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.

Magnolia Petal Wine - The Making Of...

On Friday evening, 29th March, I posted a photo on Instagram of a magnolia tree in Horsforth Hall Park. [If you want to follow me on Instagram - my 'name' is @benswinemaking.] At this time of year (and I think particularly this year) magnolias are stunning. They are an attractively shaped tree anyway, with sparse branches at angles designed by architects, and their flowers are individual vases in delicate pink and cream. After posting my photo I received a comment from Lucy [@lajmmm] "Flowers are edible!". This, of course, made me wonder about turning them into wine.

I did a Google search, just to make sure that Lucy was not trying to poison me - she wasn't - and e-mailed Angie and Phil, who have a splendid magnolia tree in their front garden, to ask if I could collect their fallen petals.

Magnolia Petals on Angie and Phil's lawn

On Saturday morning I collected my first small bag of petals after biting into one - it had an odd but not unpleasant taste - took them home, put most of them into the freezer and made magnolia tea out of a couple. The tea had a subtle flavour, but again was not unpleasant. Therefore, I returned on Saturday afternoon, caught up with Angie and Phil's news and collected a larger bag - concentrating on the freshest, most recently dropped petals.

Back at home I followed my dandelion wine recipe entirely. I measured six pints of petals (those in the freezer turned brown on defrosting) and put them in our large pan with the thinly peeled peel of two lemons and an orange. I put in 2 lbs 12 oz of sugar and 7 pints or water, brought this to the boil (a long process) and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Meantime, I squeezed the lemons and orange and put the juice into my bucket with half a kilo of minced sultanas.

Me, looking pleased with my creation

When the magnolia mix had finished its 20 minutes simmer I poured all of it into the bucket. At this stage all the petals had gone brown and the wine looked unappetising (for which, read 'like vile dishwater'). I'm not certain about the smell either (though as the week has gone on, this became more floral with an element of spice, which makes me hopeful about the end result).

Vile dishwater, or something rather exotic?

I added a teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient, pectolase and tannin on Sunday morning, 31st March. On Thursday evening I put the liquid into its demijohn, sieving out all the solids. One might expect Magnolia Petal Wine to be white with a hint of pink. I can report that it is a rather nasty brown. This, however, will be a temporary state of affairs and it will (honestly) clear to a golden yellow.

This will clear to a golden yellow

If you want to see how this wine turned out (and if I was lying about it clearing to a golden yellow), click here.

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Third Bottle (B6), 21st-23rd March 2019

This is the best Xmas Tutti Fruti that I have made for several years. It is without the insipidness this flavour sometimes has and there are complex elements to its taste.

I drank half the bottle on Thursday night whilst Claire was out playing Dvorak piano quartets. This coincided with me failing to get flights to Dublin over Easter. I had left it too late and it was all now too expensive. Instead, Sooz will visit us, but I was cross with myself and drinking half a bottle of wine helped.

Claire had the rest of the wine over Friday and Saturday when I was out playing wind octets and in the Leeds Music Club Less-Dreadful-than-Expected Orchestra respectively.

Dublin Airport - which I will not be visiting

Orange Wine - First Bottle (B1), 12th-13th March 2019

We have cut our holiday short. I had expected to be in north-west Scotland on at least one of these nights. Thanks, though, to Storm Gareth for bringing us home early. Had we not caught the ferry from Coll on Monday morning, we would still be on the island.

I opened this orange wine in compensation for Not Being On Holiday and drank it over two nights. Claire barely had any - she is ill in bed (another reason for coming home early). The wine is a good vintage: light, beautifully clear, with a subtle taste of orange.

Some pictures of Coll before Storm Gareth

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

Orange Wine 2019 - The Making Of...

Now that I have had a month to think about it, I have decided that Claire is right. Claire would argue that a month to consider whether she is correct is ridiculous and exactly a month too long. But she is right - I have been making too much wine and I should scale back production this year. So for the first time in probably fifteen years, I am making a single batch of orange wine. It will become apparent in 2021 whether this is a good idea.

I started the wine on Saturday 2nd March. Recently I have installed a step-counter app on my phone and because this is new and shiny I am walking everywhere. I walked to Chapel Allerton to buy the week's groceries and saw that the Fruit Stall was selling oranges at three for a pound. This is far more expensive than I have bought oranges in the past and I did have an internal debate about whether I should drive to Sainsbury's where they would be five for a pound. But then I reasoned that I was not poverty stricken and could probably afford the extra £1.80 for the ingredients. The oranges added significantly to the weight I carried home, and I had to stop and rest three times on the journey.

Back at home I thinly peeled six of the 12 oranges, getting less successful at avoiding the pith as I went on. I put the peel in a bowl, poured a pint of boiling water over it and covered that with clingfilm.

Half of the oranges thinly peeled

Next I squeezed all oranges and measured the juice - two and a half pints. These oranges are far larger and juicier than last year's, where I made a double batch with only slightly more juice. It will be interesting to see what this does to the flavour.

I poured the juice into my bucket and made up the liquid to 6½ pints by putting in 4 pints of cold water. Next I added 2 lbs 12 oz sugar, stirred it all to dissolve this and put in a teaspoon of yeast, nutrient and pectolase. Next day I added the water that had been covering the peel and put the peel itself into our compost bucket.

I transferred the liquid into its demijohn on Wednesday evening, 6th March. It was a quick process as there was little to sieve out. I could have used maybe a quarter pint more liquid. The wine is a vibrant orange colour and I look forward to its taste.

If you want to see how this tasted, click here.

Blackberry Wine - Seventh Bottle (B1), 7th March 2019

A fabulous bottle of wine. This is smooth and fruity with an excellent blackberry taste. I chose it because we are now on holiday (a 300 mile drive north tomorrow - eek) and this deserves a celebration.

As always before going on holiday, it was a difficult and long day at work as I tried to get everything done. So what better way to mark the occasion than a take-out pizza, an episode of Celebrity Bake Off and a more than decent bottle of home made wine? Now I need to give some serious consideration to packing.

Part of our journey north on holiday

Blackcurrant Wine 2015 - Twenty-third bottle (A1), 1st March 2019

Claire and I disagree about what age has done to this wine. I think it has been smoothed out, creating something better, less one-note. Claire thinks that the effect is to make it taste less like alcoholic Ribena, which is a Bad Thing. That didn't stop us sharing the bottle equally, however.

It was an ordinary Friday night in which we ate quiche made from the Sick and the Weak and watched Mad Men on DVD. In the words of Albert and the Lion, Nothing to laugh at, at all.