing wild at cold desert region of Tibet, southern part of China and northern India comprising the major parts of Jammu & Kashmir; Kinnaur, Kullu, Chamba, Lahul- Spiti dirsticts of Himachal Pradesh and the hilly areas of Uttar Pradesh ranging between 2000 and 2500 m above mean sea level, where temperature remains mostly 0°C.

The fruit is a drupe i.e. endocarp is stony. The fruits are generally eaten fresh. These fruits are more acidic than those of the cultivated types. Physico-chemical characteristics of wild apricot fruit is shown in Table 1. Excellent chutney is made from the wild apricot fruits. These fruits can be used for making jam. Chopped kernels are added to kheer in villages. The fruits of wild apricot are also sun-dried to make chalori, is used as a souring agent in many food preparations. A chaat is also made from chalori after soaking it in water and mixing it with spices.

The wild apricot fruit is highly perishable, and is dried or converted into hard liquor by the tribal people. An alcoholic drink is prepared from the fruits of wild apricots contains high levels of alcohol and completely lack nutrients, consumption of which results in various disorders as well as malnutrition.


Base Wine Preperation: Wild apricot pulp was prepared by adding 10 per cent water before cooking the fruit. The cooked fruits were passed through a pulper to remove skin and stones. To make quality vermouth, must of 24°B was prepared by diluting the wild apricot pulp in 1:2 ratio with water, 200 ppm SO2, DAHP 0.1% and pectinase enzyme 0.5% were added. A 24 hrs old active culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus, (UCD 595) was prepared and used for fermentation. Vermouth of different treatments was prepared .Three alcohol levels viz., 15, 17 and 19%; three sugar level viz., 8, 10 and 12%; two spices levels viz., 2.5 and 5% were kept for vermouth preparation.



Preparation of wild apricot brandy: Distill a part of the base wine into brandy. First 1/10th of expected distillate called “head” is not taken. Similarly last 1/ 10th of distillate are also not taken. Only the middle portion of the distillate is collected and further double distillation can be carried out to raise the strength of brandy.


Preparation of spices extract: Prepare spices extract at about 60°C by taking wine and brandy in 1:1 ratio. Spices are immersed in the wine and brandy mixture and gently heated for 10 min for 10 days in a closed container continuously. The extract is kept at a low temperature for 2 days. The supernatant is separated by filtration and use in the vermouth preparation.

Blending, bottling and maturation: The wild apricot vermouth is prepared by the addition of brandy, spices extract and sugar syrup to the base wine. Effect of ethanol level on wild apricot vermouth is shown in Table 3. Wild apricot Vermouth can be filled in 200 ml capacity glass bottles which are sterilized at 66ºC for 20 min. Keep these bottles for three months of maturation.