Plum wine, sharp taste

[aidan]

Thank's for that info Luc. I've bookmarked your blog for future reference. You have made a lot of plum wine so I reckon you should have good advice. Looks like I might have followed some bad recipes because I used about 10L of water with 15kg plums and 3.75kg of sugar for a 21L batch. All the recipes I found called for that much water, unfortunately I did not find your website before I started but good to know for next time. So, if I have to use store bought syrup, is that basically a fruit cordial? And by lemonade do you mean lemon flavoured?

How has your plum wine turned out in the past?

Will waiting 1 year, as some posters suggested, remove the sharpness?

 

[jswordy]

Flavor packs are popular in kit wines, and I think that is where the term came from, the kit makers. Kits like them because they make the flavor issue a no-brainer for all experience levels.

But IMHO, a good goal for the from-scratch winemaker is to get to where you don't need them. That's probably why most scratch recipes say nothing about them. I think of the f-pack as an attempt to correct a pretty serious deficiency in the original wine recipe or the process used. This is where a well-kept wine log is your best friend. On subsequent attempts, you can adjust the recipe to meet your goals by referrring to exactly how you did it before and changing quantities/practices in an effort to get closer to your goals. You get to drink your "mistakes" while you seek out a more perfect recipe. What's not to like?



My twin goals are to ideally use no back-sweetening and to use no f-pack in my wines. There's nothing "wrong" with either one, but by having these goals it gives me something by which to judge the outlier wines that didn't meet them and how far they fell from the goals. Then I adjust the recipe next time, and try again. For example, if I want a semi-sweet wine and also have the goal of no back-sweetening, then I am going to have to back up, look things over, and change my process from the typical recipe that ferments totally dry and then is sweetened.

My goals come from a personal impression that the taste of wine that has come with no adjustments through the fermentation process is cleaner and more complex. Plus, having the goals keeps the fun in it, and encourages me not to just hop from one recipe to another but to work on perfecting them to hit my targets. The only exception is my wine-juice blending experiments, in which I am still learning much.

Right now, I have a blueberry wine in the first racking that I stole from yesterday to taste, and -- if I don't screw it up -- it is on-track to meet both my goals. I hope I've not jinxed it now by mentioning that! Fingers crossed.

 

[Luc]

Flavor packs are popular in kit wines, and I think that is where the term came from, the kit makers. Kits like them because they make the flavor issue a no-brainer for all experience levels.

But IMHO, a good goal for the from-scratch winemaker is to get to where you don't need them. That's probably why most scratch recipes say nothing about them. I think of the f-pack as an attempt to correct a pretty serious deficiency in the original wine recipe or the process used. This is where a well-kept wine log is your best friend. On subsequent attempts, you can adjust the recipe to meet your goals by referrring to exactly how you did it before and changing quantities/practices in an effort to get closer to your goals. You get to drink your "mistakes" while you seek out a more perfect recipe. What's not to like?

Exactly my sentiments. I could not have said it better.

Luc

 

[Luc]

Thank's for that info Luc. I've bookmarked your blog for future reference. You have made a lot of plum wine so I reckon you should have good advice. Looks like I might have followed some bad recipes because I used about 10L of water with 15kg plums and 3.75kg of sugar for a 21L batch. All the recipes I found called for that much water, unfortunately I did not find your website before I started but good to know for next time. So, if I have to use store bought syrup, is that basically a fruit cordial? And by lemonade do you mean lemon flavoured?

How has your plum wine turned out in the past?

Will waiting 1 year, as some posters suggested, remove the sharpness?

Lots of questions so here we go.

Most recipes water down far to much. As you can imagine: that will dillute flavor as well as sugar levels (therefore you need to add so much sugar with these recipes) and acid(that is why you need to add so much acid in all these recipes).
One reason why they do that is because the author did not get quite the amount of fruit he wanted or did not have the funds to buy it.
My motto: better make less and better wine as more low quantuty wine.

My plum wines did come out very well.
You might considering oaking them Mine always took oak very well.

There is a language barrier here I am aftraid. We (in the Netherlands) call all fruit flavored beverages lemonade. What I meant is fruit syrup.
But beware when you add syrup you will be adding sugar and the wine might re-ferment so you will have to wait again before bottling.

Luc

 

[aidan]

Most recipes water down far to much. As you can imagine: that will dillute flavor as well as sugar levels (therefore you need to add so much sugar with these recipes) and acid(that is why you need to add so much acid in all these recipes).
One reason why they do that is because the author did not get quite the amount of fruit he wanted or did not have the funds to buy it.
My motto: better make less and better wine as more low quantuty wine.

Makes sense Luc, I'll be following your approach next time.

You might considering oaking them Mine always took oak very well.

Yes, I've already added oak chips (actually looks like dust). I added it after second racking. Most has sunk to the bottom but still a little dust floating on top. Is there any issue with leaving the oak in too long? (I'm planning on leaving it for 3 months)

There is a language barrier here I am aftraid. We (in the Netherlands) call all fruit flavored beverages lemonade. What I meant is fruit syrup.

So for plum wine would I need to use plum fruit syrup or just any fruit?

But beware when you add syrup you will be adding sugar and the wine might re-ferment so you will have to wait again before bottling.

Yes, but if I stabilise with sorbate that should prevent that from happening, right?

And another thing what yeast do you use for your plum wine? I picked one called Vintners Harvest SN9 because it said it was an 'all round strain' and a good choice 'where uncertain recipes are employed'.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I appreciate it! Sorry for bombarding you with so many questions.