Apple Wine 2018 - Final Bottle (5), 3rd October 2021

I made a pie! A pork & apple pie with cider gravy. It was really rather excellent, and obviously a bottle of apple wine was the natural one to choose. The wine was delicious too - light, fruity with a distinct apple taste and it is probably the best apple wine that I have made.

My day was spent entirely indoors, unless one counts the excursion into the garden to pick sage and two bay leaves, and most of that was spent in the kitchen. As well as the pie, I made ginger biscuits and bread. I learnt that I should bake ginger biscuits for rather less than 15 minutes and that it is unwise to keep pastry in the fridge for three hours.

The result of me sneezing (startling a cat)

Apple Wine 2019 - Fifth Bottle (2), 26th June 2021

I really should write up my wines as soon as I have finished them. It is three days later and I remember little about this bottle. That suggests it was not ghastly. I think it had a heavy, overly floral taste and needed a sugar syrup to make it better, but it was still acceptable. We drank it to homemade pizza, which is always delicious, and a silly superhero film called Ant Man in which the protagonist did not invade picnics or live in a rockery. Otherwise, much as the wine, it was entirely acceptable.

My Apple Wine in the Fridge

Apple Wine 2019 - Fourth Bottle (1), 16th-18th April 2021

Mostly this bottle came after a drink in someone else's garden. The most recent easing of Lockdown allows groups of six people to mix outside and we have taken full advantage. On Friday we were drinking cider in Mark's garden - some of the apples came from our tree and the fizzy stuff was excellent. Then on Saturday we drank top quality champagne with David & Liz to celebrate David's birthday. The apple wine was a bit of a come down after that. Alright and little more.

Pear blossom in our garden on 17th April

Apple Wine 2019 - Third Bottle (4), 25th March 2021

I enjoyed this bottle rather less than Claire. It was the wrong mix of thin and bitter. Claire, though, claimed to like it. I find this surprising, seeing as she is keen that we start drinking real wine more often.

The wine was opened and finished on Thursday - which was one of those Lockdown days which was indistinguishable from many others. Tuesday was different because I made a soufflé but that was possibly the most exciting thing that happened all week. Thursday was reheated leftovers and an episode of Taskmaster. Both excellent in themselves but not in the realms of 'Different'.

Taken on Wednesday on my morning walk.
I have, of course, adjusted the colour.

Apple Wine 2019 - Second Bottle (6), 2nd-3rd December 2020

Definitely a mid-week bottle of wine, this one. There is nothing actively wrong with it, but it is neither interesting nor delicious. 

On Wednesday night Claire poured me a glass of apple wine as medicine. I was feeling entirely overwhelmed and panicky about work. At that point I could not see how I could get everything done - and I got up at 2 a.m. to do ninety minutes work (mostly redone about twelve hours later). By Thursday, though, everything was clearer and Claire said that my moustache was no longer drooping, so we finished the bottle and watched Taskmaster. All was right with the world once more.

The Neighbourhood Advent Window for 3 December

Apple Wine 2018 - Fifth Bottle (4), 4th October 2020

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.

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!

Apple Wine 2018 - Fourth Bottle (3), 5th September 2020

Saturday was one of those days where I could have achieved far more than I actually did. But what I did do was lose spectacularly at Scrabble to my mother (418 to 282) and make a yoghurt & raspberry cake. We have been collecting large pots of plain yoghurt - three at last count - and Something Needed To Be Done.

The cake before it went into the oven.

In the evening we drank cold and delicious Apple Wine to hot and delicious Fish Cakes, and watched The Lost Boys with the Snarkalong Film Club: a ridiculous film with too much going on in terms of genre. Not one that I will bother watching again.

The cake after it came out.

Apple Wine 2018 - Third Bottle (1), 20th August 2020

I thought that apple wine was best drunk young, but this bottle is middle aged and was rather splendid. It helps that we now have a fridge that works, so the wine was nicely chilled. I made a quiche - which was also splendid (and that shall be the word for the day). It turns out that pastry made from 4 oz flour is only just enough for our quiche tin and it required quite a lot of patching.

We are currently binging on Green Wing and on Thursday it reached the episode where Olivia Coleman sticks a banana down Joanna Clore's cleavage. I had to bathe my streaming eyes.

Taken on 20 August - I like the shadows.

Apple Wine 2017 - Final Bottle (6), 19th-20th May 2020

It has been lovely weather for the whole of May (we do need rain quite badly) and this bottle of wine mostly accompanied Claire and me wandering round the garden inspecting things. Our irises are in full bloom and are looking particularly beautiful. 

