Blackcurrant & Raspberry Wine - The Making Of...

We very much need a larger freezer. And we need to defrost the current one. At this time of year, when soft fruit is abundant, a deep and empty freezer is what one requires. Ours is standard-sized and full. This wine is a direct result.

On Saturday 12th July, Claire and I went round to Lindsay and Antony's house to pick blackcurrants. It was an afternoon well spent in their garden, enjoying the sunshine and seeing friends somewhere other than on a computer screen. We mostly attained social distancing, but we were still in their company, and that was lovely. Their blackcurrants were not as plentiful as in previous years - I suspect that the pruning shears have been out - but we came away with 2 lbs 6 oz.

Our blackcurrants are later, and my original intention was to keep Lindsay and Antony's fruit in the freezer until ours were ready. However, this gave no room for freezing bread and therefore Something Needed To Be Done. I decided that instead of pure blackcurrant, I would bulk up what we had with 10 oz of raspberries. Our raspberry canes have been prolific this year, requiring a daily pick, and the fruit that we cannot have on our porridge, we freeze.

On Friday 17th July I took the blackcurrants and raspberries out of the freezer and left them to defrost in a bowl. I mashed them that evening, poured over 6¼ pints of boiling water and added 2 lbs 12 oz sugar (I think - I am writing this a week later). On Saturday morning I put in a teaspoon each of yeast, pectolase and nutrient.

Over the week I was particularly dilatory in stirring the wine - maybe it got three stirs - and really I should have put it in the demijohn on Wednesday. But it has been a busy week at work, so I left this until Thursday evening. This process was unremarkable - neither pleasantly speedy nor stultifyingly, arse-achingly slow. I have ended up with a demijohn full of purple-bordering-on-the-black wine. I suspect that our blackcurrant bushes will not supply enough fruit this year for a pure blackcurrant wine.

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

Julia's Wines - Raspberry 1995, 28th May 2016

With apologies to Julia, this wine was godawful. It had an interesting smell of jam but the taste was synthetic and nasty. There was only the barest hint of raspberry. I managed to finish my glass and Ros said it wasn't the very worst wine she had ever had (without elaborating what was). Otherwise everyone else had one sip and the bottle was emptied into the sink. It was a wonderful evening, though - Game's Night at Ros's, and six of us were there. We played four games - Pit, Saboteur, Ex Libris, and Ticket to Ride. All were great fun and I won the first and last. (Not that I am at all competitive or care deeply about these things.)

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Third Bottle (5), 28th-29th November 2013

This bottle spanned Thanksgiving I and Thanksgiving II. Claire decided that because she only cooks a turkey once every two years, she should get a large one and have two dinner parties. Did I say large? I mean enormous. It is currently Sunday morning, and (not counting soup, to which you can add four) the turkey has provided 14 hungry people with plenty of meat. And there is still loads to go.

The blackcurrant & gooseberry was as good as ever, but didn't form part of the meals. It was post on Thursday and pre on Friday. Of the flavours Rory tried (including an 18 year-old bottle of Raspberry, courtesy of Julia) I think this was his favourite.

Raspberry Wine - Bottle 5, 27th May 2012

Well, today has been tedious. Whilst most of the country has been enjoying a rare Sunday of cloudless skies and warmth, I have been sat in the Alwoodley Community Centre rehearsing for, and then playing in, a concert that went on for two and a half hours. Even good concerts should only go on for ninety minutes. But this one had twelve items, including a concerto, a symphony, most of a sonata, a prelude and fugue, and a them and variations. And there was a raffle. I hate raffles in concerts. They go on forever, for such unexciting prizes. Today's most banal prize was a notebook. God! At least I came home to a bottle of raspberry wine - the last, which is a shame, as this is a terrific flavour. We drank it to a chicken roast (on the hottest day of the year so far) and the first salad of the season where many ingredients were from our garden.

Raspberry Wine - Bottle 2, 30th March 2012

This was the second bottle of my wine opened at Great Hucklow. It fizzed beautifully, and I poured the glasses carefully to ensure that everyone who wanted some got. Except Uncle Brian looked at me askance at his half measure and requested that I fill the glass properly. So I did.

I think raspberry was popular - certainly it should have been, as it is a lovely flavour - but I can't really remember as the evening rapidly descended into an alcoholic haze.

