UK damson wine?

I don't have such a recipe (we don't get many damson's in south Texas and I don't really know what they are) but if you have a recipe that looks good except for the wild yeast then use it but use a good wine yeast with it. If you are making a port style then I would high alcohol tolerant yeast like a Champaign yeast. Also of note, C.J.J Berry, a good English wine author, says to treat them as you would greengage or plums.

Hope that helps.

Ray

Try Jack's site..

http://w>Hi all!

Here's a recipe from my dim distant past. It will produce a wine of about 12 %abv. I confess it must be well over 12 years since I last made it -- this also will explain the ancient methodology! But I can guarantee that it will work For a gallon ( imp) of a dry and fruity wine.

remove stalks and then crush the damsons well by hand -- there will not be a lot of juice from damsons -- the aim is to break open the skins of the fruits. Chop the sultanas and add to the fermentation bucket. Add 1/2 gallon of water and mix well. Add a solution of a little water with a crushed campden tablet in to the must.

Boil all the sugar in 3 pints of water ( 60 fl ozs) for two minutes and when it is cool add it to the must and stir well. Add the yeast , Nutrient and a small teaspoon of pectin enzyme ( this is to help in the breakdown of the fruit fibres). Cover and ferment for 7 days stirring daily to break up the "cap" Strain and wring out the fruit tightly to extract the maximum of the must. Return the must to a clean fermenting bucket and leave undisturbed for another 3 days. Then carefully rack off into a sanitised 1 gal demijohn, ( carboy ), leaving behind as much of the lees as possible. Top up with cooled boiled water to the neck of the demijohn and fit a fermentation lock

Leave to ferment out to completion.

Best aged for at least a year

It will be seen that this is a very ancient recipe and dates from about 1973 as far as I am concerned.

I have also a recipe for a more full bodied and higher abv, medium sweet damson wine made by similar ancient & uncomplicated methods which really needs 2 years aging before it is quaffable!

Thanks all! We'll have a bash this weekend...

We froze the damsons while researching.... hope this doesn't break them down too much. I've read that pectin is a problem with them if they mush up too much...

Les