Elderflower, Mint & Rhubarb Wine 2019 - Fifth Bottle (3), 4th August 2021

Despite Covid 19, we made it to Rydal this year, and I cannot express what a joyous week it has been. Playing again in an orchestra that I love and with my favourite group of people has just been wonderful. 

This wine was the first of three opened during the Rydal week, after a day of walking in brilliant sunshine with Claire and Judith - so there was an element of it feeling earned. Nick claimed he was allergic to mint so didn't have any, and Kirsty pulled a face, but otherwise this bottle was enjoyed.

Claire and Judith on a long, hot walk.

Ginger Wine - Second Bottle (3), 24th March 2019

I had expected to drink vast quantities of this bottle as an anaesthetic after Music Club Orchestra on Saturday night. However, my need for numbness was rather less than expected and it was late, so I went to bed instead. Ginger wine was therefore the flavour of choice at a fabulous meal round at Richard and Linda's. Only Richard and I were drink and I had more than was seemly (or so my head told me on Monday morning). It is a good wine, though. The lemon is a hint of a flavour, tempering the ginger.

Richard was chief cook and we had all sorts of delicious things: sardine and mushroom pate, cheesy risotto, Mary Berry's coleslaw (generally I can take or leave coleslaw, but this was great) and apple tart.

Rose Petal Wine - First Bottle (B6), 23rd-24th July 2018

I am pleased with this vintage of rose petal wine. It is lacking the bitter hint of 2016's batch and is light, refreshing and distinctive. A beautiful pale orangey-pink too. It being the summer with no regular orchestras, I opened it on a Monday evening and we finished it tonight. The summer is not without its music, however. On Sunday night we were playing a concert of Beethoven 3 (his best symphony) on remarkably little rehearsal. Josh, the conductor, got a nose bleed at the beginning of the second movement, which was more than a little distracting.

NB - I'm away now on my holidays, so there won't be a post for at least a week. Have a good one.

Apple Wine - First Bottle (1), 11th-12th July 2018

On bottling my apple wine, two annoying things occurred. Most spectacularly, I knocked an empty bottle from the counter onto the floor. Green glass everywhere and a terrified cat. Then on my last bottle, I snapped the string as I pulled it from the cork. Generally when I do this, I take the cork out, use a new one and try again. This time I thought "bugger it", put the wine in the fridge and opened it two days later. Apple wine is best drunk young anyway.

This is a rather fabulous bottle of wine: crisp and sweet and apple-y. There is a youth and freshness to it, which was appropriate to my circumstances on Thursday. I had just returned from playing with North Yorkshire Schools' Symphony Orchestra - and orchestra in which I played 31 years ago when I was still a flute. The drive back from Giggleswick had happy memories of two glorious weeks in 1987 - possible the best two weeks of my adolescent years.

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

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Fifth Bottle (A2), 27th-28th June 2018

Having had a weekend of concerts, I am now in that summer period where there are no orchestras to dash to on weekday evenings. This meant a leisurely Wednesday night, where our meal was lamb chops and three sorts of salad, plus most a bottle of Christmas Tutti Fruti, which I think is improving with age. Lots of fruit flavours and a strong hint of rose. We watched an old episode of Doctor Who on the sofa - Donna Noble's first appearance in The Runaway Bride - entertaining fluff. On Thursday Claire was out playing string quartets so I took it upon myself to finish the bottle.

Dandelion Wine - Third Bottle (6), 25th-27th August 2012

Dandelion wine has an odd taste - one that I fluctuate between enjoying and not. It is herby, and if it was a tea I expect it would be drunk by middle-aged women wearing long purple skirts and lots of beads. An acquired taste, I think - and not one I drink frequently enough to acquire.

I now can't remember why we did not finish this on Saturday night, but Saturday was an unremarkable day where I read the Guardian and did little else. We eschewed a glass on Monday, after travelling to Skipton to hear Schubert's String Quintet played in a church crypt, in favour of a kir assembled from Cassis and cooking wine. Instead, we had our final glass early on Tuesday evening in a successful attempt to prevent me from going to Rubbish Summer Orchestra.

Elderflower Wine - Third Bottle (B5), 1st August 2012

Wednesdays at Rydal are our free days, where there is no morning rehearsal. If the weather is good it is an opportunity to go on a long walk in the hills. Our walk today was on the shorter side of ideal. It was still worth doing though; up the Lion and Lamb from Grasmere. Then in the evening we played  Saint-Saëns' cello concerto with a hugely talented 15 year old - Eliza - as the soloist. She played with enviable skill and grace and I think is destined for great things.

