I am about the bottle yhe plum wine, but....

I understand where you're coming from. When making wine from fruit, you don't really know how much sugar is in the fruit, so you can end up with a very potent or too sweet wine. To avoid that, I tend to hold some sugar back during the primary fermentation. For example, if the recipe calls for

5 cups of sugar for a 1 gallon recipe, I will just add 4 or 3 1/2 cups depending on how sweet I think the fruit is. Do you have a hydrometer? I've been shooting for 11% or 12 % alcohol by volume - or a starting SG of 1.090 with the fruit wines I do (high enough to preserve the wine, but not rocket fuel). If you hold back some sugar, then check your SG; if it is around 1.090 then I wouldn't add anymore sugar. If the SG is less than that, then add sugar in increments of 1/2 cup (stir until dissolved & take the SG reading again) until you get there. Hope this helps. Darlene

Two things are essential when making wine; knowing the specific gravity or potential alcohol, and knowing the acidity. If you are not testing for both, you are really taking chances....