The apple wine was good - full-bodied yet still refreshing and I think one of my better vintages.

Our irises

Apple Wine 2019 - First Bottle (3), 20th June 2020

I opened this on the day it was bottled because I did not want to sacrifice a third cork to this particular vessel. The first cork got stuck in my corking machine and the string snapped for my second attempt, so I gave it up as a bad job and put this bottle in the fridge.

The wine is too dry - I should have used sugar when racking, but with a dash of sugar syrup it is a pleasant, unremarkable white that tastes vaguely of apples.

Earlier in the day, I was chief witness to two cyclists being knocked off their bikes by a car. The result was plenty of blood and ambulances and one impressive black eye. It could have been much worse.

Actually, not all that much blood

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

Apple Wine 2018 - Second Bottle (2), 27th December 2019

I have said many times before that I love having guests but that it is such a relief when they are gone, so I shall repeat that sentiment. Having the house to ourselves is wonderful - there is a particular quality of stillness. To celebrate, we got smashed on whisky macs and apple wine. This apple wine is a very good vintage: it doesn't taste like wine, but it isn't cider either. There is a rich sweetness to it and it slips down rather too well!

I didn't take any photos on 27 December, but here

is one of the Christmas Day Park Run instead.

Apple Wine 2017 - Fifth Bottle (5), 13th April 2020

I have made the error of not writing up this bottle immediately, and when all days start to merge into one, this is a mistake. It being a Tuesday, I was directed to open something not too nice, but actually this Apple Wine is rather good. Claire is now working, two days on, two days off, in processing Covid 19 samples and Tuesday was the second of two days. I struggled a bit to stay motivated working from home and that is going to be an increasing problem over the next few months.

A photo I took on 13th April

Apple Wine 2016 - Final Bottle (6), 22nd February 2020

Apple wine and roast gammon with mustard - a winning combination. Claire described this wine as akin to apple-y sherry and the further I got down the bottle, the better it became. Saturday began in York - where I won at Scrabble - and ended slumped in front of the stove not really concentrating on a Midsomer Murders.

Nothing to do with the wine, but I took this photo the following day.

Apple Wine - First Bottle (6), 12th-15th October 2019

This apple wine isn't half bad. The apple flavour may not be as pronounced as previous vintages and there is a heavier consistency, but it is definitely drinkable. I would rate it as a 'Mid Week Plus'. I chose Apple on Saturday night, partly to go with the Turkey Meatballs in Plum Sauce (delicious) and partly because I spent Saturday making Apple Wine. By the end of the night there was still nearly a glass each, so we saved it for Tuesday to count as one of our Bake Off treats.

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

Apple and Apple & Strawberry Wine 2019 - The Making Of...

Last year our apple tree was prolific, much to the joy of local blackbirds and squirrels. This year it is far less so and as of mid-October the apples have only just begun to drop. Those that have fallen are mostly half-gnawed - I suspect by the garden rodents - so I can only use those for apple wine with some judicious chopping.

Our crab apple tree has done better than last year - but has still only produced 1 lb 4 oz of apples. Each of these two wines require 4 lbs of apples, so I have had to look beyond the confines of our garden for additional fruit.

Pavement apples

On Saturday 12th October, after accompanying Claire back from a Park Run (I did not participate myself) I spotted windfall apples on the opposite pavement so, much to Claire's embarrassment, I crossed the road and started collecting them. She left me to it. These apples were small and bruised, but still worthy ingredients. I also noticed that a house round the corner had put some apples in a box outside their hedge for people to collect, so I made full use of these too and ended up with 8 lbs of apples (weighed after chopping out the bruises and the rot and the squirrel tooth marks) that I needed.

I made the Apple Wine of Saturday and the Apple & Strawberry Wine on Sunday. For both I washed the apples, cut away all rot, removed any invertebrates that I spotted (only one had a grub but several had woodlice) and sliced them using the food processor.

For the apple wine, I added about 1 lb of sultanas, minced in the food processor, and for the apple & strawberry wine I had already crushed 1 lb of strawberries in my bucket using a potato masher. To each bucket I added 3 lbs of sugar and 7 pints of boiling water (which was about half a pint too much, particularly for the apple & strawberry).

Once each had cooled (Sunday morning for the apple and Sunday night for the other) I added teaspoons of nutrient, pectolase and yeast to both buckets.

