#28 – Mystery Fortune Plum

Bottled (21) 375ml and (10) 750ml (from 5 gallons) at 22.5% ABV on 10 February 2013.

Mr. Jones’ mysterious plums were once again in season, and I was back at his tree picking as many as I could.  I was hoping to get enough for a 5-gallon batch — but alas, there just wasn’t enough.  Fortunately, there was a farmer’s market nearby, and I found enough Fortune plums to make up the difference.  They were quite dark in color compared to the mysteries, and this has led to a darker, redder, wine.  They were also sweeter, which is why this batch ended up being much stronger than my first plum wine.

I also tried to solve the problem I had with the first batch, and tried to clear the wine quicker with bentonite clay (with limited success) and wait longer before bottling.  Eventually, my patience wore out, and I bottled anyway.  So far, there seems to be less sedimentation, but there’s still more than I’d like.

Definitely more of a kick to this wine, but it has good plum flavors and works well as an aperitif or a desert wine.  It also works very well as a vermouth replacement in a Manhattan!

Update 14 August 2014 – A quite a bit (but certainly not all) of the redness appears to have fallen out as sediment…  I guess plum wine just needs time to settle properly!