Texas persimmon wine in process

[springmom]

We have a ranch out in the Texas hill country on which we have a number of Texas persimmon trees. Since this has been a year of sufficient rainfall, we have had a good crop of persimmons. Though my first pickings got smushed on their ride home a month ago :-( the batch I picked this weekend look very good.

Texas persimmons (when fully ripe) taste a little like prune plums and are very tasty, though of an odd brownish color. Not quite sure how that will play out. I used the recipe for wild fruit wine from the Edible Austin website but found, when I checked the SG, that it was quite low...1.02! I added a half pound of wildflower honey which brought it up to 1.06 but I'm uneasy leaving it so low.

Has anyone here ever made wine with these? Please note they are quite different than their Eastern cousins and do not need to be exposed to first frost to sweeten, as they ripen continuously from summer through October.

Any experiences to share??

 

[blackspanish777]

I just wanted to see if you ever finished this wine? I made one last year (currently bulk aging and settling) and while the flavor isn't bad the appearance is quite inky... Was yours the same???

 

[springmom]

I did reply to this and the eejit software shelved it because I "was not registered ". I'll checkback and see if it posts and if not I'll post again. Upshot was it didn't work well but now that we are living on the ranch full time I'll try again this fall. It WAS inky, though