Ben's Adventures in Wine Making

The Gooseberry has really come to the fore in this flavour for its final bottle. Despite being red in colour, the wine has a crispness ordin...

Sunday is meant to be a day of rest. I spent it washing floors, tidying rooms and digging soil. It is a hard life. The cleaning tasks are in...

The kitchen is now decorated. It has only taken eleven years. Claire has worked tirelessly over the last week, finishing (or at least gettin...

Our house-hunting has started in earnest. We looked at two today: a 1930's semi in Oakwood and a Victorian stone-built former bookshop i...

This bottle was our post-WYSO concert celebratory drink. It wasn't very nice. Too sharp and dry. The fruit is distinctive, though. I may...

Claire writes: I'm slightly disappointed with the wine - can't really taste blackcurrant. As I did nothing of note on the 9th, I wil...

I have found a new source of blackcurrants. Lindsay has a bush in her garden, and her neighbour has what appears to be a blackcurrant planta...

We are in Millbeck in Cumbria, staying in a cottage with Rachel, Duncan, Ann and Nick, and I have brought seven bottles of my wine along, of...

I had the lion's share of this bottle. It was a post-Music Club event, and a Music Club where I played a Beethoven Trio with Pat & P...

This bottle spanned Thanksgiving I and Thanksgiving II. Claire decided that because she only cooks a turkey once every two years, she should...

It is the night before we travel to America and consequently it has been one of packing and checking and generally feeling hassled. A bottle...

Eight days ago I opened my first bottle of blackcurrant and red gooseberry wine. It was really rather lovely - full of sharp, fruity flavou...

Really very tasty indeed. But also fizzy. I opened this bottle for our last night at Rydal, and had to be quick with the pour as I saw bubbl...

We really must buy a larger freezer. I have mentioned this before, though it is usually a problem later in the year when blackberries, elder...