Crab Apple & Strawberry 2015 - Final Bottle (4), 10th-11th June 2020

Claire has been furloughed. I thought that this would be a disaster when told, but turns out that it works for everyone. Her current role of processing Covid 19 samples counts as voluntary work for the pandemic, so can still be done. Therefore, any time saved on furlough now might be added onto her contract at the end of her fixed term. Job's a good 'un.

We celebrated with an ancient bottle of Crab Apple & Strawberry. Despite the bits in it, it was rather good and very clearly both apple & strawberry in flavour. One day I will have crab apples again!

Taken on 11 June - the state of our

bathroom: taken to show the insurer.

Blackberry Wine 2015 - Final Bottle (A2), 20th-22nd January 2020

Having had a Negroni and a bottle of low-ish alcohol mulled wine, part of another bottle was in order. I had been instructed not to open anything too nice and entirely failed in that. This wine was one of the best blackberries I have ever tasted: smooth, fruity, delicious. There was a small amount left to finish on Tuesday night when David Wood, who I have probably not seen for 15 years, came round. We had a wonderful evening reminiscing about our trainee-solicitor days in Hull. That was a magical two years.

Taken on 20 January (though I think 2019). 

Can you guess the symphony?

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2014 - Final Bottle (A2), 25th December 2019

Merry Christmas to one and all. I had left this bottle for several years because I think it is absolutely the best wine that I have ever made. But I didn't want it developing that sherry taste that fruit wines can get if left too long. Therefore Christmas Day, five years after it was made, seemed a suitable occasion. 

We are hosting festivities in Leeds this year, with all Taylors down to stay, and it has been a lovely day. Claire and I started it at the Park Run in Roundhay Park: she was running and I most definitely was not. There were hundreds of runners there - many in costume. The Taylors arrived at about one (I was still sweeping) and from then on the day was full of laughter, food and rather too much to drink.

Waiting for the Park Run to begin

Peach & Banana Wine - Final Bottle (2), 9th-?th November 2019

I saw the Wine Party as a perfect excuse to rid the house of this ghastly wine. It was to fulfill the role of 'Comedy Wine' and would be a measure of how honest my guests had been in scoring. Therefore, it was something of a surprise to discover that actually this wine was fine - nearly 'Good'. Something had happened to it over the last two years. There was no unpleasant chemical taste and nothing nasty that lingered afterwards. And you could taste both peach and banana. It still came (tied) second to last with an average score of 2.5. Aaron wrote 'Progressively drinkable' and Janet was oblique in her description: 'Farmyard'.

Apple Wine 2019 - First Bottle (3), 20th June 2020

I opened this on the day it was bottled because I did not want to sacrifice a third cork to this particular vessel. The first cork got stuck in my corking machine and the string snapped for my second attempt, so I gave it up as a bad job and put this bottle in the fridge.

The wine is too dry - I should have used sugar when racking, but with a dash of sugar syrup it is a pleasant, unremarkable white that tastes vaguely of apples.

Earlier in the day, I was chief witness to two cyclists being knocked off their bikes by a car. The result was plenty of blood and ambulances and one impressive black eye. It could have been much worse.

Actually, not all that much blood

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Gooseberry 2019 - Second Bottle (6), 24th May 2020

Chris posted on Facebook that he had dusted off the Family Recipe Cookbook and made pineapple chicken. Claire suggested that I do the same whilst she was at work on Sunday, and that we would need a sharp white to go with it. The recipe was remarkably easy, and very 1970s. I spiced it up with an orange pepper, garlic and a couple of chillies, and the result was delicious. It may become a regular dish rather than something remembered vaguely from childhood. Gooseberry wine was exactly the right choice: bone dry, distinctly gooseberry and, as wanted, sharp.

