Prune wine recipe

Do not be shocked! Prune wine is a good idea. Putting aside the laxative effect of prunes, consider for a moment their winemaking potential. Homebrewers do not hesitate to make wine from plums. Plums make a great home-wine, and prunes are essentially dried plums! If you think plum wine is a good idea in the summer fruit season, then amuse yourself in the winter by making prune wine.

Like a lot of dried fruit, prunes lend themselves well to making a sweet wine. Aim for at least 1 kilo of prunes to a gallon of homebrew. If you fancy a really full bodied wine then do not hesitate to double this. A small amount of white grape juice concentrate also helps, say 200ml.

Roughly chop the prunes and add to the bucket with enough sugar to get you up to about 1090. Add a teaspoon of mixed acid. Add a generous amount of pectic enzyme and ferment out with a good port or sherry yeast. Strain the wine after about one or two weeks. As with all good sweet wines, don't add all the sugar at once, but keep feeding it with 100g doses of sugar as soon as the gravity drops to about 1005-1010. I aim for a final gravity of about 1020, which is fairly sweet, so make sure you have enough acid to balance it out, and enough acid to cope with a good 12 months maturing.

Prune wine when made properly sweet is best served well chilled with something like a sticky toffee pudding or even something with chocolate in it. The reaction from guests when you tell them that you have made wine from prunes is always funny. Just do not serve them with too much prune wine unless you've got a lot of toilet roll in stock!