Rhubarb Wine - Fourth Bottle (C1), 12th August 2018

I think this must qualify as the laziest Sunday ever. I did not set foot outdoors. Mostly I lay on the chaise-longue reading Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs Oliphant - a mid-nineteenth century comedy of manners. I cannot decide whether I find the book charming or massively irritating. Certainly the main character deserves a good slapping. It is not clear whether the author thinks so too. I only chose the book because I enjoyed the entirely unrelated Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine so much.

After such an exhausting day I opened this bottle to drink with the baked hake. It came as a relief to have a chance to rest my weary body whilst drinking rhubarb wine.

Fig Wine - Fifth Bottle (6), 11th August 2018

A meal of Lebanese food require a bottle of fig wine. There is something about fig that suggests the Middle East - in look, in colour, in taste. Despite its colour, this is not a red wine: fig does not have the depth for that, but this is not a criticism.

I spent some of the bottle listening to the Proms performance of West Side Story on Radio 3. This is such a good piece of music - I first encountered it in Miss Chancellor's music lessons in 1982 and I still know most the words. I think it is up there with Rite of Spring and Rock Around the Clock as the most important music of the twentieth century. (Discuss.)

The Jets (or maybe The Sharks)

Orange Wine - Fourth Bottle (B5), 8th-9th August 2018

This bottle had all the appearances of one about to explode. Its cork was protruding from the neck and I thought it wise to remove this under controlled conditions. In fact, the wine was flat with no danger of firing its contents out. But drinking a bottle of orange wine is no sacrifice. Claire and I are both working hard and a couple of glasses of Orange on Wednesday night were most welcome. Neither of us had the energy to cook so we took full advantage of the take-out pizza place round the corner. Our lentil moussaka was saved, instead, for tonight and it was fabulous. A red wine would have gone better but the orange was fine.

Cath Wadsworth's Damson Wine - 8th August 2018

How irritating! Cath Wadsworth's damson wine was delicious on first taste and rather better than most the wine I make. It was rounded and fruity, clear and attractive in colour. I have been given the recipe - 3 lbs damsons and 3 lbs sugar for a single batch. Once our damson tree produces enough fruit for both jam and wine (so far we haven't had a single damson, but it is only two years old) I will give this flavour a go. I'll cut down on the sugar, though. This wine fell very much into the dessert-wine category, and so a bottle between two would be a bit much. Emma (the wine-maker's daughter) has now earned her spot as "Best Colleague Ever" and can secure this place by bringing me more of her mother's wine.

Nectarine Wine - First Bottle (6), 5th August 2018

From my previous experiences of Peach, I had expected Nectarine wine to be average at best and disgusting at worst. This bottle exceeded my expectations, and in a good way. There is a taste of nectarine, certainly, but it is subtle. It hangs there from the first sip, but the overall taste is a medium-dry white wine. In years when nectarines are plentiful and I have not already made too much wine, it is worth repeating this one.

We drank the bottle on the Sunday after Rydal, which is always a little melancholy - with a heavenly week having just gone and the expectation of work to come.

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

Apple & Strawberry Wine - Third Bottle (3), 27th July - 4th August 2018

Two Fridays ago I had just started a week's holiday and opened a bottle of Apple & Strawberry wine to celebrate. It was a delicate, fragrant wine but two glasses in Becky shouted over the garden fence inviting us to come look at her new kitchen. It was certainly impressive and one new feature appeared to be the 'Never Ending Glass of Wine'. Whenever I looked down, there it was - full again. Consequently I woke the next morning feeling rather more (less?) than fragile and there was still half a bottle of Apple & Strawberry. I stoppered it and left it in the fridge whilst we were at Rydal having a marvellous (if wet) time. On our return the wine was still drinkable, so we polished it off, despite not planning to drink that Saturday.

Blackcurrant Wine 2018 - The Making Of...

Blackcurrants seem to enjoy this long, hot, dry summer that we are having. Our bushes are laden with plump, ripe fruit and I will struggle to pick half of it. Despite having several blackcurrant bushes in our garden, I sent a Facebook message to Lindsay in early July asking how hers were getting on. An invitation to come over and pick fruit came back immediately. Lindsay says we are doing her a service, and she gets a bottle of wine out of it, so everyone's a winner.

Claire and I went over on 8th July, were joined by Lindsay and Anthony and we picked blackcurrants in the sunshine for less than an hour. Over the course of the next fortnight I selected the ripest fruit from our bushes (which are later than Lindsay's to ripen), freezing them as I went. By Thursday 19th July there was virtually no room left in our freezer and Something Had To Be Done. I removed the blackcurrants and measured out 6 lbs for a double batch, allowing them to defrost overnight. On Friday night I put these in the bucket and gave them a good mashing. This involved more effort than I had anticipated and the result was a sludge rather than lots of liquid.

I boiled 5½ lbs of sugar in 12 pints of water - and it turns out that an extra half pint of water would have been useful. Once this was boiling I poured it over the blackcurrants and left it all overnight to cool down. I put in a teaspoon each of yeast, pectolase and nutrient on Saturday morning - I have bought a tub of yeast rather than using individual sachets on the basis that this is far cheaper and I suspect the yeast variety makes little difference to the end result.

I left the wine until Tuesday evening, 24th July, stirring at least once a day, and then put it into my demijohns. There proved to be not quite enough water, but not by a huge margin. The wine is now bubbling away noisily and looks entirely happy.

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