Making plum wine from somebody else's plums
Sue Goldish had plums last year and I had none. A cold snap prevailed while my plum tree was in bloom, and there were no bees to pollinate the flowers. I had no pears either last year, same reason.
I know how to make wine from fruit, and Sue Goldish doesn’t. So she brought her plums and I made the wine. Not only do I know how, I also have all the equipment: carboys, siphoning rod, hydrometer, buckets, big pots, gauze cloth, bungs and air locks, different sized funnels, even a tiny one to fit into the siphoning rod, a bottle washer, and bottles.
I provided all the necessary ingredients bar the plums: sodium metabisulfate (for sterilizing all the equipment before every use to avoid contamination with the vinegar bacterium, whose slightest touch will turn all the wine to vinegar), sugar (12 ½ pounds), lemon juice, wine yeast, yeast energizer, acid blend, pectic enzyme, water, heat, and of course my labor.
Sue Goldish helped to wash and pit the plums, grind them in the food processor and transfer the sauce to the two buckets in which I started the must with five gallons of boiled water and the sugar. The next day, when the liquid had cooled down, I added the yeast and all the other ingredients. The must is the first stage of wine making, when the yeast is allowed to ferment on the fruit. Five days later I filtered the must through a gauze cloth and transferred the liquid to a five gallon carboy.
I closed the carboy off with a bung, a stopper made of rubber that fits the mouth of the carboy. On top of the bung sits an air lock, a small valve mounted on a piece of plastic tube which passes through a hole in the bung. The air lock is then filled with sodium metabisulfate. This whole maneuver has the purpose of allowing the gases which develop during fermentation to escape, but no free floating vinegar bacterium or fruit flies which carry the bacterium to enter the carboy and turn all our wine to vinegar.
I coddled the wine through the winter. I racked it three times. Racking is the process of siphoning the liquid from one carboy into another to take it off the lees, the dead yeast cells and other sediment that would spoil the wine, until all fermentation has stopped and the wine is crystal clear. Finished plum wine has a lovely light crimson color.
~
Sue Goldish called two days ago and asked, how is my wine, I had forgotten all about it through this busy winter… Well, I hadn’t.
I said, funny you call just now, I was planning to bottle the wine tomorrow, it’s my free day from work…
Sue Goldish said she would come over tomorrow after her Native American basket weaving class to watch me bottle the wine and see how it was done.
~
When Sue Goldish came I had already rinsed, sterilized and rinsed the bottles again. I always rinse everything after sterilizing it with sodium metabisulfate to remove as much of the sulfur as possible. Sulfur is harmful in greater quantities. I had soaked and sterilized the corks and prepared everything else, like carrying the five gallon carboy from the kitchen counter to the kitchen table, lining up the bottles on a tray below the carboy, and so on.
I sterilized and rinsed and then filled the siphoning rod with water and worked out all the air bubbles. I use my tiny funnel to do this, it saves much time. I siphoned the wine into the bottles. Sue Goldish helped to even out the fill so there would be a half inch to one inch space between the wine and the cork.
Then I corked the bottles with my rather antiquated corker that needs a little strength in the arm for the final push home. I chipped the mouth of two bottles. Aligning the bottle, the cork and the rod that pushes the cork down perfectly through the center is a bit of a guessing game with my old corker. I always chip a bottle or two or three.
Sue Goldish wiped the corked bottles with a damp cloth while I cleaned up the tray and other stuff. We had twenty-three bottles of wine made from Sue Goldish’s plums. There was a three quarter full bottle of wine left over, uncorked. We drank some of that wine. It had come out really nice, full bodied yet dry, with a fragrant plummy bouquet.
~
I gave Sue Goldish one of Charles’ sturdy boxes to put on the back seat of her car and helped her carry the bottles out to the car and stow them in the box. I told her she had to bring the box back because Charles is very particular about his boxes. He collects them and keeps them in his storage unit.
I had asked Sue Goldish to leave me the two chipped bottles. She left the one which was more badly chipped and took the other. I advised her to decant the wine from that bottle through a paper coffee filter to catch any possible tiny shard of glass. If she were to ingest a tiny shard of glass it could kill her.
Sue Goldish thanked me profusely and offered to pay for the corks and other ingredients I had used in making the wine, but I declined payment in money. Then Sue Goldish drove off with twenty-two bottles of wine I had made from her plums. I had an almost half full open bottle and the chipped bottle at home.
I took a glass of the delicious plum wine out into the back yard and drank it. I had a dry chuckle in my throat because I had known it would go exactly so.
~
I had met Sue Goldish at a friend’s house for a small dinner and recorder playing party. I brought a bottle of home made pear wine and a bottle of home made plum wine to the party, and that’s how Sue Goldish and I got to talking about wine making. I said I had no plums this year, and she said she had lots. A few weeks later she called me and asked if I would help her to make wine from her plums. Sure, why not.
Sue Goldish is not unattractive, short, a bit broad in the hips, but with a nice contrast between her large porcelain blue eyes and very fine dark eyebrows and curly dark hair. She is also something else, not easily definable. Under the bubble wrap of new age soft speak the self center of the person somehow sits right close.
I had a growing feeling within the first half hour of her walking into my house with those plums that she would not offer to share any of the wine with me. Maybe there was too much referring to the plums as hers, maybe I just had a general hunch. I made the wine anyway, I’m an enthusiast who can’t resist the lure of the plum. Otherwise those plums would go to waste. And besides, I enjoy the work.
~
Of course I could have asked her for my share, but I foresaw an undignified little argument about the correct division of the spoils.
I must confess that I’m amused at having been correct in my assessment. And I have the added advantage of using Sue Goldish for writing material. If this is unkind of me, so what. I can do that at least, and what can she do?