We finished this in the sitting room - all 22 of us - before dinner. The weekend as a whole was fabulous. Everyone had a splendid time, catching up with all their relatives, and I met a couple of first-cousins-once-removed for the first time. It should not have taken David's death as a catalyst to organise it. I was told he would have loved it.

Raspberry Wine - Bottle 6, 22nd-23rd December 2011

Finishing work for the Christmas holidays is always a happy occasion, no matter how good the job. This year, though, there is a sadness and emptiness attached. Brooke North has now closed. A firm whose origins go back to 1833, and which I joined 164 years later, is no more. Even though I step into a new, exciting job in January, I wish this had not happened.

We opened the raspberry wine in fondness for things past and raised our glasses to Brooke North. And then we ate bean burgers with salted lemon cous-cous and a tomato sauce flavoured with cumin and garlic.

I finished the last glass shockingly early today (about 4 p.m.) whilst starting the Christmas jigsaw.

Elderberry - Bottle B1, 18th-21st December 2011

When I started drinking this bottle on Sunday, I noticed a slight sore throat. Nothing to worry about, and certainly nothing to interfere with the lamb (actually, mutton) teginne and sour-dough pitta-bread meal that Claire had been intermittently preparing all weekend. As I had earlier bottled the Spiced Beetroot wine, leaving a generous helping for us, we did not finish the bottle and left it as a tasty snifter for the coming days. That night, though, I woke with the feeling someone was sawing into my larynx. And then the shivering began.

So, the week before Christmas has been mostly alcohol-free. Claire had one of the two remaining glasses on Tuesday whilst I was feeling sorry for myself in bed. I finished the bottle on Wednesday, again whilst feeling sorry for myself in bed. Though it helped me sleep between 7-10 p.m., I then lay awake most the night.

Being ill sucks.

Blackcurrant - Bottle 3, 28th August 2011

Christian is leaving for Saffron Waldren this week to become 'Artist in Residence' at a Quaker Boarding School, so Julia cooked a 'Goodbye and Good Luck' Feast for eight. This bottle of Blackcurrant was the first of far too many drunk, and it really is one of my best.

The food was grand and the company convivial. Towards the end of the night Julia and I disappeared into her cellar and came back up clutching bottles labelled 'Pear 93', 'Raspberry 92' and 'Gooseberry 76'. I have never drunk a bottle of wine comfortably into its mid-thirties. It had matured into a dry sherry and there was no hint of its original fruit. The Raspberry was non-descript, and I am pleased to report that the Pear was nasty.

Raspberry - Bottle 4, 21st August 2011

I brought a bottle of Raspberry Wine with me to Newcastle in the mistaken belief that this would be a new flavour with which to treat the in-laws. However, I see that I had exactly the same instinct two bottles ago. Oh well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, although Sooz said she preferred the Hawthorn Blossom.

It has been an absolutely lovely day. Claire and I spent much of it at Andrew's new house - the conveyancing of which started in January and did not finish until July. The house fits Andrew perfectly - it is a terraced 1910s worker's cottage with quirky angles and plenty that needs fixing. Then I spent the evening at 3, The Alders eavesdropping on a string quartet whilst I read Charlotte Gray.

Raspberry - Bottle 3, 21st May 2011

Claire had to argue strenuously to convince me to open this bottle. I only made six of them and we had one last week. Still, she made the point that it is ready for drinking now, and it was a new flavour to feed Richard and Linda. Of course I capitulated, but shall be guarding the remaining bottles with some care.

It has been a lovely evening, with four courses including home-made ravioli stuffed with goats' cheese, walnut and basil, a cheese course and rhubarb fool - which is possibly the last of this year's crop. Richard was enthusiastic about the wine - insisting that I write it up for Home Farmer. I won't, but it was pleasing nonetheless.

Raspberry - Bottle 1, 14th May 2011

It has been an evening of general debauchery. We are at 3, The Alders, which inevitably means far more alcohol than is good for beast or man. One of the earlier bottles was this Raspberry, and I have shared it between six and a half. The half was Alastair, who is driving and therefore only wanted a sip. We drank it to a Pork Roast, cooked by Bob (Judith is walking in France). This is a good bottle - a beautiful colour and stuffed with fruit. (Odd, that.) Andrew thought it yeasty to begin with but "a shit-load better than what we had after". As this consisted of a bottle of Wolf Blass Yellow Label and two bottles of McGuigan Estate Shiraz (all of which I have indulged in copiously) I shall take that as a massive compliment. Hic.