Crab Apple - Bottle B6, 29th December 2011

I brought this bottle with me to Heworth Green. Though we were here on Christmas Eve, I was both ill and driving, so had no alcohol whatsoever. I more than made up for that last night! To the extent that it now (around noon on the 30th) is a bit of a blur.

Whilst Pop enjoyed the crab apple he has just commented that there was a bitter aftertaste. Crab apple is definitely best drunk young, and this is showing its age.

We were fed royally by Mom, with a maple parsnip soup and slices of beef rolled with sausage meat. I think a few weeks of eating plain food is in order

Blackberry - Bottle C3, 23rd-27th December 2011

This bottle spanned Christmas. Our reason was not one of abstemiousness but one of absence. It was opened on a Friday, a night about which I now remember very little. I think a jigsaw puzzle may have been involved. Then on Christmas Eve we were in York seeing my parents, Chris and Rachael - which was a marvelous evening hampered only by feeling washed out with a heavy cold. We spent Christmas in Newcastle and left this bottle back in Leeds, waiting for our return. The bottle was finished as we waited for the Doctor Who Christmas Special to load onto the computer, but Claire pleaded exhaustion and went to bed. So, not a memorable bottle of wine, despite blackberry being my favourite.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Bottle A1, 25th December 2011

This bottle was served with the full turkey works round a festive table decorated with candles and crackers. My critical facilities had diminished over the course of the evening, so I cannot remember the subtleties of this wine. I was more interested in the food, and this was fabulous. Everything that should be on a Christmas table was, and more besides. Turkey, chestnut stuffing, cranberry sauce, forced meat balls, roast spuds, turnip mash, mushy peas, small sausages - some of which being wrapped up in bacon, red cabbage and sprouts (which were as bitter and unpleasant as tradition dictates). Then, just in case we had not eaten enough, Judith brought out the steamed Christmas pudding with brandy sauce.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Bottle A4, 25th December 2011

We did not, quite, manage to drink this bottle to Christmas dinner. The potatoes were not browning and the turnip was taking longer than anticipated. Everyone's glasses were empty and Sam had arrived. The only solution, therefore, was to open this bottle.

It is a good wine, but, for the first time since I started this tradition of comparing the old and new Tutti Frutis, the younger wine was better. This batch is drier and had more fizz to it, but it is blander and somehow not as satisfying. It was no hardship, though, to finish the bottle whilst catching up with Sam (who was disappointed I had not brought any elderberry) and trying not to think about being really very hungry indeed.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Bottle B6, 25th December 2011

With the presents having been opened and two glasses of sherry consumed, Claire wondered whether it was time to open a bottle. It being a respectable time in that boundary between late afternoon and early evening, I sought out the first bottle of 2010's vintage.

We are spending Christmas at 3, The Alders and I poured a glass first for the kitchen crew, Judith and Andrew, who were busy struggling with root vegetables. The rest of the bottle was shared around those of us lounging around reading our Christmas books.

This Tutti Fruit is marvelous - possibly the best that I have ever made. It is light and fruity with more blackcurrant taste than it is due, considering only one ounce of blackcurrants were used in its making. Everyone eagerly anticipated the second bottle and it will be an effort to space the bottles out so that we drink the last one on Christmas Day 2012.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - The Making Of ...

As last year, we are away at Christmas, so I started this wine on 18th December. In place of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, Claire stuck on a CD of Christmas Carols from around the world. Unsurprisingly, the majority were European.

As is tradition, I cleared the freezer of its fruit, leaving 8 oz sloes for gin next year and handful of blackberries for crumble. We may now be able to have the luxury of icecubes.

This year there is a greater variety of fruit than previous years, though - alas - no elderberries. I have 1 lb 13½ oz blackberries, 1 lb 10½ oz sloes, 1 lb 2 oz green gooseberries, 12 oz rhubarb, 10 oz grapes from my mother's garden, 9¾ oz blackcurrants, 9¼ oz strawberries, 8 oz red gooseberries, 2 oz cranberries, 1½ oz crab apples and one satsuma. To my calculations, that equals 7 lbs 14½ oz fruit plus one satsuma, which is about right for a double batch. It is currently sitting in its bucket defrosting and I shall mash it all up and add the sugar and water tomorrow.

The fruit before mashing

It is now 'tomorrow', Monday, and the day has not gone as planned. In the night a minor sore throat deteriorated into fever and shivering, and I have spent much of the day in bed. At least today was not a working day. As Brooke North closes at the end of this week I cannot afford to be ill. There is too much to do before our computers get taken on Thursday. What I have managed to do today, though, has been to mash the fruit (making my Christmas wish whilst doing so), add 6 lbs of sugar and pour over 12 pints of boiling water. When the first six pints went in there was a wonderful smell of summer and autumn fruits.

The yeast and one teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase went in on Tuesday morning. I then waited until Saturday, Christmas Eve, before putting the wine into its demijohns. I timed this so it coincided with the Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College Cambridge. This has not succeeded in putting me into good Christmas cheer. I am too snotty for that, and I spent most the time feeling desperately hungry - which was remedied afterwards by a cheese sandwich. I could have done with a pint more water in the recipe, as this would have allowed me to discared rather more sludge than I have done.

Two (underexposed) demijohns of Tutti Fruti

Raspberry Wine - Bottle 6, 22nd-23rd December 2011

Finishing work for the Christmas holidays is always a happy occasion, no matter how good the job. This year, though, there is a sadness and emptiness attached. Brooke North has now closed. A firm whose origins go back to 1833, and which I joined 164 years later, is no more. Even though I step into a new, exciting job in January, I wish this had not happened.

We opened the raspberry wine in fondness for things past and raised our glasses to Brooke North. And then we ate bean burgers with salted lemon cous-cous and a tomato sauce flavoured with cumin and garlic.

I finished the last glass shockingly early today (about 4 p.m.) whilst starting the Christmas jigsaw.