Rose Petal Wine - Seventh Bottle (B1), 21st January 2018

Drinking three bottles on a Sunday night between four is excessive. I felt croaky the following day, blaming a nascent cold, but knowing that alcohol had its part to play. However, we had just come back from an Airedale Concert, where Brahms' 2nd Symphony went particularly well, and we were entertaining Rachel, Duncan and Ruth. So, I have my excuses.

The Rose Petal followed a bottle of Prosecco, and was a good wine. It is Rachel's favourite of mine and I think this vintage is as interesting and tasty as any I have made. Still, I should really have stopped there.

Blackcurrant Wine - Fifth Bottle (B4), 10th December 2016

This bottle was our reward for a concert well-played. WYSO performed Temper by Diana Burrell, Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto and Brahms' Third Symphony. It all went extremely well - I think I only hit one wrong note in the first half (though plenty in the second) and I have not been as thrilled by a performance for an age. I am still on a high the morning after.

We got through the blackcurrant wine with undue haste, given only the merest of help by my mother. It was a wonderful evening.

Blackcurrant Wine - Third Bottle (C5?), 2nd October 2016

I was the chef on Sunday. My toad-in-the-hole is a thing of beauty. Okay, I exaggerate a little, but it was good and I think my onion gravy was the best I have done. Topping it all off with blackcurrant wine was almost an excess of delights.

The day was a pleasant, unmemorable Sunday. Most excitingly we bought a new garden rake. Otherwise, we explored south and east of our neighbourhood, I got some documents certified and I put myself in a bad mood by practising the first movement of Brahms' Third Symphony. So, literally, a thrill a minute.

Ya Ya Pear Wine - The Making Of ...

Claire, if you asked her, would say that she is Long Suffering. She has to put up with wine bottles in every room, fruit in the freezer and demijohns in the bath. All because one year she bought me a wine-making kit for Christmas. On Saturday, 19th March, Claire proved that, despite all this, she does actually love me. She asked whether I had yet ticked 'Y' off my wine alphabet (I haven't) and told me that she had seen something called 'Ya Ya Pears' for sale at Noshis. Now, I have made pear wine before, and that was disgusting, but I was really struggling for the letter Y. Apparently there is an edible plant called Yarrow, but I don't know where to find that, and Yam Wine sounds fraught with peril. So Ya-Ya Pears fit the bill nicely (though when I have looked them up on Wikipedia it calls them 'Ya Pears').

I hot-footed it to Noshis and found the pears selling at five for a pound. Fifteen came to about 5 lbs in weight, so that is what I bought. They are pale - a yellowy-greeny-white skin that is speckled with faded brown dots, and rounder than European pears.

On Sunday morning I cut each pear into small pieces and put these in the bucket. I tried a piece and the overall taste was bland with a hint of pear, so I don't hold out too much hope for the resulting wine. I added 2 lbs 12 oz sugar and seven pints of boiling water.

The afternoon and evening were spent in Ilkley practising and then performing Brahms' Tragic Overture, Elgar's Cello Concerto and Dvorak's Seventh Symphony. On my return the liquid had cooled sufficiently to add the yeast and a teaspoon each of pectolase and nutrient.

I left this until Friday evening, 25th March, though stirred it once or twice a day. Putting the liquid into its demijohn was a quick job, and mostly done during a traumatic episode of The Archers, where the domestic abuse storyline with Helen and Rob must surely be coming to a denoument. The wine has an undead look to it, as if made by ghosts.

I racked this on 4 June, which is a bit later than I would ordinarily rack it, and I tried to video myself doing this, to show how the racking works. Unfortunately, for some unfathomable reason, the video decided to stop after a minute and sixteen seconds. I have no idea why, and it remains a tale half told. Anyway, here is the video.

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

Elderflower Wine - Fifth Bottle (A1), 20th-21st February 2015

This bottle did for both Friday and Saturday, which suggests temperance. An argument might be made in that direction for Saturday, but on Friday night I also had two pints at Derek's leaving do, a glass of crab apple and I finished my birthday whisky (which was the wee-est of drams). Therefore, sticking to the elderflower after Music Club on Saturday (where a mezzo singing Brahms was the highlight) was sensible.