By Friday these were ready to put into their demijohns. I had returned home from Drinks with Work so had little inclination but knew this must be done, and so that's what I did to no great disaster. This year there is little colour difference between the two and I suspect substandard strawberries account for the lack of pinkness.

If you want to see how the Apple wine turned out, click here.

If you want to see how the Apple & Strawberry wine turned out, click here.

Apple Wine 2016 - Fifth Bottle (4), 9th May 2019

I had meant to bring a bottle of Apple 2017 with me to Kelso, which is a better vintage than this one. Of the five proper bottles I took, this was (for me) the most disappointing. Wendy, though, preferred it to the strawberry.

The day had been spent in North Berwick,  where I met up with cousin Sarah, Rachel and Claire collected shells on the beach, a café took an inordinate length of time to bring a plate of cheese and olives, and we walked up North Berwick Law in the late afternoon sunlight.

At the top of North Berwick Law

Apple Wine - Fourth Bottle (4), 6th January 2019

I do like this apple wine and it is one of the three reasons why our apple tree is allowed to stay, despite its ridiculous height and unreachable apples.

We drank this bottle on Sunday, which was exactly how a Sunday should be. I spent some of my time collecting horse poo from the local stables and some more of my time digging it into the front garden. Otherwise, I made bread, started my ginger wine and ate many vegetarian curries. How else should a Sunday be spent?

Apple Wine - Third Bottle (3), 8th December 2018

Seeing as my parents could not come to the Wine Party, on account of Pop's slipped disc, I decided to take one of my better bottles to York with me. Guessing correctly that we would be having fish, I chose Apple. Pop, though, was mostly drinking beer and Mom really only drinks gin these days (not in the quantities that suggests). They both tried the apple wine, possibly to humour me, but both said they enjoyed it.

As ever, when staying over with the parents, we had a lovely, relaxed evening, full of conversation.

Apple Wine - Second Bottle (2), 17th November 2018

My Wine Party this year had an alphabetical theme, so of course I opened a bottle of Apple Wine. In total 16 letters were represented and this flavour was a very respectable fourth, with an average of 3.83 out of 5. Jayne thought there were hints of Calvados and it was Claire's favourite of the evening.

A is for Absolutely Acceptable.

The sixteen bottles opened (in alphabetical order)

NB - As I have 16 bottles to blog about I will endeavour to do two a day.

Apple Wine and Apple & Strawberry Wine 2018 - The Making Of...

Our apple tree

Autumn has settled into the year and has yet to give up her seat for Winter. Leaves have mostly fallen to the ground whereas apples mostly remain on the tree. Not entirely, however. I had a free Saturday on 27th October so decided to start both my Apple and my Apple & Strawberry wine that day. For each I needed 4 lbs apples. Finding 8 lbs of usable apples on the lawn was easy, though I rejected those that had been gnawed by squirrels or suggested that they hosted a whole community of invertebrates. In fact, for the pure Apple wine I denuded our crab apple tree of the 12 oz fruit it produced this year, therefore needing only 3 lbs 4 oz of windfall apples.

Out of the cold, I first of all put 1 lb of defrosting strawberries into the bucket for 'Apple and Strawberry' wine and gave this a good mashing. I then cut the apples into pieces, rejecting anything bruised or manky, and whizzed them through the food processor using the 'slice attachment'. Half went into the 'Apple' wine bucket and the other half went into the 'Apple and Strawberry' wine bucket. Next the 'Apple' wine bucket got a pound of minced sultanas (again using the food processor for mincing, but this time on the regular attachment).

Our crab apple tree

I added 3 lbs sugar and 6½ pints of boiling water to each bucket, giving them each a vigorous stir. On Sunday morning I added a teaspoon of yeast, of nutrient and of pectolase to each.

The fruit ingredients, gathered together

I then left the wine (stirring once each day) until Thursday 1st November, when I spend the entire evening doing things with wine (these two, elderberry and damson) whilst listening to old episodes of Desert Island Discs. I put each wine into its demijohn, removing much of the fruit with a colander before using the jug, sieve and funnel method. I had to squeeze the discarded fruit at the end of the process to retrieve enough liquid for the Apple wine.

The sliced apples

The Apple & Strawberry is an attractive dark pink. The Apple is an unattractive slime-brown. Both have a large yeasty foam head which I am hoping will not escape its demijohn.

If you want to see how the Apple Wine turned out, click here.

If you want to see how the Apple & Strawberry Wine turned out, click here.