Elderberry Wine - 17th Bottle (A1), 10th November 2012

We are in York to celebrate Rachael's 40th. My little sister. She can't possibly be forty already? Doesn't she wear her hair in bunches and go to ballet lessons?

I hadn't seen her since February so haven't really had a chance to talk properly about her pregnancy. She is taking a refreshingly down-to-earth attitude. Pleased - yes (she thinks) but also very practical. I also met Paul, who I really like. He copes well with the amassed Hardys - and I suspect when gathered we can be quite intimidating.

I brought elderberry wine with me as it seemed right for the occasion: a solid, dependable and sweet red. Rachael had a sip to check and then decided that a glass could be her week's unit. I am honoured.

Ginger Wine - The Making Of ...

It has been a long time since I made ginger wine - at least eight years. On that occasion a large solid lump formed in the liquid, looking like a diseased organ stored in formaldehyde. I hope I shall have more success this time.

The raw ingredients

Last time I remember bananas being in the recipe, but I could not find this in any of my books. Those books all require such a pathetically small amount of ginger - 1 oz in the case of C J J Berry, and a quarter of this from Brian Leverett - that I ignored these recipes entirely. Instead I found instructions on the Guardian website, which was bold in the amount of ginger - five inches worth. In fact, I have shied away from that much and probably used three inches instead. Skinned, this weighs 2½ ounces. I am also concerned about the number of lemons. Four strikes me as too many, but that is what I have used.

So, on Sunday 4th November I skinned the ginger and sliced it as finely as I could. I grated the zest off the lemons and minced one pound of sultanas. The Guardian recipe asks for raisins, but I didn't have any of those in the cupboard. All of this went into my bucket and I have covered it with 3½ pints of boiling water. Again I am going to deviate from the given instructions. I am meant to leave this for 24 hours before doing anything else, but I need to put it into its demijohn on Friday night, and leaving this till Monday will be too late. I have boiled another 3½ pints of water and added the juice from all four lemons and 3 lbs sugar into the pan in which I have boiled the water. This will stand around and cool until I return from Julia's tonight, at which point I shall pour that into the bucket and add the yeast and a teaspoon of nutrient.

The processed ingredients

I put the liquid into its demijohn on Friday night, 9th November, and this was rapid work. Which was lucky, as I did my wine making tasks (including bottling the Rhubarb) before eating, and by the time I had finished I was ready for my steamed trout, plum sauce and noodles.

The wine has been smelling fabulous every day I have stirred it, and the small taste I got at this stage was promising.

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If you want to read how the first bottle turned out (and it was good!) click here

Crab Apple - Twelfth Bottle (C2), 6th-8th November 2012

This has been a classic mid-week bottle of wine: started on a Tuesday, finished on a Thursday, with Wednesday in between. Claire has spent her time playing the viola; I have wasted mine doodling on the computer. Wednesday evening was good, though. At WYSO we played through the first movement of Beethoven's violin concerto. This is the best of all violin concertos, despite some stiff competition, and has a fantastic bassoon part.

We are back rehearsing in Wakefield as the West Park Centre has been condemned for its dodgy electrics. WYSO appears cursed to wander the streets of West Yorkshire - we are a homeless orchestra who keeps on getting evicted from wherever we settle. Maybe its the noise we make. The answer does not appear to be at the bottom of a glass of crab apple wine, however tasty that might be.

Tea Wine - Fifth Bottle (4), 31st October - 6th November 2012

Tea wine seems to be one of those bottles that is not finished with any haste. This took a week to drink. That suggests some reluctance on the part of the drinkers. It was an eventful bottle, however. On its first night I went to play wind quintets in a house where the resident 16 year old was having a Halloween party. All I can say is that there was some competition for noisiest grouping, and having a trainee paramedic playing French Horn proved to be a Good Thing.

The next night's glass was drunk after a long drive, before which we had been celebrating Ellis's second birthday. He is a charming toddler and never walks but runs, in the way two year olds do.

The rest of the bottle was unexceptional.

Gooseberry Wine - Fourth Bottle (1), 3rd November 2012

I shall not sleep well tonight, despite the bottle of gooseberry wine. Outside is a cacophony of whistles and explosions as fireworks detonate two days early. Based on previous years, this is likely to continue until past midnight. I am a miserable old bugger.

Today has mostly been good, though, with much of it taken up in Bingley collecting my bassoon from its annual service. The evening meal was fabulous, and called for the sharp, crisp flavours of gooseberry wine. Claire cooked a fish pie that was so hot it caused me to spit my first two mouthfuls onto the plate - the second time with gagging sound effects. It took me some time to convince her that I actually was enjoying her food.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Tenth Bottle (B5), 28th October 2012

Our Sunday roast was courtesy of me, for the second time this month - and the third time since Claire and I met. This time I branched away from chicken and did a roast gammon. The pleasing aspect, other than the taste of course, was that I managed the whole meal - timings and everything - without transforming into a pillar of stress and grumpiness. Three cheers for me. Christmas Tutti Fruti is a bottle for celebration and special occasions, and this (just) qualifies.

The day as a whole has been a good one, if unexciting. I have written an article for January's Home Farmer, picked sloes for the 2012 version of this wine, arsed about on the computer and generally treated the day as a Sunday. I am now sleepy, however, and I still have tomorrow's sandwiches to make.

Elderflower Wine - Fifth Bottle (A1), 27th October 2012

Hurrah! Our old fridge-freezer has been taken away. We can walk from one end of the kitchen to the other again. We can even open all our cupboards and drawers. A bottle of something chilled was in order, and elderflower wine is a quality white.

It may have been the pre-prandial gin, of course, but by the end of the bottle I was more befuddled than usual. I could barely keep my eyes open for the Midsomer Murders  episode we were watching (insert punchline here).

Re-reading this, I can see I have the very opposite of a rock and roll lifestyle. On a Saturday night, my life is dominated by kitchen appliances and cosy middle class murder dramas. If the cap fits ...