Except sit at home and drink my plum wine.
I know how to make wine from fruit, and Sue Goldish doesn’t. So she brought her plums and I made the wine. Not only do I know how, I also have all the equipment: carboys, siphoning rod, hydrometer, buckets, big pots, gauze cloth, bungs and air locks, different sized funnels, even a tiny one to fit into the siphoning rod, a bottle washer, and bottles.
I provided all the necessary ingredients bar the plums: sodium metabisulfate (for sterilizing all the equipment before every use to avoid contamination with the vinegar bacterium, whose slightest touch will turn all the wine to vinegar), sugar (12 ½ pounds), lemon juice, wine yeast, yeast energizer, acid blend, pectic enzyme, water, heat, and of course my labor.
Sue Goldish helped to wash and pit the plums, grind them in the food processor and transfer the sauce to the two buckets in which I started the must with five gallons of boiled water and the sugar. The next day, when the liquid had cooled down, I added the yeast and all the other ingredients. The must is the first stage of wine making, when the yeast is allowed to ferment on the fruit. Five days later I filtered the must through a gauze cloth and transferred the liquid to a five gallon carboy.
I closed the carboy off with a bung, a stopper made of rubber that fits the mouth of the carboy. On top of the bung sits an air lock, a small valve mounted on a piece of plastic tube which passes through a hole in the bung. The air lock is then filled with sodium metabisulfate. This whole maneuver has the purpose of allowing the gases which develop during fermentation to escape, but no free floating vinegar bacterium or fruit flies which carry the bacterium to enter the carboy and turn all our wine to vinegar.
I coddled the wine through the winter. I racked it three times. Racking is the process of siphoning the liquid from one carboy into another to take it off the lees, the dead yeast cells and other sediment that would spoil the wine, until all fermentation has stopped and the wine is crystal clear. Finished plum wine has a lovely light crimson color.
~
Sue Goldish called two days ago and asked, how is my wine, I had forgotten all about it through this busy winter… Well, I hadn’t.
I said, funny you call just now, I was planning to bottle the wine tomorrow, it’s my free day from work…
Sue Goldish said she would come over tomorrow after her Native American basket weaving class to watch me bottle the wine and see how it was done.
~
When Sue Goldish came I had already rinsed, sterilized and rinsed the bottles again. I always rinse everything after sterilizing it with sodium metabisulfate to remove as much of the sulfur as possible. Sulfur is harmful in greater quantities. I had soaked and sterilized the corks and prepared everything else, like carrying the five gallon carboy from the kitchen counter to the kitchen table, lining up the bottles on a tray below the carboy, and so on.
I sterilized and rinsed and then filled the siphoning rod with water and worked out all the air bubbles. I use my tiny funnel to do this, it saves much time. I siphoned the wine into the bottles. Sue Goldish helped to even out the fill so there would be a half inch to one inch space between the wine and the cork.
Then I corked the bottles with my rather antiquated corker that needs a little strength in the arm for the final push home. I chipped the mouth of two bottles. Aligning the bottle, the cork and the rod that pushes the cork down perfectly through the center is a bit of a guessing game with my old corker. I always chip a bottle or two or three.
Sue Goldish wiped the corked bottles with a damp cloth while I cleaned up the tray and other stuff. We had twenty-three bottles of wine made from Sue Goldish’s plums. There was a three quarter full bottle of wine left over, uncorked. We drank some of that wine. It had come out really nice, full bodied yet dry, with a fragrant plummy bouquet.
~
I gave Sue Goldish one of Charles’ sturdy boxes to put on the back seat of her car and helped her carry the bottles out to the car and stow them in the box. I told her she had to bring the box back because Charles is very particular about his boxes. He collects them and keeps them in his storage unit.
I had asked Sue Goldish to leave me the two chipped bottles. She left the one which was more badly chipped and took the other. I advised her to decant the wine from that bottle through a paper coffee filter to catch any possible tiny shard of glass. If she were to ingest a tiny shard of glass it could kill her.
Sue Goldish thanked me profusely and offered to pay for the corks and other ingredients I had used in making the wine, but I declined payment in money. Then Sue Goldish drove off with twenty-two bottles of wine I had made from her plums. I had an almost half full open bottle and the chipped bottle at home.
I took a glass of the delicious plum wine out into the back yard and drank it. I had a dry chuckle in my throat because I had known it would go exactly so.
~
I had met Sue Goldish at a friend’s house for a small dinner and recorder playing party. I brought a bottle of home made pear wine and a bottle of home made plum wine to the party, and that’s how Sue Goldish and I got to talking about wine making. I said I had no plums this year, and she said she had lots. A few weeks later she called me and asked if I would help her to make wine from her plums. Sure, why not.
Sue Goldish is not unattractive, short, a bit broad in the hips, but with a nice contrast between her large porcelain blue eyes and very fine dark eyebrows and curly dark hair. She is also something else, not easily definable. Under the bubble wrap of new age soft speak the self center of the person somehow sits right close.
I had a growing feeling within the first half hour of her walking into my house with those plums that she would not offer to share any of the wine with me. Maybe there was too much referring to the plums as hers, maybe I just had a general hunch. I made the wine anyway, I’m an enthusiast who can’t resist the lure of the plum. Otherwise those plums would go to waste. And besides, I enjoy the work.
~
Of course I could have asked her for my share, but I foresaw an undignified little argument about the correct division of the spoils.
I must confess that I’m amused at having been correct in my assessment. And I have the added advantage of using Sue Goldish for writing material. If this is unkind of me, so what. I can do that at least, and what can she do?
Except sit at home and drink my plum wine.