Janet Galpin wrote:
The message
from David Rance contains these words:
[...]
And you're right - never, NEVER, boil the fruit for wine-making,
especially if it contains pectin. If you do the haze will never clear.

I just wanted to come back to this point about boiling. Last summer I
made plum wine and it is still very murky. I've been looking again at
recipes and they all seem to say add boiling water to the plums. This
isn't quite the same as boiling them but I think it's what I did last
year.
I'm about to try geengage wine and I'm wondering whether to just chop
them up and mush them (they're very ripe and juicy) with some
pulverising instrument or my hands. Will this do? Am I likely to lose
some of the flavour etc if I don't add boiling water?

I think plum wines, including greengage, are prone to hazes. These can
be caused by gums rather than pectin: (These aren't the only possible
causes of cloudiness.) I don't know what to do about gum, but it won't
hurt you. I'd say use water just off the boil, and add a pectolytic
(pectin-destroying) enzyme if you can get it. You stir in the pectinase
before the yeast, but at the same temperature -- like all enzymes, it's
destroyed by heat.

A side-effect of pectinase is actually to improve juice-extraction, so
flavour will be better. It's a good idea to use it as a matter of
routine for any wine. You can also use it to clear finished wine if the
haze is caused by pectin: instructions on the packet or bottle.
Naturally soft water is better than hard, if you want to be fussy.

--
Mike.