Taken on 24 May: Shadows of 

Leaves on a Birch Tree

Pineapple Chicken

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sherry

1 tblsp sugar

1 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp cold water

1 tblsp corn flour

4 tblsp pineapple juice

1 or 2 celery stalks

1 onion

1 pepper

Clove or two of garlic

A chilli or two

4 tblsp olive oil

4 slices canned pineapple

1 lb chicken pieces (cubes)

Marinate chicken in cornflour, water, salt, sharry, soy sauce for half an hour. Slice celery diagonally, onion and peppers lengthwise, chop chillies (leaving in such seeds as you dare), crush garlic and saute them in the oil until they look about right. My recipe says 2 mins, but that sounds like a ridiculously short time. Add in the chicken until brown. Slice the pineapple in wedges and add with sugar and juice. Simmer until thoroughly heated. Serve hot with rice.

Gooseberry Wine 2019 - First Bottle (2), 2nd May 2020

I am really happy with this Gooseberry Wine, and as it looks like it is going to be another bumper year for gooseberries, I will make it again in a couple of months. It tastes absolutely of gooseberries and is sharp, dry and refreshing. It will be an ideal summer drink to have with mackerel. On Saturday we drank it with stuffed tomatoes and asparagus in filo pastry. The day had been spent on a sunny 12 mile walk from Roundhay Park to Thorner and back as part of my Lockdown Walking Holiday. I was exhausted by the end of it and my current average step-count for May is phenomenal. 

My lunch spot on 2 May

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Elderflower, Mint & Rhubarb Wine 2019 - First Bottle (1), 5th June 2020

It was our Book Group Party and Claire was nonplussed that I had not bought real wine for the occasion. My justification was that we had plenty of wine made from grapes on Tuesday night, and Elderflower, Mint & Rhubarb is one of my better ones. This bottle did not disappoint - all the flavours were there and we managed to get through it quickly and efficiently.

The evening was fabulous - our theme was 'Doctors & Nurses' and everyone's book sounded worth reading. I am particularly interested in The Plague by Albert Camus. Certainly it sounds more than relevant to global circumstances today.

A yellow flower in our garden - taken on 5 June

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Rhubarb Wine 2019 - First Bottle (B2), 1st May 2020

Today we were meant to start our annual walking holiday, this year in Ludlow. The cottage was booked in January and the usual crowd were all coming. Instead, I will still have a week's walking holiday, but all that walking will be done in North Leeds. The 10 of us who should have been on holiday, though, met up for Zoom Cocktails, and that was lovely. Not as good as all being in the same room but still a virtual party. Because Nick was there I opened this rhubarb wine, which has retained its pink colour but has yet to absolutely clear. Other than lack of clarity, it was an entirely acceptable rhubarb wine.

On my walk on 1 May, round Eccup Reservoir

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Rhubarb, Elderflower & Mint Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

It is with this wine that I say Adieu to my forties. They have mostly been very kind to me. At their start I was just finishing off my MA in Medieval Studies and now at their close I am in a job that I enjoy and I feel settled in my life. The decade has seen two redundancies, a published book, moving house, a dear friend dead, two new cats, a strange and frightening world order, two nephews and the current pandemic. Put like that, my forties sound far more traumatic than they, in fact, were. They have certainly not been uneventful. What better way to mark their close than (or, alternatively, as I had a free Saturday, how else should I spend it except by) making Rhubarb, Elderflower and Mint wine?

Our rhubarb is very much past its best, so I sent a message to Liz to find out if she had any spare. Happily she had plenty and brought round 2 lbs. I managed to get a further pound from our plants to obtain the 3 lbs required for the recipe.

About half the elderflowers came from the elder tree growing in the Synagogue hanging over our back fence; the rest came from trees on Bentcliffe Drive and the elder in Allerton Grange Field. Stripping these to get a pint of flowers was always going to be the dullest part of making this wine, but was enlivened by listening to Mark Steel's in Town on BBC Sounds.

Over the past few years my 'handful of mint' used in this wine has been getting larger and Claire thinks that this is to the wine's detriment. Therefore this year I have only picked a small handful - and mostly spearmint (rejecting those leaves with cuckoo spit on them).

I chopped the rhubarb into thin pieces and put this, the elderflowers and the chopped mint into my bucket with 3 lbs of sugar. I poured over 6½ pints of boiling water and left this overnight. On Sunday morning, 14th June (my 50th birthday), I put in a teaspoon of yeast, nutrient and pectolase.