Earlier in the day we went to look at a house: a large bungalow north of Street Lane. It was fine, but not "us". Interesting to see other houses, though, and we are early in the search.

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Second Bottle (5), 13th December 2014

This bottle was our post-WYSO concert celebratory drink. It wasn't very nice. Too sharp and dry. The fruit is distinctive, though. I may add sugar to the next bottle. Anne was here and claimed she enjoyed her glass, but I suspect politeness.

The concert went well - Amy's bassoon concerto was splendid, but I split my G# in the big bassoon moment in the Brahms. Curses.

The evening almost started very badly indeed. Nick, the conductor, got lost when walking from our house to the venue. I went looking for him in a panic, couldn't find him, returned to the church and discovered that he had found his way after all. Phew.

Our conductor is missing ...

Rhubarb Wine 2012 - Final Bottle (A1), 12th-13th November 2014

I put this bottle in the fridge shortly before Claire told me that we needed something nice to drink. She is not a huge fan of rhubarb and I offered to swap it, but she was in such a bad mood that she told me it was "fine" and I daredn't argue. The bureaucrats at Claire's work are insisting that she moves from an office that she likes, and no-one else much wants (for reasons of its thinness and pentagonal shape) into one that has very little light, not enough sockets, no shelving and a 1970s carpet full of oranges and browns. Claire has no say in this and feels like she is being treated as a piece of furniture.

I think two glasses of rhubarb wine helped - it was fizzy and cold and sweet, and we drank it to an episode of QI after a Brahms rehearsal.

Crab Apple Wine - Fifth Bottle (C3), 4th October 2014

I gave this bottle away, which is a rare event. However, the recipient had bought my book, has taken up wine making and had cooked us a fabulous chicken casserole so it would have been rude not to. The occasion was the break between rehearsal and concert of Brahms 4, and Amanda - who lives close to Ackworth - took us back to hers to meet her husband, Charles. He has several demijohns of elderberry dotted around and is almost as enthusiastic about the process as I am. I hope he enjoys this bottle.

(The concert went well, and as I left I gave the contra-player an acid little remark of "See, I can play the bassoon". This did not make me feel any better.)

Blackberry Wine - Twentieth Bottle (A1), 28th September 2014

Brahms 4 is such a lovely symphony. I spent this morning playing it in Ackworth with a superb scratch orchestra. There is little better than sitting in the midst of an orchestra playing music you love and playing it well. I look forward to next week's concert.

We drank this bottle mostly before eating. Claire made steak & kidney pasties as a follow up to last week's pudding and we ate them with mushy peas and gravy. The remainder of the wine went well, though was not as full-bodied as the elderberry the week before.

Figs in honey and custard was not a successful dessert, and that was unexpected.

Ackworth School - where Brahms 4 will be performed

Orange Wine - Seventh Bottle (B4), 27th September 2014

I have spent much of today in a bad mood. This is because I have learnt that the bassoonist against whom I hold a grudge the size of South Dakota is playing contra in Brahms 4 next weekend. It is a whole week away and already I am tense. I wish I were a better, less highly strung person. Never mind. Otherwise the day has been extremely quiet. I finished a rubbish book (What Men Say by Joan Smith) and eaten many mussels. The orange wine went well with the latter, and they were followed by a Thai curry with sticky rice, courgettes from the garden and eddoes. Eddoes are a strange, slimy vegetable, but one I quite like. And the wine has been effective. Hic.

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Sixth Bottle (B2), 10th-11th September 2014

Prune & Parsnip is a good bottle anyway, but I think it is at its best when cold. The chill counterbalances its heavy sherry taste.

I stuck this bottle in the fridge on Wednesday evening before a Brahms rehearsal at WYSO and we opened it to watch The Great British Bake Off  on our return. This meant a late night, and late nights are beginning to catch up with me. This is the second week in a row when I have been out every week-day night; mostly playing the bassoon. Checking my diary I see that I am out every night next week as well. At least three of those are with Claire - otherwise she might forget what I look like.

Anyway, we didn't finish the bottle on Wednesday, but I drank enough to give me a thumping headache for much of Thursday. The last couple of glasses were drunk on Thursday after I came back from Pat & Peter's and the final rehearsal before a Music Club performance on Saturday.

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