The most popular way to make fig wine seems to be to use dried figs as opposed to fresh ones. As an experiment I wanted to make a batch of fresh and dried to compare and to see if thy move towards any particular style. The most important thing I have learned is never try to make wine during the last days of pregnancy. Ms Gazette gave birth to a lovely bouncing baby girl halfway through making these and she may well put a hold on wine making for a while – I can very happily live with that as babies are more fun than wine!

There were two choices of fresh figs and I went with the smaller and fuller flavoured Peruvian ones that were more in season with a fuller flavour from advice from my greengrocer. He gave me a good deal on them as I was buying in bulk and I used 3kg for 4.5 litres of wine. Compared to other wines this is a lot of fruit. In future I hope to be able to forage them from my own and a neighbours tree when they mature. As they were small they have a high concentration of skins to pulp so the initial wine tastes fairly tannic a month in but this will be aged for up to 4 years so it is not a worry. If wanting a wine sooner think about squishing the figs then removing half the intact skins to limit tannin extraction. My plan is this will be kind of like a sherry and possibly slightly back sweetened after a year, bottled and then forgotten about for another three. This time should give the wine an age to change flavour away from the “fresh” figs towards a mellower matured flavour. I say “fresh” fig flavour as oddly the dried figs give a stronger aroma and fuller fruit flavour than the squishy ones.

CLICK HERE FOR THE DRIED FIG WINE!

Figs are awash with pectin so it is advised to use a pectic enzyme to remedy this. As I like a hard life I chose not to as I will use time to allow the pectin to settle and in the pictures you can see a distinct band at the curve from the body to the neck where the pectin is settling out. The fresh figs give a lovely red colour that will become more apparent as the sediment settles and this is far nicer than the browny gold of the dried figs. I suspect this may be photosensitive as it looks quite delicate so I am choosing to keep he wine covered as much as possible. If you have a green or brown glass demijohn this may be one to use it with. If clarity is still an issue later in life I will use some bentonite but to be honest I prefer to do nothing if I can.

Recipe wise both the fresh and dried fig wines are very basic and eschew raisins to give body as there was a lot of fruit used and this will suite the sherry like aim. Neither was there any orange or lemon juice or rind. There was no tannin added due to the quantity of skins but acidity was adjusted and it will be adjusted again at the end of bulk ageing to tweak with tartaric acid to get it to 0.6TA. The dominant acid in figs is apparently malic so I used only tartaric rather than a blend to adjust it.

FRESH FIG WINE 4.5L

Sherry like wine with a beautiful delicate looking colour. White wine yeast preferable and EC1118 seems suited. Can have white grape extract or raisins added for body and lemon and orange zests for a tweaked taste. Suitable for semi sweet or very dry wine I imagine.

3kg fresh figs

3.5L water

800g-ish sugar to 1.09SG

Acid blend (or juice of a lemon)

Yeast

Yeast nutrient

Pectic enzyme

Wash the figs and chop the woodier end off. Squeeze by hand to mash the fruit into the water in a sanitised primary fermenter. (Boiling and cooling the water will help drive off any chlorine and chloromine for a cleaner taste and aroma)

Add a crushed campden tablet and the pectic enzyme and leave for 24 hours.

Adjust the sugar using a hydrometer to get to 1.09SG

Adjust the acidity or add the juice of a lemon

Pitch the yeast and half a tsp of nutrient and cover. Leave to ferment as long as you can on the fruit and punch down the cap one to four times a day depending on how athletic you are. (If you wand a stronger wine like I did sugar incrementally) As a white wine yeast is used leave to ferment cool to keep aroma and flavour from “boiling off.”

The large cap means a hydrometer cannot be used to measure the fermentation activity so when fermentation radically slows transfer to secondary fermenter and seal. The pulp can be ladelled into a sanitised muslin in a funnel and a gentle squeeze applied to extract juice. The stronger the squeeze the more pectinm will be extracted though. I chose this point to add 7g of sherry barrel oak chips.

Rack about six weeks then two months afterwards. Further rackings may be needed if pectin still continues to precipitate out and bentonite could be used to aid this.

Bulk age for a year, stabilise and back sweeten if desired then bottle and age for as long as you can in a cool dry place. I plan this to be opened at 4 years of age.

Enjoy.