I have cut back the amount of wines I have been making in 2019 focusing on quality rather than quantity and this is only the third recipe I have made this year. Might also be the only one that gets bottled but that’s another story. As the wine making is rarer I have been far more selective in what I have wanted to make and damson port is something I have wanted to do for a long long time.
Damsons are sweet sour fruit sitting halfway between a traditional plum and a sloe. Absolutely bursting with a deep plum and blackberry like flavour wrapped up in a beautiful purple blue container about the size of a ping pong ball. Damsons it seems are impossible to buy as they are seasonal and pretty fragile though you may be able grab a few from Waitrose or mail order for the two and a half seconds that the season lasts. As the port needs 4kg it may well be difficult to source that many or be prohibitively expensive. They may be possible to forage if you know a secret tree and camp out to wait for that two and a half second window of opportunity. I have found sloes, blackberries, plums, I think they’re plums, rosehips, English walnuts, elderberries, apples, crab apples, mulberries and pears but sadly never a damson tree.
Access to the fruit I used was from an excellent community group that connects unwanted urban fruit with feckless scroungers like me. They also do some excellent urban regeneration and guerrilla planting too. Abundance emailed me when the fruit was ripe and after a little jaunt into the posher parts of London I left with probably 5kg of fruit to take back to Walthamstow. Honestly I cannot thank them enough and hope to in some way repay their kindness.
CLICK HERE FOR THE AMAZING PEOPLE AT ABUNDANCE
So that’s enough with the hippy stuff. Damsons are easy to pick in the sense that you don’t need to pick them. Throw a sheet down give the branches a shake and watch the fruit fall effortlessly ready to roll into a bag. I of course didn’t do this and had to pick it up of the ground. I got a fair few rotten fruit that had fallen over the last few days which had to eventually be discarded. Beware of any fruit that is split or has a small pin prick hole with a tiny brownish pile of grit – these have a grub happily munching away so discard them. Using a sheet as ground cover should eliminate this hazard and few lying should be affected anyway. The softer the fruit the riper they are with bountiful sugar. Generally damsons are naturally sour but not as mouth puckeringly so as sloes. I say generally as the ones I had were sweet with a beautiful scent that is subtle and lovely unlike any other fruit.
CLICK HERE FOR A BLACKBERRY PORT RECIPE
OR MAYBE A ELDERBERRY PORT RECIPE
AND FINALLY A GREENGAGE PORT EXPERIMENT
Having made other “port” like wines in the past I know there are two ways to make one as a home wine maker. The first is the “Dave” method from “Dave’s Blackberry Port” fame which makes a very strong wine then adds 70g of light malt per UK gallon (4.5 litres) which gives it a great port like taste. The other method is to actually fortify with a stronger distilled spirit. Vodka could be used as a neutral taste or even Spyritus that is 80% ABV giving even less dilution. Alternatively a flavoured spirit can be used as brandy gives proper port its unique taste when it is added. The “Dave” and fortifying methods have pluses and minuses in terms of cost, taste and method but if you use good fruit at the start and lots of it, either method should create at least a good wine and hopefully a great one.
CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERACTIVE PEARSON SQUARE
I have decided to actually fortify this with a plum Eau de Vie which is basically an un-aged fruit brandy with an ABV of 40% In traditional port the Agua Dente (young high proof brandy) that is used to fortify the wine is about 77% but it is added to a grape wine that has not fermented fully and is at about 8% ABV at most. As I am maxing out champagne yeast the ABV will be about 18% when the yeast eventually expires and stops fermenting. This means a less strong fortifier can be used but it will not dilute the heady damson taste that I want to dominate the drink. Using an interactive Pearson Square I worked out I needed 710ml of 40% to up my final ABV to the desired 21%. I chose an Eau de Vie from Gerry’s in Soho but any decent specialist should have something similar or resort to the internet. Buying anything like this means the costs increases considerably over the “Dave” method. It also opens up a more variables in taste and greater ability to go wrong. The taste I am hoping will be slightly less “fresh” and more complex in the end but lets be honest I’m an idiot mixing stuff together in a kitchen not a professional Porty Making Person.
