Bottling the Plum Wine

It has been several months since I started my first batch of plum wine.  I got a good deal on a couple of boxes of plums in August and got the ball rolling on what was to become my winter supply of plum wine.  I have been a little lax about the schedule of racking and bottling with this batch, but I figured that letting the wine age in the carboy wouldn't hurt anything, so I could wait for the chore of bottling for a few weeks while I attended to more pressing needs in my schedule.  I did the first racking of the wine in late October, so I was only a couple of weeks behind schedule for bottling.  The wine itself was finished fermenting for several weeks before I racked it the first time, so it had plenty of time to clear before I bottled it.

I began by cleaning and sterilizing all the bottles that I had available.  I asked my friends to save their bottles for me, so I didn't have to buy any wine bottles for this round.  I still had new corks available from my cherry wine bottling earlier in the year, so I didn't have to spend anything on that either.

I removed the labels from as many bottles as I could, but I didn't want to spend all day on that project, so I settled for bottles that were as clean as I could make them.  I sterilized them by filling them with boiling water right after washing them.  One by one they were set to dry before I got around to filling them with my sweet brew.

The bottles were filled and corked in small batches and I ended up with twenty six bottles of wine in all.  Since I only spent $50 on plums for this wine that comes out to between two and threes dollars a bottle when you figure in the cost of sugar and the few additives that were used.  Not bad at all for a delicious end product that will knock your socks off in a just a few sips.  

I don't know the specific alcohol content of my wine, but I know that it is in the higher ranges because of the quantity of sugar I use in my recipe.  The yeast I use can tolerate a fairly high alcohol content before it dies off, so I believe it to be between 15% and 17% alcohol, which is fairly high as far as wine goes.  This is the kind of wine best used for sipping, since drinking more than a glass will make most people a little tipsy.

I am so happy that I was able to make another batch of plum wine this year using locally grown fresh plums.  I really think it makes the final product something special and everyone that has tasted it agrees that it is a phenomenal wine.  I have one more small batch of late season plum wine to rack and bottle before I am done with wine making for the year, but I am happy with what I have accomplished in the wine department this year.  I have had more than enough bottles to share with friends, and I have a good supply that should last me until next summer when wine season begins again.