Treading the old ways

I love damsons. In fact I love them so much that my wife bought me a damson tree for Christmas a few years ago. Unfortunately it's still not matured, so each year I go out and buy 1 or 2 trays of the things when they're in season and filled the whole bottom drawer of our freezer with them. We make jam, cheese, flavoured vodka; and once we started making wine I had a go at damson wine.


Our first batch was really nice. It was light and fruity and quite different for a red wine. However, the name of the recipe I used was - "Damson Destroyer". I was left a little underwhelmed.

Our second attempt went very badly wrong. I rush it and ended up with a moldy mess. Firstly I didn't have any citric acid so decided to use lemon juice. One of the main aims when brewing, or making wine, is to make sure that no nasty wild yeasts get into the mix. Cleanliness is a priority. So when when I lobbed in the skin of the lemon after squeezing it (and it wasn't the freshest lemon), I was asking for trouble. Also, I left the m8ix in the fermenter for a lot longer than needed. The end result was a waste of precious damsons.

So I made sure I had everything I need for the third attempt. I decided to augment the brew with a can of red wine concentrate. It may seem like cheating but a good base can often make the taste of the fruit really shine, and make sure you get a really good full bodied wine. I also wanted to make sure that the fruit was well mashed.

Enter my son Cai. It has to be said that a more tactile person will not be found. He lives by sense of touch and he's always up for a new sensation. So, I washed his feet carefully, and carried him downstairs. He tentatively put his feet into the mix of fruit and warm water. Smiled broadly and began to squish the fruit up. He was a little perturbed when I started to add hot water and sugar (not too hot before you go running to the NSPCC), but it did seem to get him moving.

The fermenter is now safely lidded and sat next to a radiator to soak up flavour for the next 2 days, before being strained into a demi-john.