DAMSON WINE (FORTIFIED) 4.5 Litres
Rich fruity and aromatic sweet port like wine aged on oak. Possible to drink at one year (I think) but should mature for longer (I hope!) 21%ABV
4kg damsons (more if you have them)
500g raisins
2kg-ish sugar
2 litres of water
1 teabag
Sachet of EC1118 yeast
Yeast nutrient
Pectic enzyme
Campden tablet
Tartaric acid (if needed – mine was bang on luckily)
15g light or medium oak chips
710ml of suitable spirit at 40%ABV
Boil the water with the tea bag and leave to cool while covered.
Pick the damsons and discard any heavily bruised, split or mouldy. Remove any stalks and rinse.
Crush the fruit fruit either with clean hands or a potato masher in the fermenter. (I added the pulp to a bag to allow easy squeezing at the end of fermentation.)
Roughly chop or mince the raisins and add to the damsons then pour on the now cooled water/tea.
Stir in a crushed Campden tablet and the pectic enzyme and leave well covered for 24 hours to take effect.
Test then adjust acidity if needed, adding tartaric acid to the equivalent of 0.6g/l if you can.
Using a hydrometer add enough sugar to get to 1.09 SG. Being honest I just added about half a kilogram of sugar.
Add yeast nutrient then the yeast according to the manufacturers guidelines as an easy pitch or via rehydration.
Allow to ferment and punch down the fruit twice a day. When sweetness drops add sugar every other day – about 200g at first then reducing in amount as time progresses. As time goes by fermentation will slow and less sugar should need to be added. Eventually fermentation will end after ten days, two weeks or even longer. This leaves some sugar unfermented. More sugar can be added to your desired taste but it cannot be removed so work carefully.
Rack away from the fruit into a sealed demijohn with 15g of light or medium toasted oak chips. If any head space is left top up with the Eau de Vie
Leave for a month or two as sediment drops then rack away from the oak chips and settled lees. Top up to the neck of the demijohn with your fortifier to try and get towards the 710ml needed to be added.
Repeat again at three months if large amounts of sediment drops. Leave to bulk age as long as you can afterwards
A year after picking the fruit add the last of the Eau de Vie adjust acidity if needed, adjust sugar to your prefered taste and perhaps stabilise. Bottle and leave six months minimum to age.
DAMSON WINE (UNFORTIFIED) 4.5 Litres
Rich fruity and aromatic sweet port like wine aged on oak. Possible to drink at one year (I think) but should mature for longer (I hope!) 18 to 19%ABV
4kg damsons (more if you have them)
500g raisins
2kg-ish sugar
2 litres of water
1 teabag
Sachet of EC1118 yeast
Yeast nutrient
Pectic enzyme
Campden tablet
Tartaric acid
15g light or medium oak chips
70g of light malt
Possibly x2 200ml bottles of grape juice extract
Boil the water with the tea bag and leave to cool while covered.
Pick the damsons and discard any heavily bruised, split or mouldy. Remove any stalks and rinse.
Crush the fruit fruit either with clean hands or a potato masher in the fermenter. (I added the pulp to a bag to allow easy squeezing at the end of fermentation.)
Roughly chop or mince the raisins and add to the damsons then pour on the now cooled water/tea.
Stir in a crushed Campden tablet and the pectic enzyme and leave well covered for 24 hours to take effect.
Test then adjust acidity if needed adding tartaric acid to the equivalent of 0.6g/l or 0.6% if you can.
Using a hydrometer add enough sugar to get to 1.09 SG. Being honest I just added half a kilogram of sugar.
Add yeast nutrient then add the yeast according to the manufacturers guidelines as an easy pitch or rehydration.
Allow to ferment and punch down the fruit twice a day. When sweetness drops add sugar every other day – about 200g at first then reducing in amount as time progresses. As time goes by fermentation will slow and less sugar should need to be added. Eventually fermentation will end after ten days, two weeks or even longer. This leaves some sugar unfermented. More sugar can be added to your desired taste but it cannot be removed so work carefully.
Rack away from the fruit into a sealed demijohn with 15g of light or medium toasted oak chips.
Leave for two months as sediment drops then rack away from the oak chips and settled lees. Top up with either boiled then cooled water so it is sterile or grape concentrate.
Repeat again at three months if large amounts of sediment drops. Leave to bulk age as long as you can.
A year after picking the fruit adjust acidity if needed, perhaps stabilise. Add the 70g of light malt and then adjust sugar to your preferred taste. Bottle and leave six months minimum to age.
THE NOVOCASTRIAN VINTNERS GAZETTE 
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