Whitecurrant Wine - Fifth Bottle (6), 16th-18th September 2015

Claire and I both had the same experience when drinking this wine. The first taste had distinctly unpleasant overtones, but thereafter they were no longer there. The wine never approached the dizzy heights of 'nice', but it sauntered along the foothills of 'drinkable'. I opened it on Wednesday evening while we watched Bake Off, then finished the last glass on Friday while I was waiting for Claire to finish her gin & tonic so that I could open something better.

Rhubarb & Elderflower Wine - Fifth Bottle (3), 13th September 2015

We wanted something specifically associated with this house to drink in celebration, for today someone has put in an offer to buy it. This means that we no longer have to keep it spotless at all times, make sure the washing up is done and put away, and we can move the cat food back to where it needs to be. So today has been a Good Day. Exhausting too, what with the gardening, wine-making, bread-making and our final tidying session.

The wine was really good, with hints of spice (which is unexplained). We both drank too much, though, because we still had a bottle of rose petal to finish.

Fig Wine 2015 - The Making Of ...

It is a Tuesday evening, 8th September, and I am discombobulated. We put our house on the market yesterday.* Someone has put in an offer today. That wasn't meant to happen. I needed to get used to the idea first. We were meant to be closer to having a house to move into. I'm adept at being disconcerted by what should be good news. At least I have wine-making to distract me.

An aerial view of some figs (and my feet)

The fig wine that I made last year is a surprising 'Hit', so I am trying to repeat that success. Claire and I were in York this weekend where my parents have been collecting and freezing figs from their tree. Mom has built a tool - a long stick with a hook on the end - with which to pick figs. She uses it to grab a branch, pulling it in towards her 5 foot 2 stature, and then plucks the fig from the tree. I wouldn't have had her down as an inventor.

By Sunday I was able to take away 6 lbs or so of figs. Those that were fresh from the tree needed a couple of days to ripen, hence starting the wine tonight. I weighed 5½ lbs of figs and cut these into four pieces per fruit. Those that had been frozen were extremely soft. They went into the bucket and I mashed them into a pulp. I added 3 lbs sugar and 6 pints of boiling water and gave it all a stir. It was a thick, soupy mixture at this stage.

Chopped figs in the bucket

On Wednesday morning I put in the yeast and a teaspoon of everything (nutrient, pectolase, tannin and citric acid). By the evening our buyer had withdrawn, but this turned to be a Good Thing. On Sunday we had another offer. And I thought that our house, with all its stuff and colours, would be a difficult sell.

Figs during fermentation

That evening, 13th September, I transferred the liquid into its demijohn, which I overfilled. The wine made its bid for freedom over night, but I think it is now safely contained. It is a pleasing light purple colour.

*This link will take you to details of our house for sale, until contracts have been exchanged - at which point I imagine the link will no longer work. (Actually, I think it still does.)

If you want to see how this wine turned out, click here

Rose Petal Wine - Fourth Bottle (A4), 12th-13th September 2015

We wanted a bottle with a garden theme, and rose petal wine best fits that criterion. Our afternoon was spent at Laura's, taking a large number of plants from her garden with which to stock our new one. They all had frightening Latin names, but all I can remember is Lungwort and Hellebore.

I opened the rose petal wine after the first Music Club of the season, which was a good evening: not a duff performance, with Dawn as the highlight singing French songs. The wine was lovely; sweet and fragrant; but it was late and we only had two glasses each.

Orange Wine - Sixth Bottle (B1), 11th September 2015

The courgettes have finally started doing their thing. Usually courgette week is the beginning of August. It is only now that we need to keep an eye on them to prevent a marrow invasion. Claire used a couple to make a Thai curry with sticky rice, and it was delicious. Orange wine was the correct bottle to drink. We needed something unsubtle to work with the Thai flavours, and orange has a powerful citrus kick to make its presence known.

The rest of the evening was mostly taken up with wine making and staying on top of the washing up.

Crab Apple Wine - Third Bottle (B3), 9th-10th September 2015

Claire chose crab apple wine because it is made from the apples in our garden. We thought we had sold our house on Wednesday evening and it was fitting to drink our home produce. Today, though, the buyer had second thoughts - the house is too small - so the wine lost its symbolism and reverted to being just another bottle of crab apple wine. Still tasty, though, with its light apple flavour. I'm actually not too disappointed about the lost sale - better that he pulls out immediately than four weeks down the line.

Our crab apple tree (and a photo-bombing teasel)

Blackberry Wine - First Bottle (C1), 6th-7th September 2015

After a day of picking blackberries in the sunshine, getting stung and scratched in the process, and absolutely covered in goose-grass seeds, I deserved a bottle of blackberry wine. This vintage is delightful - stuffed with bramble taste, full and rich. There was still a finger of wine left in the bottle when we went to bed, which is unusual for a Sunday.

I finished it off on Monday after our first Airedale rehearsal of the season. We are playing Elgar's second symphony and the words 'Difficult' and 'Noisy' come to mind.


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