I meant to put all this into its demijohn on Friday night, but instead had a Zoom meeting with Rachel and Duncan, where we drank a gin and tonic and then a bottle of (real) red wine. Doing anything productive after that was not going to happen. Instead, the wine went into its demijohn on Saturday morning, 20th June. It is a light pink and fermenting as it should.

The wine and Kato

If you want to see how this wine came out, click here.

Orange Wine 2019 - Second Bottle (6), 13th June 2020

When making fish pie, something citrussy in the wine department is generally required. This orange wine is sweeter than past vintages and also smoother. If I can just get it dry and smooth, then it would be Mission Accomplished.

I spent the last night of my 40s, other than eating fish pie and drinking orange wine, at the Snarkalong Film Club, watching Election. I had remembered good reviews when it came out, and I was the one who chose it to watch. Have you ever had the experience where you have recommended something entirely awful and then been with other people as they share it with you? That.

A Graffitied Exclamation Mark near me

Orange Wine 2019 - First Bottle (2), 29th March 2020

I have made a rather decent vintage of Orange Wine. It may be a tad sweeter than usual and it has plenty of orange flavour without any bitterness. I must have done a better job this time of avoiding the pith.

We drank the wine to tuna fishcakes and ratatouille and then I fell asleep on the sofa whilst trying to concentrate on Morse. Earlier in the day my timetable read like an exercise in self-improvement: I wrote a proper letter (pen & paper) to Bridget and family, started Mansfield Park (the only Austen I have yet to read) and went on our one Government-sanctioned walk to Meanwood Park and back. This isolation and social-distancing lark isn't entirely awful. Yet.

Dead Nettle in our Garden (30th March)

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Julia's Wines - Elderberry 1993, 15th February 2020

I took this bottle over to Ros's, where we were planning the music for Alex and Vicky's wedding this September. The bottle was only three-quarters full and by the time it had spent half an hour's walk in the rucksack, it appeared to be fizzy. Things did not bode well. However, and with much surprise all round, this was rather drinkable. It had that cross-between sherry & port feel that wines this age tend to acquire - but it hadn't gone off. We all had a glass - raising them to Julia.

A photo taken on 16 February

 - a greengage tree being planted

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2019 - Third Bottle (B5), 30th April 2020

I am on holiday! Until 11th May! I shall, of course, be spending it at home.

We were meant to be having our annual 'hire a cottage somewhere in Britain and go walking' holiday - this year in Shropshire, but Covid 19 has rather scuppered that plan. Instead I shall have a walking holiday in North Leeds.

I spent some of this bottle choosing which walks to do - and by adding in the walking from our house to the start of the guided walk, some of these will be Very Long Indeed. Possibly a bottle of Prune & Parsnip (lovely - lighter than usual) gave me Dutch Courage in making my selection.

Some houses in Leeds: a photo taken on 30 April

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2019 - Second Bottle (A6), 19th-20th February 2020

Claire and I both came home a little discombobulated on Wednesday. My day had been full of mistakes and complaints. The sort of day where Imposter Syndrome is at its strongest. Claire was cross with IT: with her computers and network not working, she can do little work. To remedy matters I cooked a fish pie (though forgot to add parsley to the white sauce) and we drank much of a bottle of Prune & Parsnip. It was finished on Thursday after a slightly better day and before an episode of Doctor Who.

Taken on 20 February. If you look very carefully

you should see a rainbow.

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2019 - First Bottle (B3), 1st February 2020

I think this batch of Prune & Parsnip is paler than previous vintages. That does not affect the taste, however, which is very much Business as Usual.

I opened the wine on Saturday evening after an entertaining day which started with the first rehearsal for Don Giovanni - which I will be playing all the coming week - and ended with Midsomer Murders. In between I visited the Kirkgate Market Food Hall, which is excellent - packed with street food vendors (I had a Vietnamese sandwich), people and some terrific buskers - and went to Carla's leaving party. So it has been a day of many pleasures.

