Victoria Plum Wine

[Jo67]

Haha @DocAnna As a newbie I cannot really offer advice but go for it. We left 10 days between adding yeast and straining but only because we were away. We had plums in a straining bag which we stirred for 7 days and my OH squeezed it quite thoroughly after straining. There was a lot of fruit taste in it but anything is worth a try if you wanted to!
I have never made plum wine before so didnt know if we were going to get white, red, rose or any shade in between though I am now expecting a deep rose. I just wish there was some way of hurrying it along but I may just have to be patient!

 

[DocAnna]

Haha @DocAnna As a newbie I cannot really offer advice but go for it. We left 10 days between adding yeast and straining but only because we were away. We had plums in a straining bag which we stirred for 7 days and my OH squeezed it quite thoroughly after straining. There was a lot of fruit taste in it but anything is worth a try if you wanted to!
I have never made plum wine before so didnt know if we were going to get white, red, rose or any shade in between though I am now expecting a deep rose. I just wish there was some way of hurrying it along but I may just have to be patient!

I'm new here myself and have only been back at winemaking and brewing for about a year after a couple of decades (*cough* and a bit) away from it. My children are all faintly amused at me looking at everything in the garden and thinking...oooh I could make wine from that! Last time we had a big plum harvest we made an awful lot of plum jam which we are still eating - and I'm better at brewing than making jam thankfully.
Anna

 

[Jo67]

Have you tried commercial fruit wines - to have something to aim for.
Eg Gales fruit wines, or the ones from Lyme bay spring to mind as ones that are sometimes in supermarkets.
Like LED says - they do tend to be quite sweet

I haven't @jof but then I prefer my wines on the drier side. I dont like the sweet pudding wine style at all!

 

[Jo67]

I'm new here myself and have only been back at winemaking and brewing for about a year after a couple of decades (*cough* and a bit) away from it. My children are all faintly amused at me looking at everything in the garden and thinking...oooh I could make wine from that! Last time we had a big plum harvest we made an awful lot of plum jam which we are still eating - and I'm better at brewing than making jam thankfully.
Anna

Haha well we only tried the plum wine as my OH's mum asked him to take the Victoria Plums off the tree as she can't manage this year. I have a (funny?) story in that in picking them, my OH also ate 3 whole ones, straight in his mouth! The first ten plums he cut open to stone them had maggots in them and it made him feel slightly queasy! Anyway he chucked the rest in the recycling and 2 weeks later his mum gave him some more. Cut open they didnt have any sign of skin damage or maggots so these were taken from deeper inside the tree. I am (hoping) that the plum doesnt repair itself and digest the maggot though my fears are that someone will prove me wrong!!! Incidentally we have decided to call the wine (if it is ever bottled) "Maggots Ruin"

 

[Pablosaurus]

Hi Jo67 - I've just discovered this thread having gone through exactly the same process, with the exact same recipe, and now I'm impatiently staring at two demi-johns of wine that are slightly lighter in colour to yours. The only difference in approach is I added a crushed camden tab to each demi before racking. I have never made any wine before so have the same questions! a) can I speed up the time-to-drinking? b) When should I sweeten it (it's bone dry and v. alcoholic atm)? Anyone sweetened plum wine using anything unusual to add to the flavour? Is that crazy talk?

I'm guessing the best advice is to deal with my impatience, bottle when it has cleared, then wait.

 

[DocAnna]

26 litres of the stuff still bubbling away for me.... smells v alcoholic too. There's an awful lot of it so I'm really hoping I can make something that tastes nice out of it.

Anna

 

[Jo67]

Hi Jo67 - I've just discovered this thread having gone through exactly the same process, with the exact same recipe, and now I'm impatiently staring at two demi-johns of wine that are slightly lighter in colour to yours. The only difference in approach is I added a crushed camden tab to each demi before racking. I have never made any wine before so have the same questions! a) can I speed up the time-to-drinking? b) When should I sweeten it (it's bone dry and v. alcoholic atm)? Anyone sweetened plum wine using anything unusual to add to the flavour? Is that crazy talk?

I'm guessing the best advice is to deal with my impatience, bottle when it has cleared, then wait.

Hi
we added stabiliser though the recipe didn't mention it; then racked it once sediment had settled. Hydrometer reading is still indicating 13% and the acidity is a bit less. In a glass it looks really clear and orange in colour. I think we're going to leave it another month then see what the acidity is like. Can you buy kits specifically for testing acidity in wine?

