Apple Wine - First Bottle (3), 3rd-5th September 2014

Claire thinks this wine tastes of disinfectant. I think that is unfair. Admittedly, it is not my greatest wine ever, but it doesn't reach into the realms of awful.  This apple wine is dry and without a distinctive apple taste. So its greatest crime is dullness and not disinfectant.

We drank half the bottle after WYSO's first rehearsal of Brahms 4, which is a wonderful symphony and for a first rehearsal was not badly played. I had my last glass on Friday after having spent the day watching England beat India at cricket. This was my first live cricket match and I enjoyed it immensely - as much for the crowd as the game. England supporters dress as traffic cones, the Knights Templar and the entire Star Wars cast. The Indians were just as colourful.

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

Fig Wine - The Making Of ...

My parents' fig tree ...

 Ever since I began making wine I have been watching the fig tree at my parents' house with interest. Every year it has produced a disappointing number of figs. That is until this year, in which we had no winter to speak of and a hot summer. The tree has been abundant with fruit and there was plenty with which to make wine.

My father has been collecting figs since late July and putting them in the freezer. He rang Claire one evening to check if bird-pecked figs would be acceptable. She assured him they would and who am I to argue?

... with abundant fruit

So today, 29th August, I collected 5 lbs 6 oz of figs from York and have brought them back to Leeds to make wine. I do not have a recipe, so have made it up. The number and weight of figs looked plausible, so I have cut them into pieces and put them in my bucket. Despite being mostly green on the outside, figs are surprisingly purple inside and I am reconsidering my choice of yeast accordingly.

Figs: green on the outside ...

I mashed the figs a little, poured over 6 pints of boiling water and added 3 lbs of sugar. On Saturday morning, 30th August, I put in the yeast (a red wine variety) and a teaspoon each of nutrient, pectolase, citric acid and tannin - which is basically every chemical I own.

... but purple inside

I transferred the liquid into its demijohn on Tuesday 2nd September, which is a little earlier than I would normally have done, but this week is proving to be a busy one. Over the last few days I have noticed a thick near-soupy texture to the wine when stirring. Guessing (correctly) that this would make the straining process long and tedious, I began by fishing out the figs with a plastic collander. This saved me some time but the whole sieving experience took longer than I had wanted.

The wine has an unusual colour - dark pink with a hint of brown. It does not have a great taste at the this stage. There is a nutty trace that bodes ill. Still, I can now tick the letter F off my alphabet.

Fig Wine in its demijohn - 4 days after straining. The 'hint of brown' has gone

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

Blackberry Wine - Second Bottle (C2), 30th August 2014

This was a cracking bottle of wine - intense blackberry taste, fizzy and light. It reminds me why, when asked, I describe blackberry as my favourite flavour.

We drank this bottle in York, where I am visiting because it is the bramble picking weekend. I took the opportunity to ask my mother to tip a large pan of cold water over my head. Yes, I have succumbed to the Ice Bucket Challenge in support of Motor Neurone Disease. Nominated by my first cousin once removed, Adam, I ummed and ahhed, but decided that the arguments for outweighed those against, and consequently got cold and wet in classic slapstick manner.

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

Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (2), 29th August 2014

Claire and I drank this bottle on Friday night to a fabulous courgette curry that she invented, served with home-made rhoti. Though I had not chilled the wine it was still extremely good. Crab apple and strawberry is an excellent combination.

The afternoon had been spent in York. I was playing wind quintets outside the Merchant Adventurers' Hall for Simon's wedding. It was a lovely experience: we played well and occasionally the general public (who were mostly waiting for buses) would lean over the wall and applaud. The first piece was Mendelssohn's wedding march. I handed Simon my bassoon and he got to play his own celebratory music. We were both delighted.

Crab Apple Wine - Third Bottle (B2), 25th-26th August 2014

This is a very good batch of crab apple wine. It has proper apple flavours and is deeper than many of my whites. We started the bottle on Bank Holiday Monday after experiencing the Leeds West Indian Carnival for the first time. It was a colourful, happy, noisy event despite the continual drizzle. 'Understated' and 'subtle' are just two inappropriate words to describe the costumes. People wore dragons and vast orange wings - as much puppet as fancy dress. My favourite was the woman wearing large numbers of bats on flexible poles, dancing above her head. She was followed by a small army of young boys, each wearing their own black and shocking-pink bat costumes.

Rose Petal Wine - Third Bottle (A6), 24th August 2014

I chilled this bottle for a day before drinking and conclude that rose petal wine is better as a result. It has a hint of bitter undertones but is floral taste and dry, fizzy nature counteract those. We drank it on a lazy bank holiday Sunday in which we recycled a year's worth of glass and Claire made plum sauce. The day concluded with Peter Capaldi's first Doctor Who, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Doctor is safe in his hands.

Elderberry Wine - Eleventh Bottle (B4), 22nd-23rd August 2014

This was the third bottle opened on Friday night while Ros was here, and that was a poor decision. Not because of its taste, which is full and red, but because of Saturday morning's headache. As hangovers go it was mild, but on the throbbing side of noticeable. Having indulged rather too heartily on Friday, we punished ourselves by only drinking what was left in this bottle on Saturday night. So Saturday - my parents' 50th wedding anniversary - was distinctly sober. It meant a good night's sleep, though, and I woke this Sunday morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.