UKC

The plum tree has come good again this year, so after giving lots away I still have enough for 5 gallons of plum wine. I have one bottle left of 2023 vintage which is very fine, although it's hard to remember exactly how fine after drinking it.

Reason for posting is that I also have quite a lot of other fruit in the freezer, including raspberries, blackcurrants and blackberries, so I am wondering whether some kind of blend might be worth a go. 

What might make a good blend? I'm thinking plum and blackcurrant, but am open to more foraging etc.

Would it be better to ferment the fruit together, or make the different wines separately and then blend them at a later stage?

What would you use to get the best tannin profile? My understanding is you could steep the fruit for longer if it has pips or skin, other than using additives.

Clearly the internet is my friend, but I thought I'd post here anyway to see if any better hallucinations came up

TIA
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Sometimes when doing 6 bottles, there's a bit left over. I usually blend them. A few years ago I blended blackcurrant, bramble, cherry and raspberry leftovers, which gave me a full bottle. Aged it for a year and it was delicious. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumtopf

That looks like a lot of fun, and very practical. In Provence after a restaurant meal, they often serve home-made liqueur (usually raspberry), which I don't believe they are allowed to sell. Delicious. I've also had a go with limoncello and arancello.

Having made over 200 bottles a year (350 in my second year!!), I eased right off and not made any country wines in the past few years. Some thoughts:

Ferment a mixture of fruits together rather than blend. My opinion is that blending adds another process that can risk oxidation. It’s also more of a faff. 

Using wood chips also good for tanin, and adds oaky favours. Happy to send a sample your way if you want some. I add them to the Demi John a month or two before bottling  

Elderberries are an excellent source of tanin.  I would add some elderberries, even a small amount say 5%, to every batch of I could. 

One of the best wines I made was a damson and elderberry  - very ‘merlot’ like. 

When you read recipes many recommend 3lbs fruit per gallon. This is rarely enough. I go 4 pounds, sometimes 5 if I could. 

Rose hip wine is surprisingly good, needs two years minimum aging. 

if you can, why not try a batch with a high alcohol yeast, like a desert wine yeast. I’ve achieved 18% this way. Once you racked off into demijohns, you could add some high alcohol yeast to one demijohn, having made a starter that you’ve added some of the wine into to avoid shocking the yeast. Keep feeding sugar in small amounts. And once it’s stopped fermenting, add some brandy to bring it up to 20% and add some sugar to back sweeten. I’d do this with an it lock on, just in case a secondary ferment occurs  Very ‘porty’, use dark fruits. 

I started making wine earlier this year (been making cider for a couple of years), in a very crude way. So far I've made dandelion (not great) elderflower ( pretty good) and a red from random fruit I found in the back of the freezer - cherries, strawberries and raspberries. I fermented it all together and it's about 14%. I haven't tasted it yet, been waiting for it to age a bit.

I use a teabag when I want to add some tannin.

Edit: should have read ‘I do this with an air lock on,’

One of the best wines I ever made was about 2/3 blackberry and 1/3 elderberry. Highly recommend. 

Elderberries have good tannin levels (like grapes) so no need to add additional tannin source if you have decent amount.

I usually make anywhere from 60% to 100% elderberry wine with the balance made up of brambles. The percentage varies because destalking elderberries is tedious work and picking brambles is easier! I ferment them together. I would strongly strongly recommend ageing elderberry wine for at least 9 months as it really mellows well, though the difference in taste between 1yr and 3yr is minimal so about a year is the sweet spot. It is very grenache like after a year with more almondy flavour developing as time goes on. I ferment in an airlocked demijohn, leaving the berries in contact with the wine, then rack off after 2-3 months into another demijohn for another month then bottle it.

Elderflower works well as a ‘champagne’ (and ready in a couple of weeks) but I’ve found it a bit disappointing as a longer ‘flat’ fermentation but that might be because I didn’t add any tannins.

That's hitting the sweetspot for homemade port.

I miss your posts on country wine making. They were really interesting and knowledgeable,  and helpful in my own endeavours.

I've never heard of this technique, and it doesn't make sense to me. Stuffing 2kg of fruit into a demijohn would be difficult, and wouldn't leave much room for liquid. 

Aye wasn't far off it, the blackberries were the best I've ever found and took about 9 months to finish fermenting. 

Hadn't thought of reaching out on here for home-brewed wine tips, just dusting off my old kit for the first time in many years.

Anyone got tips for apple wine? 

I mash it all together in a washing up tub first to extract juice, then decant in with a funnel. The alternative always seemed to end up with elderberry juice splattered everywhere as I tried to filter it! My ratio is about 1.5kg fruit to a gallon. First tried it in a borrowed brewers bucket (the type used for beer) after reading it online somewhere and stuck with it the last few years.

I use a 5 gallon air-locked plastic fermenting barrel, which would surely be a lot easier and just as good?

I’ve made loads of apple wine:

Try using a mix of apples

It can get extremely ‘pulpy’,to the point it clogs up the mesh bag and stops letting the juice/wine flow out. Maybe try using more fruit but for a shorter time in the initial bucket - 3 or 4 days might be enough

Does require a tanin - tea bags good for this

It was much better than I expected, but doesn’t store well. 

I stopped making it and went on to make cider. This required making my own fruit press which used a two tonne car Jack. Results were great. Max one third cooking apples for some sharpness, use a cider yeast which will leave some sweetness behind (a wine yeast will use up all the sugars, resulting in a very strong, very dry cider, which ain’t necessarily a bad thing !). 

Thanks. It is good fun, but I have less time now due to other fun stuff!  I actually bought a still off eBay and produced 4 gallons of moonshine with some old wine. Need to do this again coz I’ve got demijohns of old-ish wine scattered all over the house. 

I actually smuggled some moonshine stuff back from Greece, made by this total character who was Trotsky’s double. We got on quite well, and he kept loading up my sampling glass and then knocked 20% of the price and staggered away. This has made up somewhat for leaving my phone in the fekin airport !!!  Might have a quick sampler now ….

Forget to say, in all my wines I add acid in the form of lemons, I peel the zest off, cut in half, slice of the remaining peel, then simmer the flesh and zest in a week syrup. Iirc,yeast needs some acid to work. And I always add pectolase to stop the pectin haze from occurring. Say 3 lemons for five gallons. And lob in an orange if you have one. I used to save oddments of fruit in a bag in the freezer for extra flavourings etc.