Celery Wine - Final Bottle (3), 15th May 2016

We dug a pond today. The 'we' in question were Nick, Mark (another of Claire's colleagues) and me, with Claire being Project Manager. Nick and Mark did rather more work than I , but I was definitely somewhere above "useless". We started at 10:30 and by 1 o'clock, there was an attractively shaped hole in our lawn, ready for sand and a pond-liner. The garden as a whole is looking so much more interesting than when we moved in.

Part of the day's activity was to be a wine tasting. Mark has recently started making wine from kits and has been disappointed with his results (though the chardonnay he brought was absolutely fine). I was to open both a disaster (this bottle) and an achievement. But we didn't have time for the achievement, so Mark only tasted the Celery. Rachel and Duncan had arrived at this point and had a sip too. Mark thought it was okay and pointed out the liquorice aftertaste. It was the aftertaste that made Rachel gag. The initial taste, though too sweet, was innocuous.

I was very happy to hand Nick the half-empty bottle as part payment for his pond digging work.

The diggers

Blackberry Wine - Sixteenth Bottle (D6), 8th June 2014

York Unitarian Chapel

Less popular than Celery Wine. Surely some mistake?

I took this bottle to York on strict instruction from my mother. It was her turn to take a sermon at the Unitarian Chapel and the title was 'Water into Wine'. This bottle was an example of a good wine and was a counterbalance to Celery. Except it all went a bit wrong. People enthused about the Celery and on the whole were silent about this. It was a bit dry and maybe too thin. Best laid plans and all that.

York Unitarian Chapel - Interior

Celery Wine - Fourth Bottle (4), 8th June 2014

It has been an odd weekend, starting on Friday with Julia's funeral; a colourful, emotional affair complete with brightly decoraterd cardboard coffin and Faure's Requiem. Then today I heard my mother give a sermon at York Unitarian Chapel about choice, temperance and creativity. She illustrated this with reading from my book and afterwards there was wine tasting in the vestry (or the Unitarian equivalent). One of my two wines was Celery - it was an example of creativity gone wrong and an opportunity to get rid of a bottle. However, I actually thought this Quite Good and several people said they preferred it to the blackberry, with its sweeter, sharper taste. As I say, it has been an odd weekend.

In the Unitarian Vestry

Celery Wine - Third Bottle (2), 26th October 2013

Well, this wine proved controversial at the Wine Party. Duncan scored it -8 out of 5 and wrote "The consistent awfulness of this concoction never fails to disappoint". Claire scored it "minus all the points that everyone else gives it," and wrote "HORRIBLE YUK" in big letters. I adjusted their scores to zero. Helen, however, thought it was lovely and gave it top marks.

With adjusted scoring, celery wine did not come last. It was ninth with an average score of 2.28 (though if you take Duncan at face value, it was last with 1.39). When I tried it I thought the first taste unpleasant, but in fact it got better them more I drank. Which is often the case.

Celery Wine - Second Bottle (6), 6th-10th May 2013

Celery wine was not popular. I brought it with me on our holiday in a Gloucestershire cottage. In company where bottles of wine have been emptied in seconds, this took five days to drink. Claire declared it the worst wine I have ever made and Duncan pulled remarkable faces. However, it did have its defenders, who described it as only disappointing.

On Friday night, when all other options for alcohol had been drunk, Nick suggested that he and I finish off the Celery, rather than pour it down the sink. It seemed like a sensible suggestion at the time, and in fact age had not withered it. If anything, it was slightly more palatable, and we had a pleasant half hour chatting about prehistoric man.

Gooseberry Wine - Final Bottle (6), 8th May 2013

This final bottle of gooseberry wine came immediately after a local cider tasting session. We are staying for a week in the Forest of Dean and I bought three bottles of Wye Valley cider after a seven mile walk round Tintern Abbey. The first tasted of vinegar and they went downhill from there. It was suggested that I had chosed specially so that the gooseberry wine would be a welcome relief afterwards. In fact the wine was enjoyed by all, with good reason, though there was something a little musty on the nose. Of all the bottles I have brought with me on our holiday this has so far been the best. The celery remains half drunk, and I can safely predict that the remainder will go down the sink.

A view from our walk

Celery Wine - First Bottle (1), 1st February 2013

I decided that February's Book Group would be the right opportunity for my first bottle of Celery Wine. Particularly as Claire was otherwise engaged and had bribed me with ginger shortbread to reduce our stocks in this flavour. I insisted that everyone have a small taste, and the reactions ranged from "I'll not have any more," to "Ooh, I quite like that". Helen even had a second glass, and at the end of the evening I left her with the half-bottle remaining.

It tasted like a spirit - strong, a little herby and with no distinct celery flavour. So, not the comedy nastiness for which I had hoped and feared in equal measure.

The book was A Month in the Country by J L Carr, which was delightful and universally enjoyed.

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If you want to see how I made this wine - click here.  It is currently my sixth most viewed page.

Hawthorn Blossom Wine - Bottle 1, 11th April 2012

Today we celebrate Cornelia Gruntfuttock's birthday. Cornelia is Claire's alter-ego on Facebook, and her chosen birthday is 11th April. This is as good a reason as any to have a whole bottle of wine on a work-night. Actually, Claire has taken this week as holiday, so only I have to trundle into work tomorrow.

We drank most of the bottle enjoying each other's company on a rare night in together, eating aubergines stuffed with bulghar wheat, feta and pistachios, and discussing last night's performance of Love's Labour's Lost at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (which was truly excellent). I then ruined the bonhomie by racking my celery wine and presenting Claire with a first sip. She thinks it my Worst Ever, which makes this Hawthorn - which she described earlier as 'Drinkable cleaning fluid' - stunningly good in comparison.

In fact, the Hawthorn is okay. Floral and herby. But this last bottle will probably be the last ever.

Celery Wine - The Making Of ...

I may live to regret this wine. The phrase 'Celery Wine' does not summon up images of a lip-smacking paradise. However, last summer I was rung by a wine-making enthusiast who assured me that this was a successful flavour. And February is a month to experiment - it is a single batch month where nothing is in season. Perhaps, though, I should have repeated Exotic Tinned Fruit. Time will tell.

Today, 5th February, has been lovely. I did not get dressed until noon, which is always the sign of a good Sunday. Whilst I was lounging around, Claire - suffering from a hearty cough - was outside shovelling snow off our street. But she claims that she enjoyed it.

We spent the afternoon in York, eating Big Breakfast and seeing Bridget, who is spending the weekend in Terrington. Last time we saw her she was eight months pregnant. This time she is again eight months pregnant - but had Gemma in tow. Gemma is at 'delightful toddler' stage and is a mini-Bridget: red hair, blue eyes, mischevious looking.

Anyway, back at home I chopped up four pounds of celery and boiled it for thirty minutes in seven and a half pints of water. This was poured over three pounds of sugar and one tablespoon of citric acid. It is now a pale green liquid smelling of soup.



Four pounds of celery in 7.5 pints of water

I put in the yeast and a teaspoon of nutrient on Monday morning. I have not bothered to put in any pectolase as I do not thing celery is a rich source of pectin.

During the five days it has been in its bucket I have stirred the wine twice a day and each time have been surprised and pleased at the fragrance this produces. I put the wine in its demijohn on Friday night, 10th February, whilst listening to 'Any Questions' on Radio 4. This involved Anne Widdecombe and lots of shouting. It is a noisy, irritating programme. The volume of liquid I used was perfect and though the wine still looks like a nourishing broth, I am rather more hopeful about it than I was originally.

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If you want my first impressions of how it tastes, click here.