The fabulous buskers - Luna & the Moon

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Muscat of Alexandria - First Bottle (6), 3rd-5th March 2020

I was not at all sure what to expect for this wine. I mean - grapes! What exotic flavour might by summoned by a wine made from grapes? Certainly it had all the appearance of a white wine: beautifully clear and a pale yellow colour. The taste was tart yet floral. If making it again I would add more sugar because there was a dessert wine struggling its way through. Claire said that it was merely disappointing: a conference wine.

On the last night that it was open Claire was out playing chamber music and I made a cake. This is not usual activity for me, but was surprisingly easy - a marmalade cake. If offered a glass of this wine or a slice of cake, I would choose the cake consistently.

A photo I took on 4 March:

my feet aren't really that big!

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Ginger Wine 2019 - Fourth Bottle (3), 15th-16th May 2020

We are getting through this flavour more quickly than I might otherwise have planned. However, what other flavour should I have chosen for a Chinese Takeaway? Friday evening was beautiful weather, if cold, and it felt so normal (and therefore abnormal) to wander out, hand in hand, with my wife to collect a takeout. Claire donning a facemask, as she went into the shop and I stood outside, was a reminder of course.

We drank half the bottle on Friday and the remainder on Saturday evening whilst watching the Eurovision Song Contest replacement, which was surprisingly lovely as all 41 countries sang Love Shine a Light.

A photo I took on 16th May

Ginger Wine 2019 - Third Bottle (1), 19th April 2020

I thought that this wine was too dry. The lemon was nearly more pronounced than the ginger. My expectations were set too high and that often makes for a disappointing wine. Claire disagreed and did not think that it needed to be any sweeter.

We drank this wine at the end of a lovely day. The weather has been glorious (though we do need some rain) and I spent my morning in the front garden, digging and turning earth. It is a hugely satisfying activity. In the evening we ate Jerk Chicken and watched Last Tango in Halifax and, despite everything, it felt like all was right with the world. (It very clearly isn't!)

Ginger Wine 2019 - Second Bottle (2), 11th January 2020

Claire has blue hair. It is really very blue indeed. Pretty much the colour of the Tardis. She has been planning this for over a year as a way to mark her 50th birthday. I shrieked when I saw it and then laughed and then decided that it looks fabulous.

Once she had come back from the hairdressers we went up to Newcastle where this ginger wine was the first bottle of the evening and enjoyed by all. Claire's family reacted to her blue hair as one would expect. Andrew asked if she was having a mid-life crisis and Claire replied that now was the time to have it.

Claire's blue hair - yes, really that blue

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2018 - Fourth Bottle (A6), 7th May 2020

This was meant to be a bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti 2015, but we each had a sip of that and decided that something better was required. And this wine was much nicer. It is sharp and fruity with some depth to it. I had earlier in the day walked very nearly 20 miles and this wine was much needed muscle relaxant. 15 of those miles had been delightful, mostly doing the Horsforth Round (and only getting lost thrice). The final stretch home, though, was a slog round the A6120

Underneath the A6120

A delightful walled path

A pastoral panorama

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2018 - Third Bottle (B5), 10th-11th April 2020

I have another string to my bow: on Saturday I cut Claire's hair. Now that all non-essential shops are closed, Claire cannot go to the hairdressers. I think I did quite a good job. In return, Claire shaved my head, so I am now completely bald. It is an odd feeling, not having hair, and I think an experiment that I won't repeat. More because the process took an age and by the end of it both Claire and I were bored. Anyway, I opened this bottle on Friday night and we finished it on Saturday, shockingly after drinking a bottle of champagne. Blackcurrant is the dominant flavour.

After the haircuts

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

This year I have decided to do a single batch of Prune & Parsnip, and consequently will do a double batch of Orange Wine next month. Whilst I am certain that I am not drinking less, it feels like I am drinking more proper wine, which means that the home-made stuff is accumulating rather.

