Claire and I disagree on Ginger Wine's prominent flavour. Quite reasonably, Claire argues that it is ginger. In this, she is entirely wrong. The dominant flavour is, in fact, lemon. Whichever (and it is lemon), this is a thoroughly decent wine.
We drank it on a quiet Saturday where the highlight was watching The Princess Bride; a lovely film, full of wit and charm.
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| Saturday's breakfast |
There was a prominent apple taste to this wine. Unsurprising, because it is effectively alcoholic apple juice. I chose apple wine to go with a massive slab of roast pork. Claire cooked it slowly, with its skin smothered in chili paste and paprika, producing the best crackling that I have ever had. The wine choice was perfect.
After feasting on this, we watched the final episode of Line of Duty Series 3, which was as tense second time round as the first. Really excellent television.
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| Crab Apples in our garden, taken on 4 October |
This post is dedicated to my reader (identity unknown) now in London. It was a post on Apple Wine that got me into all that bother about a year ago, and which taught me a valuable lesson not to steal people's photos. I just have concerns that the reader who searches for 'apple' every day is the same person who taught me that lesson. If so, he can rest assured that I will not put his photo up again, and all photos used now are mine. If not, drop me a line!
I think that this elderberry wine is now ready to drink. It will continue to benefit from aging, but it has lost that 'Too Young' feel to it. We drank it over the last two nights before our October holiday (which will be another one spent at home) and though I worked later than I would have on a normal working day both nights, it was not by much. There is a satisfaction in shutting down the computer, knowing that your in-box only has 5 ancient emails to deal with. It will be somewhat different on my return, but that is a problem for later.
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| Taken on 7th October |
Claire and I have known each other 25 years. A quarter of a century ago I met her on the way to Newcastle Concert Band. I can barely remember a time before Claire. To celebrate, I bought a vacuum cleaner, which Claire is using as I write. Our previous one broke in March and we have been living in a fog of cat hair ever since. I also opened a bottle of blackberry wine and cooked Toad in the Hole. Both were exactly what was needed on a dark October day.
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| Self portrait in blue - taken on 3rd October |
Prune & Parsnip is the 'Go To' wine when you don't fancy a red but nothing has been chilled. One does not drink cold gasses of sherry, after all.
This time last year we were in Croatia and two years ago it was Denver. In a week's time my holiday will be spent walking in Yorkshire. Again. Ho hum.
Both Wednesday and Thursday were pleasant, unremarkable days.
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| These arrived in the post on Thursday |
2020, despite its myriad flaws, has been splendid for hard fruit. Our crab apple, pear and apple trees are laden. More unusually, so are all three flowering quinces. In past years they have put out two or three knobbly yellow fruits each. If used at all, these have been turned into jelly but mostly have been ignored. This year, though, each plant has tens of quinces, and that has made my wine-making thumbs twitch. I am not absolutely certain that Japonica Quince wine will work. After all, these are not the edible quinces. Neither, though, are they poisonous and there is only one way to discover whether they are suitable for wine.
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| Japonica Quinces on their bush |
On 27th September I picked 4 lbs 8 oz of quinces, which is probably less than half our potential harvest. This was the bloodiest foraging that I have done: flowering quinces have fierce spikes and my left hand looks like it has done several rounds with an angry cat.
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| Minor flesh wounds |
Back inside, after bathing my wounds, I checked recipes. The one requiring 20 proper quinces was out, leaving the one requiring 3 lemons and the other calling for 1 lb sultanas. I chose the latter on the basis that my previous quince wine was too dry and sultanas should help. Also, this is how I make apple wine.
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| My haul of quinces |
I sliced all the quinces (after washing them) using the food processor and put them in my pan with 7 pints of water. I brought this to the boil and simmered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile I minced 12 oz sultanas (reducing the amount the recipe said, so as to preserve the delicate quince taste) and put these in my bucket with 3 lbs sugar. Once the 15 minutes was up, I poured the water and quinces (and thousands of seeds) into the bucket and stirred until the sugar was dissolved.
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| The quinces, once sliced |
The next morning, Monday, I added a teaspoon each of nutrient, pectolase, citric acid and yeast. On Friday 2nd October I put the wine into its demijohn, which was a lengthy and tedious task. Japonica Quince wine appears to have 'sludge' as its main characteristic, and it was slow to drain through its sieve. Its colour is an attractive peach but there is much foam at the top and I fear it will make an attempt to escape the confines of its glass prison.
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| Taken the following morning, when the sediment had sunk. |
If you want to see how this wine turned out, click here.
Saturday had the feel of 'Every Saturday' about it: rising later than a weekday, morning trip to the post office to send out the week's documents, afternoon shop followed by Scrabble with Mom. Nice meal in the evening, and then the Snarkalong Film Club: Heathers this week, which I did not much enjoy. Making the day slightly different was installing our new garden bench and christening it with coffee and cake. Also, drinking this bottle of wine (one of my rarer flavours), which I think is splendid but which Claire thinks has a touch of mouthwash.
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| Christening the bench with coffee and cake |
