Ben's Adventures in Wine Making

I had expected this wine to be one of my failed experiments. From its ingredients we have nicknamed it 'Compost Wine'. On the basis ...

We have just returned from a fabulous weekend in Newcastle, and this wine was one of our Saturday bottles. Judith was effusive in her praise...

I last made Spiced Beetroot Wine ten years ago. 2011 seems like a foreign country: they did things differently there. It is worth revisiting...

Sunday 6th September, despite being earlier than previous years, was really my only opportunity to forage for elderberries. Next weekend we ...

I have broken tradition with this bottle but at Claire's suggestion. Covid 19 makes it near certain that we will not be able to celebrat...

We are in Newcastle! This is the first time that we have stayed away from home since late March, but we thought spending time with Claire...

This was a fabulous bottle of elderberry wine. It was as smooth and rounded as I have ever had, with the rich earthy tones that elderberry d...

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 w...

This social distancing and lockdown regime does mean that one has to be more inventive with both communication and entertainment. I opened a...

Bob and Judith stopped in Leeds on Sunday night as a staging post between Wiltshire and Newcastle. This provided an excuse for several cockt...

Though I pretend not to, and despite being distinctly grumpy at work, I do enjoy Christmas. More accurately, I enjoy the feasting, the fri...

After a couple of Christmas Day cocktails (only one of which involved a Brussel Sprout garnish) I opened my first bottle of 2017's Xmas ...

Quiet weekends are a marvellous thing. Whereas last weekend was a whistle-stop tour of Newcastle and family, this weekend has had nothing sp...

Bob & Judith's boiler has packed up - so this was an ideal time to visit them for a weekend. We took plenty of clothes and decided t...

On Thursday night, while on a train from London to Leeds, my phone buzzed. A text from Claire read "I have opened a bottle of wine...

While on the motorway, heading for Newcastle, in the dark and the rain, Claire said she was feeling peckish. I replied that I hadn't had...

Work has been exceptionally busy as of late. This year we will have sold 71 houses: 24 of them completed the week before Christmas. That i...

This wine suffered in comparison to Tutti Fruti 2014. It is thinner and sharper, whereas the older vintage has greater depth and more obviou...

I have broken a tradition. After many years of drinking the last bottle of one batch of Tutti Fruti and the first bottle of the most recent ...

Driving back from Newcastle on 4th September, we made a diversion to York to make sure all was sound with my parents' house while they a...