@Pablosaurus I think there was a link in that same recipe to backsweeten - I didnt look at it as prefer dry wine

 

[Pablosaurus]

All this chatter has clearly got the better of me. Last night I poured myself a glass straight from the demi and stuck it in the fridge for a while to chill. I'm actually really surprised. It's great! Drinkable now and pleasant. That said, it's still cloudy and has a very subtle extra dimension which isn't nasty, just 'there'. I'm guessing this is what will disappear with age and clarity. Given how young it is (3 weeks in the demi), I'm well pleased! Fermentation is long complete, so think I'll cold crash it for a couple of days then get it bottled (and try to lay off guzzling it all for a while). No need to backsweeten in the end, @Jo67, but appreciate the tip.

 

[Jo67]

Hi all @DocAnna @Pablosaurus
Fast forward a little time and now we have some bottled wine. We used finings from Wilkinsons and it has mostly cleared. Taste...umm unsure. Having said that it is certainly alcoholic but I have never had non-grape wine so I suppose I was a bit naive in thinking it might resemble something like that. It leaves a taste on the tongue afterwards which is not altogether overly pleasant. I think if I was skint and a lot younger and I was drinking to get drunk rather than drinking for pleasure, I would gulp it down but am unsure if we wouldn't have been better making plum jam Still, it was a very valuable experiment with next to no cost so we might be giving it away as Christmas presents

 

[Pablosaurus]

I keep looking at my eight 1 x ltr bottles and wondering whether to try one. They've almost cleared now, and are about 3mths old. I'm thinking the anticipation is probably more pleasurable than the end product will be! Will report back when the time comes...

 

[Pablosaurus]

You could always jazz it up with some ginger ale or tonic...

 

[Jo67]

You know we have tried it this evening with some ice and soda water but it still had that taste. Going to get some tonic water tomorrow and try that :-)

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Chuck a bit of port in there instead. Take the edge off

 

[Jo67]

@Mr_S_Jerusalem Fab idea - am I getting used to the point of this forum then.... it is to help the choosy alcoholics amongst us to help us to drink something akin paint stripper?? It's a shame we won't be having a Christmas party this year - we could have fashioned a "Plum Rum Punch" and added a few bits of orange and cinnamon In all honesty, I think we will be mixing it with things, trying it with everything to get it down!

 

[DocAnna]

@Jo67 If you've seen my earlier posts then you'll also know I bottled this too early while murky and yes other than its remarkable alcohol content it did indeed have a most unusual taste. Currently I'm hoping on a few months cold conditioning in the garage to transform it from inebriation juice into something more palatable. I guess that remains to be seen!
The addiction of apple and ginger did wonders for the plum jam so might be an option here. There's plenty in my case to play with so I might try a few different flavours...

Anna

 

[johncrobinson]

Country wines can be as good as a grape wine,But they are not quick to make.OR particularly easy for a first attempt.

Since you have the essential equipment and the experience of this experiment under your belt i suggest you take a look at what are called the WOW wines on this site .

Made from supermarket cartons of fruit juice
These WOWs can be made in about 2-3 weeks and be ready to drink once clear.

They are every bit as good as "standard price" supermarket wine But can come in under £1 a bottle,!!

Happy winemaking

 

[Pablosaurus]

Anyone ventured back to their plum wine from last year? With the sun shining again today, my thoughts have turned back to September's creation. Wonder if it's any better now than it was then...?

 

[Jo67]

Hello it was my query last year....alas we tried it at Christmas and once since but it has a very odd taste. We had never made any wine before and have since done a couple of kits so we may use some of what we have learned to do some more - but a little bit different with some more controls and maybe adding another fruit to make it slightly better...or maybe we'll just make jam this year!!

 

[Pablosaurus]

Resurrecting this thread to update again. After dabbling over Christmas and almost writing off the whole 7ltr batch, we opened another bottle of our Sept '20 plum wine last weekend and was surprised to find it transformed! These few months of rest have improved it no end. It's lost its astringency and off flavours, and is clear as a bell.

@Jo67, @DocAnna I hope you haven't binned your batches. They may yet come good!

 

[DocAnna]

Resurrecting this thread to update again. After dabbling over Christmas and almost writing off the whole 7ltr batch, we opened another bottle of our Sept '20 plum wine last weekend and was surprised to find it transformed! These few months of rest have improved it no end. It's lost its astringency and off flavours, and is clear as a bell.

@Jo67, @DocAnna I hope you haven't binned your batches. They may yet come good!

Good to hear your wine came good in the end, maybe there's hope yet for mine. It's still a bit hazy and I suspect that's a permanent haze for mine. I haven't tasted it for several months though @Brewnaldo was good enough to try a bottle of it and it seemed OK. I might try some this weekend and report back...

Anna