Benny, I am about to bottle a persimmon wine. If you can send me pic of your wife and you, I will put them on the label and send it off. Are you going to Aug 12 CRFG meeting? I am going to speak about growing bananas in the Bay Area. It will be a 1.5 hour talk. Yes, Port is a sweet and strong wine. The Spaniards in Port were the first one to popularize the technique. One way to achieve port wine is to let the fermentation of high sugar content juice go on for just 3 to 7 days, then fortify it with brandy or other distilled spirits to raise the alcohol to 20% and over. This stops fermentation, trapping the unique flavor at the particular midway fermentation. Then these are aged. One thing nice about Port wines is that they are very stable when stored for a long time, they never oxidize nor turn to vinegar if stored properly for ages, but the better they get. I have a different technique of making port wine, I don't fortify them because I can't justify spending plenty of money on brandy or distilled wine when if you distill them yourself (which is illegal) costs only $1 to a gallon (it is the taxes that makes them average out at $12 for a quart). Anyway, I use yeasts with high tolerance for alcohol, and sometimes I can reach abv of 23%, all without wine fortification.

Prickly pear, makes good port wine. They almost ferment to dryness, and if you add more sugar when fermentation subsides, they get restarted and the abv can increase to about 20% before the yeasts gives out.

One of the best ways to remove the "thorns" is to burn them off.. Start your BBQer and while the flames are still high and touching the grill throw on the prickley pear.. use tongs or pliers to turn them.. Just a minute or so on each side should be enough.. Then you can finish cooking them in what ever manner you like or leave them on the grill till done..
I like fresh prickley pear fruit and the pads.. but I think fresh out of the garden or fresh picked wild is best..
Growing up I heard that cowboys would throw prickley pear on the fire to supplement their diet..
Gina *BabyBlue*

I use tongs, that's the most important part, then just place them over the gas burner to burn off those thorns. It also sterilizes by killing off microorganisms on the surface, very important for wine making.

I have a plum wine that I made in the order of port. It's the BEST I ever made. It's sweet & I think 18% ABV. I have a recipe..says to add sugar 2 more times, few days apart. The sugar turns to alcohol & what left is a good sweet wine. A good port takes 20 yrs to mature. Joe, I'll send you the recipe if you want.
Here's my prickly pear taken this spring. Notice the babies.

Here it is now (I almost forgot it was there LOL)

Patty does that survive your winters outside ?

Sure does! My neighbor brought it over last summer & said to just lay it on the ground & it'll root, & can take our winters. He was right. I didn't even mulch it. We had a record cold last Dec. with no snow to cover.

Thank you Joe for your kind offer. I tried to send a picture to you via email but it won't accept it. I've been having problems with my email and downloading specially citrus forum. Won't even let me answer .
I called my ISP provider but they said everything checked OK.
They said the problem is with my computer mfr and I should call them.
I wish I can go to CRFG but I'm afraid I cann't. All three are taking their most important karate test in their life. Their black belt in another form of karate they joined recently. This new form is very intense, hard and very challenging. They've been preparing this now for 3 weeks. They liked it. Me too because it's good for them for self defence. It combined jujitsu karate and boxing. It is geared to protect themselves in street fighting. So almost aything goes. Even if you are down you are still fiighting and your opponents still will try to hit you. (And make points).
And thanks for the info Patty and Joe for the Port wine.