The Fruit & Veg stall where I bought parsnips

I bought my parsnips on 8th February from Kirkgate Market. I was in town anyway because I had a WYSO meeting with Jude & Katie (which ended with me sitting in Leeds Town Hall listening to the BBC Phil rehearse the Romeo & Juliet Overture) followed by the last night of playing in the pit for Don Giovanni. So I went to one of the Fruit & Veg stalls and bought the 2 lbs of parsnips required for this wine. My server looked about 14 - and very probably he was. I think 14 year-olds are allowed to have Saturday jobs.

Prunes & Parsnips

Whilst I meant to make the wine on Sunday I delayed it until Monday 10th February, which I had taken off from work to recover from a week of Mozart. I cut the parsnips into small pieces and boiled them in 8 pints of water for 20 minutes (bringing the parsnips in cold water up to the boil rather than putting them directly into the boiling water).

Weighing the ingredients

I sliced up 8 oz prunes into three or four pieces per prune and put these into my bucket along with 2 lbs 12 oz sugar. Once the parsnips had finished boiling I poured the water into the bucket, leaving the parsnips to one side. Claire used a small selection of these to make a curried mashed parsnip dish, which was rather good.

Chopping the parsnips

In the evening, after an Airedale Symphony Orchestra rehearsal, I put in a teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient and pectolase and then pretty much ignored the wine until Saturday morning, 15th February. That was when I put the wine into its demijohn. As the only thing to sieve out was the prunes, I did not bother with a colander. It was not a long process. The amount of water used was just about perfect and I now have a demijohn full of the brownest of wines.

The brownest of wines

By racking on 12th April  2020, this had cleared beautifully and needed little additional sugar. I dissolved 1 oz in half a pint of water and poured this in.

If you want to see how this wine turned out, click here.

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2018 - Second Bottle (A1), 10th-11th March 2020

Thin and a bit disappointing.

I ventured under the stairs for a bottle of blackberry wine but pulled this Xmas Tutti Fruti out instead. It was okay and filled its role of 'midweek bottle', but I have had better.

On Tuesday I drank a glass whilst watching Inside No. 9 - this series has been excellent and the writers are the masters of misdirection. Wednesday's ration was drunk after what proved to be our last WYSO of the season. Our opera is now cancelled because of Corona Virus fears (and the baritone being quarantined in Northern Italy). We are living in strange and exciting times.

A photo taken on 8th March of 

The Corn Exchange in Leeds

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2018 - First Bottle (A2), 25th December 2019

My only criticism of this wine is that it is not as good as Xmas Tutti Fruti 2014 - but then again, very little is. We had a direct comparison and also with 2017's vintage. This bottle was the middle of the three in both taste and order drunk. It needs time to mature, but is definitely one of my better mixed-fruit wines. The blackcurrant is dominant (not a surprise when looking at the ingredients), but it is rounder and more interesting than pure blackcurrant.

Our meal this year was a rib of beef (rather than turkey) with other traditional Christmas food also appearing - even sprouts (albeit they were not boiled to buggery). It was a lovely, joyful Christmas Day.

If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.

Damson Wine - Fourth Bottle (1), 16th February 2020

Sunday nights usually require a bottle of decent red, and this is about as decent as they come. It was a fairly lazy day - mostly enforced upon us by inclement weather (Storm Dennis, apparently). But in between the rain and the hail, we managed to plant three new trees: a greengage, a medlar and a quince. Claire is going to try to train the quince tree so it is a fan against our back fence.

In the evening I made involtini and we watched half a Morse before collapsing into sleep. These lazy days can be so exhausting.

The Quince Tree on planting

Damson Wine - Third Bottle (5), 2nd January 2020

Rachel requested a bottle of damson wine specifically for New Year, and who am I to refuse? It is excellent and has vanilla overtones. We drank it after a day spent in Cambridge where we went to a zoological museum full of bones and animals preserved in jars, followed by dim sum at a Chinese restaurant which possibly got some of their ingredients from this museum.

