The Texas wild plum is small and tart. In size, it ranges from little
bigger than a marble to slightly smaller than a golf ball. They flower early,
fruit early, and are usually gone by the end of May. Indeed, my trees dropped
their last plum around May 16th.
The Prunus Texacana ripens to an orangish-red. They are ripe when
you reach up and grab one and it just drops off in your hand. The small ones
might contain more stone than fruit pulp, but their flavor in jelly or wine is
worth the trouble of such meager offerings. They store reasonably well in the
refrigerator until enough are collected for a batch of wine. Six pounds is a
perfect amount, but one could make a reasonable wine with only five pounds. By
themselves, they make a fairly thin wine with a strong, tannic bite. The recipe
below improves upon those deficiencies by adding golden raisins for body and
bananas for smoothness.
One word of warning. This wine MUST age at least two years before
tasting, and even then will only be marginal. However, it improves dramatically
with another year's maturation, so make it with a three-year aging in mind.
Because it takes so long to mature, you should make this wine every year. Serve
it slightly chilled.
5-6 lbs wild Texas Plums
- 2/3 lb chopped or minced
golden raisins
- 2 lbs over-ripe bananas
- 2-1/2 lbs finely
granulated sugar
- 7-1/2 pints water
- 1 crushed Campden tablet
- 1 tsp pectic enzyme
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient
- wine yeast
Wash the plums and remove any that show signs of insect infestation.
Place them on paper towels to dry and leave them at least two hours. Put the
plums in a bowl and place in refrigerator. In 1-2 weeks they will turn dark.
Meanwhile, buy 2 lbs bananas and let them get ripe. If they turn slightly
mushy, so much the better. The only parts to discard are sections of flesh that
actually turn brown. When plums are ready, put water on to boil and chop or
mince the raisins. Put the plums in a sterilized plastic pail and mash them
with the end of a sterilized piece of hardwood (the thick end of a baseball bat
works great), but do not crack the seeds. Just mash the plums up as best you
can. Now peel the bananas and slice them thinly (1/2 inch maximum), adding them
to the plums. Add the chopped or minced raisins and the sugar. Pour the boiling
water over this, stir well with a wooden paddle to dissolve sugar, and cover
with a clean dish towel. When cooled to 70-75 degrees F., stir in the crushed
Campden tablet. Recover the pail and let sit 12 hours. Stir in the pectic
enzyme and yeast nutrient. Recover and set aside another 12 hours. Add the
yeast (if dry, sprinkle over the top and DO NOT STIR for 24 hours) and recover.
When fermentation is strong (for dry yeast, about three days; for an already
started yeast, the next day), begin punching down the cap of pulp twice daily. After
7 days of strong fermentation, drain off some liquid and measure specific
gravity. When S.G. is 1.020 (may take up to 10 days), strain pulp through a
nylon straining bag and squeeze to extract as much juice as possible. Discard
pulp and return all juice to pail and ferment another two days. Siphon off
stones and sediments into secondary and fit airlock. When ferment dies down to
a steady bubbling, top up to within one inch of airlock. Rack into clean
secondary after 60 days, top up and refit airlock. Repeat 60 days later. In
another 60 days the wine should be clear, but if it isn't, rack again and allow
another 60 days. If clear and all fermentation has stopped, rack into bottles.
[Author's own recipe]
Again, this wine MUST age AT LEAST two years (I wouldn't touch it for
three), but will be worth the wait.
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