The simplest plum wine recipe that any novice winemaker can do

I have been engaged in winemaking for almost 10 years, in August there will be an anniversary. I have been making wine for a long time at a small factory, but I still remember how it all began.

He just came from the Pedagogical Institute to his native village, bought himself a house with a large plot and decided to plant it with something.

As you might guess, it was grapes, and near the porch he planted several plums, from the fruits of which he also began to make wine. Later I abandoned the production of plum wine, as it is completely unprofitable on a large scale.

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Advantages and disadvantages of plum wine over grape wine

Plum wine is much easier to make at home, because:

1. Plum trees require less maintenance than vine bushes.
2. Plums are easier to remove pits.
3. Plum is easier to collect, even carrion is suitable for wine.
4. The fruits contain a lot of sugar, which means that less sugar is required when making wine, and the wine itself will still turn out sweeter.

However, this fruity wine often has problems, such as:

• there is little juice in the plum;
• plum wine often turns out a bit cloudy;
• the taste is very dependent on the type of plum (incorrect proportions when mixed can lead to a disgusting taste, so follow the recipe strictly)

Making plum wine

What we need:

1. Plum.
2. Sugar (calculate on 250-350 grams per liter of wine, add it one third every 5 days to fermenting wine).
3. Capacity for separating juice (pot).
4. A container for fermentation and storage (at home, this is the same vessel, that is, a bottle).

First you need to collect the plum. Carrion is also suitable for wine. The fruits should be a little overripe, in no case should they be washed or wiped, the dust will still be filtered out.

Plums, of course, are much easier to harvest than grapes. No need to climb all the bushes with a pruner, you can just pick the fruits from the tree and collect the carrion.

How to make plum wine

I separate the harvest from the seeds, which, again, is easier than in the case of grapes, and place it in a vessel. His role was taken over by 30-liter pots. I bring the plums to a state of homogeneous mass and fill it with water, water must be added in a 1: 1 ratio.

Then I leave the resulting raw material, which requires air access. Therefore, you can cover the pan only with gauze.

After a few days, I drain the exfoliated juice into a glass or plastic container. The sediment can be filtered and the juice obtained from it can also be added to the total mass.

Juice fermentation is a little faster compared to grape juice and is completed in 2-3 weeks. In order to understand this, I close the bottle with a pierced glove.

All winemakers have photos with such a glove, although I didn’t find it in electronic form – I had to digitize it.

After the end of fermentation, I filter the wine and put it in the cellar for six months. Every month it is necessary to filter it again, since plum wine retains a large amount of sediment, which can be completely eliminated only after a few years.

Result

At the end, you will get a product that is beautiful to your taste. Plum wine is slightly cloudier than grape wine, so it is less valued, but it pairs well with meat.

For some time I have been making a blended wine of plums and grapes, but with the right choice of plum variety, such shenanigans can be avoided. Experimenting, of course, is useful and interesting, but on small volumes.

I abandoned the production of plum wine, as it has a low market demand. However, it is very easy to prepare, so I highly recommend it to novice wine-makers.

What exotic wine did you make yourself?