We finished the damson wine before sitting down to eat salmon, where Richard & Wendy joined us. The May holiday has been organised - we are off to Shropshire this year, though it is possible that Richard & Wendy won't be able to make it. Richard is off to Alaska to climb USA's highest peak.*

My 2nd January photos have disappeared from

my phone - here is a 1st January one instead

* Oh, if only we had known. Obviously the holidays didn't happen.

Damson Wine - Second Bottle (2), 28th November 2019

Damson wine is not going to get the chance to mature to a ripe old age. This is the second bottle drunk in the space of three weeks. I chose it as a Thanksgiving bottle because it is one of my best, and I wanted to treat our guests. As well as Richard & Linda, we had Andrew, Sooz and Cindy over to share the Thanksgiving meal. And what a meal it was - everything that is traditional about Thanksgiving plus a tricolor nut loaf and sprouts pan-fried with garlic and parmesan. The wine was, rightly, enjoyed by all. There is a deep plumminess to it that certainly was not present in the years that I made plum wine. Definitely a wine to make again.

NB - There is no photo that I have not already put up for the days around Thanksgiving. Sorry.

Apple & Strawberry Wine - Second Bottle (2), 26th January 2020

Carla is leaving Leeds for Oxford, having got a better, more prestigious job in Linguistic Facilities there.* It is hoped that she will receive more support and appreciation in Oxford than she currently gets in Leeds.

Of her many celebrations, Richard, Linda, Claire and I went round on Sunday night for a meal and I took this bottle of Apple & Strawberry with me. Rather cheekily, I asked Richard to give us a lift so that I could drink. The wine was okay, though a little thin - I should have taken something better. The meal was excellent: non-spicy vegetarian curries; and it was a lovely way to say 'Goodbye'.

I took no photos on 26 January, but here is

a dull one of some washing up drying taken

on 25 January instead. You're welcome.

*Names and details have been changed! I don't know if Leeds has a Linguistic Facilities Department, or whether that is even a thing. If it does, I am sure it is an excellent place which treats its staff wonderfully.

Ginger Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

A new decade and an old favourite for the wine. I started the wine on 4th January: the first Saturday of the year. It was a lazy day and one of the few days of the Christmas holiday period which Claire and I had to ourselves. Naturally, I spent it making wine. Thinking back, we did entertain Liz briefly, who came over to return my corker and watch me bottle my dandelion wine.

The ginger ingredients

 (other than sugar, water and yeast)

For this wine I did exactly what I did the last several times that I have made it, but I will write it all down again in tedious detail just in case you, dear reader, are interested.

First of all I weighed 6 oz of root ginger and then took off all its skin and any knobbly bits that were too small to bother with. I chopped the ginger into very thin slices and put this into my bucket. I minced 1 lb sultanas (as always, using the food processor) and put these in too. Next I took the outer layer of skin off four lemons, being moderately successful in avoiding the pith, put the skin into the bucket and the squeezed lemon juice in as well. I boiled 3-and-a-half pints of water and poured this in too.

The ingredients before processing

On Sunday afternoon, before going over to York to see Rachael, Paul and Myles, who were up from Leicester, I poured in another 3-and-a-half pints of boiling water and 2 lbs 8 oz sugar, stirring it all until the sugar dissolved. We had a lovely afternoon and evening in York. Myles, who is on the cusp of his seventh birthday, has decided to go vegetarian. Not a particularly strict one - chicken nuggets may count as a vegetarian meal - but Rachael and Paul have decided to respect his choice as far as possible. Whilst we all ate lamb, Myles had bean balls coated in bread crumbs. Anyway, back at home I put in a teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient and pectolase.

Giving the wine a stir

On Thursday evening, 9th January, I put the liquid into its demijohn. Yet again, 7 pints of water (using UK measurements) proved exactly right. One would think that I have made this before. The ginger wine is a yellowy-beige colour and bubbling with enthusiasm.

The wine in its demijohn.

I racked this on 16th February. At this stage the wine was still bubbling a little. It had a promising gingery taste and I fit in slightly more than half a pint of water with 2 oz sugar dissolved.

If you want to see how this wine turned out, click here.