Rhubarb Wine - Tenth Bottle (A3), 20th June 2015

What a feast we ate on Saturday. Ros, Richard & Linda came over for no reason, other than it was nice to spend an evening with them, and Claire cooked an expanse of Balkan food. We had a savoury yoghurt cake, potato casserole, stuffed carp (actually 'river cobbler'), mushrooms sauteed with onions and vinegar, asparagus, prune balls and Dobos Torte - a many-layered cake topped with brittle caramel. All of it was fabulous and the evening was just a delight. This bottle of rhubarb was the first of three opened and enjoyed by all (except for Linda, who cannot drink alcohol). It is a delicate white with a subtle rhubarb taste.

The yoghurt cake

Dobos Torte - in tact

Dobos Torte - half eaten.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Sixth Bottle (A3), 19th June 2015

At the beginning of this week I had hoped that we would be exchanging contracts on the new house today. It is looking increasingly unlikely that it will happen next week either, and we are meant to be completing on 3rd July. Bloody solicitors! So I drank this bottle in a state of irritation, albeit to a pork in plum sauce stir fry. Both the wine and food helped put things in perspective. This, I think, is the best Xmas Tutti Fruti I have made - it is red wine with a rose petal taste, which is both odd and exotic. I am already collecting roses for this coming December.

Julia's Wines - Cider (Undated), 18th June 2015

I wanted a bottle of something that Julia had made on what would have been her 63rd birthday. What I had not planned to do was kick over the glass holding two thirds of a bottle of cider after only having had one sip. Our carpet now smells of apples. Oh well - this was one of Julia's lesser efforts: thin, dry and vinegary.

Redcurrant Wine - Seventh Bottle (B2), 17th-18th June 2015

This was a typical post-WYSO bottle, put into the fridge on Wednesday after work in the anticipation that it would be ordinary at best. Actually, it was on the good side of ordinary and an absolutely splendid colour. I might make redcurrant wine again one day, depending on finding a source.

WYSO was disappointing for a second week in a row. We don't have enough upper strings and I am starting to feel worried about the concert.

Blackberry Wine - Fourteenth Bottle (A6), 14th June 2015

It being my birthday I chose my favourite flavour of wine and we drank from the precious, delicate glasses that once belonged to my grandfather. For most birthday meals Claire cooks something untried and fancy, and always superb. This year what I desired and got was the Egg & Pepper Thing, and it did not disappoint. There was Virginia Woolf's Dundee Cake made with brandy-soaked cherries to round it all off. What more could a man want for his birthday? (In fact, the wine was less good than I had hoped, but everything else made up for it.)

... and her Dundee Cake

Elderflower Wine - First Bottle (2), 11th-13th June 2015

Elderflower is a reliable white wine with little variance between years. It has a semi-sweet floral taste: distinctive and summery. Mid-June is the perfect season to open a bottle.

I spent most of Thursday evening reading Jaws while drinking this in preparation for the Book Group party. It is old fashioned with pedestrian prose, but good fun all the same. People getting bit in half - what's not to like?

We finished the bottle after returning from the theatre: The Rise and Fall of  Little Voice. This was mostly bleak and gritty with a fabulous musical sequence and some excellent, powerful acting from the three leads.

Little Voice Poster

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

Blackcurrant Wine - First Bottle (A3), 10th June 2015 (sort of)

Jude has designed a postcard to advertise Rydal. It has a retro look to it, and does the job nicely. I had agreed to pay £100 for this, but when it came down to it Jude said that she didn't want the money. I paid her in wine instead. It all very nearly went catastrophically wrong, though. In the car park, before WYSO, Claire pulled the bag on which I had rested the bottle out of the boot, launching this bottle onto tarmac. I watched it fall in slow motion, expecting glass to shatter and an overpowering smell of blackcurrant. That the bottle stayed unbroken I put down to a miracle of St Ithamar, whose feast day it was, and who I have honoured every year since 2010.