As it had been a Good Day I opened this bottle of elderflower to share round the orchestra, though I drank about half. The vicar was particularly impressed, commenting on its green, open flavour. Which sounds good, even if I don't know what it means.

Crab Apple - Bottle A2, 11th September 2011

What an exhausting, yet fabulous day it has been. Today was the Tannhauser 'Open Rehearsal' - the end event of the Northern Wagner Orchestra weekend. So we had a huge orchestra, a full choir, a raft of professional soloists and, best of all, a set of off-stage horns. I want a set of off-stage horns as a permanent attachment: every time I did something or had a good idea, they could play a suitable fanfare in an adjoining room. It would be fabulous.

We drank this bottle shorlty after coming home and to a meal of salmon steaks, parsley sauce and large numbers of vegetables from the garden. It was followed by possibly the best Doctor Who of Matt Smith's reign that I have seen: 'The Girl Who Waited'. Imaginative, simple on the surface, but with complex issues and plenty of emotion. Excellent.

Gooseberry - Bottle A6, 3rd-4th July 2011

We came back from a wonderful weekend in York spent celebrating my parents' 70th birthdays to find this bottle open and half a glass missing. Either there had been a careful and abstemious thief or the warm weather had caused another explosion. I suspect the former. I put another cork in the neck and into the fridge it went.

The half bottle of Christmas Tutti Fruti proved Not Enough on Sunday night, so we drank (rather more than) half of this too. Our meal was a spinach and tomato quiche, potato salad made with mustard seeds, lemon juice and olive oil, and a salad from the garden incorporating nasturtium flowers - colourful and tasty. The gooseberry wine was fizzy (obviously) and both sharp and sweet, making it an excellent accompaniment.

Our meal

Claire finished the bottle on Moday with a little help from me after I returned from my Orchestra barbeque.

Orange - Bottle A5, 8th-10th June 2011

Yet again, Orange serves its duty as a decent mid-week bottle of wine. Wednesday and Thursday were 'nightcap' glasses after (respectively) West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and Madeleine's quintet. The former was frustrating: Beethoven's 7th is a long, high blow and my lip hardly survives the first movement. The latter was more satisfying than our first meeting. We worked on Ibert's 'Little White Donkey' (as well as 'Teddy Bear's Picnic') and blended better as a group.

Tonight I came home from yet more quintets - this time in Harrogate - to find the bottle empty. Claire felt she needed two glasses to toast the Feast of St Ithamar. And quite right too.

Crab Apple - Bottle B1, 17th-19th May 2011

Claire is drinking the last glass from this bottle and eating her own version of Scooby Snacks (which is actually addictive Bombay Mix) as I write. And now the cats are having a tussle on the bed. Oh, the excitement of a Thursday night in suburban Leeds.

This Crab Apple has been particularly tasty - sharp, fresh, and just a little bit zingy. We have drunk a glass each after various orchestra rehearsals. Tuesday's Sibelius was sounding ropy, and the concert is on Sunday. Yikes. Wednesday was my first day back at Brooke North, and it is a different firm to the one I left: smaller and tighter. Orchestra that night was a new piece - 'Alice on the Beach' by Philip Henderson - and very promising it was too.

Claire has now finished her Scooby Snacks, and I must sleep.

Hawthorn Blossom - Bottle 6, 26th - 28th April 2011

There is a vague taste of banana to this wine. Which is odd, as no bananas were injured during its making. If one concentrates, lemon is also detectable, and that is more understandable. The wine is by no means unpleasant, but is unlikely to set the world alight. Definitely a mid-week bottle, akin to an uninteresting shop-bought white.

I opened it on Tuesday - a day which even this close fades into anonymity. I think I spent some of it reading 'The Lacuna' by Barbara Kingsolver, which took a little getting into, but is beautifully written. We each had a glass after orchestra last night (more Beethoven 7) and I am now finishing it, after a day which has seen me interviewed for a job in Wakefield. The drive over saw a stack of hawthorn blossom in the hedgerows - already, and it is still April. It is likely I shall start work as a locum property lawyer there (Wakefield, rather than the hedgerows specifically) in a fortnight.