Christmas Tutti Fruti - First Bottle (A1), 25th December 2014

This is one of my better vintages of Christmas Tutti Fruti, and I put that down to the rose petals. It is a little too dry but has a greater depth than last year's version.

I shared the bottle out around the room and it was nearly finished by the time we sat down to eat. There were eight of us - all the Taylors, Sam and Hannah. Hannah had spent the day at work - being the only house-visiting GP for the area from northern Newcastle to Berwick. It was a busy time and of all of us, she deserved the slap-up meal and a drink the most.

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

Rose Petal Wine - Second Bottle (B4), 21st June 2014

Not as good as the last bottle. We drank it in Newcastle with Judith on the night before Sam and Hannah's wedding. It had the distinctive rose petal taste, but was drier and somehow more cloying than the previous bottle. Still drinkable, though.

Sam and Hannah's wedding, the following day, was fabulous. I danced late into the night, and that is very rare indeed.

Orange Wine - Fourth Bottle (B3), 29th-30th May 2014

Orange wine and swimming seem to be inexorably linked. I came back from my second swimming session (20 lengths this time - I am making progress) to find an open bottle of orange wine. And very good it was too - this is a particularly fine batch of orange.

Claire finished what was left on Friday while I was up in Newcastle for Sam's stag-do. This is only the second stag event I have been on, and was far more my cup of tea. The first was twenty years ago and ended up in a Birmingham strip-club. This one involved a long walk in the Cheviots, aided by brilliant sunshine, then beer and curry on Newcastle Quayside. It was a lovely day and made the better by it not ending with someone tied naked to a lamp post.

This did not happen

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Bottle A4, 25th December 2011

We did not, quite, manage to drink this bottle to Christmas dinner. The potatoes were not browning and the turnip was taking longer than anticipated. Everyone's glasses were empty and Sam had arrived. The only solution, therefore, was to open this bottle.

It is a good wine, but, for the first time since I started this tradition of comparing the old and new Tutti Frutis, the younger wine was better. This batch is drier and had more fizz to it, but it is blander and somehow not as satisfying. It was no hardship, though, to finish the bottle whilst catching up with Sam (who was disappointed I had not brought any elderberry) and trying not to think about being really very hungry indeed.