Cherry Wine 2018 - Fifth Bottle (1), 19th July 2021

As Sunday was an entirely sober evening, we were justified in opening and finishing a bottle on Monday. Also, it was Pop's 80th birthday so that was cause for celebration. We had spent the weekend in York, which was more convenient than being there on the Big Day itself.

The cherry wine was far better than I had expected. Claire used 'medicinal' to describe it, but not in a bad way. There was something rich and deep about its taste and maybe Cherry is one that matures well.

Pop, and the cake that I made him.

Cherry Wine - Fourth Bottle (6), 31st March - 1st April 2020

Claire described this Cherry Wine as thin and underwhelming. I suspect that is an improvement on previous bottles. But a Tuesday night bottle is never meant to be one of the good ones. Also, I think that Claire was a little unfair.

There really isn't much to report about either Tuesday or Wednesday. Days are becoming rather samey, to the extent that I have to think carefully about which day it is. Wake at 6, rise fifteen minutes later, cup of tea, long walk, breakfast, work, wash up, open bottle, eat, watch something mindless, go to bed, repeat.

Upper Lake at Roundhay Park - taken on 31 March

Cherry Wine - Third Bottle (4), 21st December 2019

I took this bottle to York with me as something a little bit different to foist onto my parents. They claimed to like it, but I think it has a vaguely poisonous aftertaste and Claire refuses to drink it. I hope Mom and Pop don't think that I am trying to speed up the inheritance! We didn't quite finish the bottle and there is still a glass or so lurking in my parents' fridge.

It was a lovely evening in which Mom served duck in rice and I recorded Pop telling the familiar tale of how he and Mom met on a train to San Francisco. This included the events immediately before that, which I had not known - how he travelled to America by boat and where he changed trains.

At a Chamber Music Party, the day after I drank this bottle

Cherry Wine - Second Bottle (5), 9th November 2019

I thought that this bottle was rather better than our last bottle of Cherry Wine. I did not notice the bitterness, and this was only one of two bottles finished at the Wine Party (the other being the winner: Damson). It was only just in the top half, though, coming sixth out of 12, with an average score of 3.25. Nick noticed a slight chemical tang but admitted that it was drinkable. Janet and Mark were in complete disagreement about the bouquet, with Mark writing 'Not such a good nose' and Janet writing 'Good cherry nose'. Mark and Janet are married to each other.

Cherry Wine - First Bottle (1), 6th-7th July 2019.

Well, this is a strange bottle of wine. There is both a lovely, fruity taste and vaguely poisonous flavour fighting for dominance. The fruity taste wins out - and that is an excellent one, and distinctly cherry. Next time I should make the effort to remove the stones.

I opened the bottle after Claire had returned from a choral concert in Bradford. The piece was new and confusing for all concerned. I made the last 10 minutes of it at the point everything was collapsing. The conductor knocked his music to the floor and Claire wondered if this was on purpose to allow a regroup.

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

Cherry Wine 2018 - The Making Of...

On Saturday 7th July, back in the days when the country was still excited about the World Cup, Claire and I did our weekly shopping in Chapel Allerton. They have the world's smallest and busiest greengrocers there, where you have to fight your way through the crowds to select onions and then have a fifteen minute queue stretching out the door to pay. It was whilst waiting in this line that I noticed there were several 2kg boxes of cherries being sold for £3.50 each. I couldn't resist. I have only made cherry wine once before and that was five years ago. It was one of the best wines that I have ever made, so even though buying wine ingredients from a shop in July feels like cheating, I took a box of cherries with me.

A 2kg box of cherries

The same afternoon, I removed stalks from the cherries, weighed the fruit in Imperial measurements (4 lbs 7 oz - this is a pound and a half less than I used when making cherry wine before, so I suspect this one won't be as good) and washed them. As with last time, I did not de-stone the cherries. Instead I put them in my bucket and gave them a good mash, which was difficult to begin with but got easier. I poured in 3 lbs of sugar and covered this with 6 pints of boiling water, giving it all a stir. The bucket was then left for two days.

Cherries after mashing, before water and sugar is added

On Monday night, I took the cherry pulp out of the liquid (using a colander first and then a jug and sieve), straining the liquid into my biggest pan. I boiled this up - creating a scum on top - and then poured it all back into the bucket, scum and all.

On Tuesday morning, 10th July (England was still excited about football) I put in the yeast and a teaspoon each of citric acid, pectolase and nutrient. I also had a sip of the liquid, which was insipid rather than bursting with cherry flavour. Hmmm.

This morning, Saturday 14th July (where England's World Cup hopes are but a distant memory) I have put the wine into its demijohn. I poured this through a sieve, removing some scum. There looks to be a large sediment, but the wine is a lovely cherry-red colour.

Cherry Wine - Final Bottle (3), 18th July 2015

My parents came over to inspect the new house and eat a fish curry, so I thought it would be a suitable time to crack open the last bottle of Cherry wine. This was not entirely selfless: I am hoping that they will report back to Susan Craig and I will get more cherries. Mom thought this one of the best wines I have made. It is delicious - stuffed with cherry flavour.

We drank the bottle before eating, mostly talking about death. Pop's prostate cancer has been confirmed and he now has to make some difficult choices about treatment. It isn't yet aggressive, but left untreated it will kill him. He and Mom are sanguine about it, though Mom was briefly teary as she contemplated life without her soulmate. But both have lived a charmed life so far, and want another ten years or so. At 74, that isn't greedy, is it?

Cherry Wine - Third Bottle (2), 31st December 2014

This was a splendid bottle of wine - one of the best I have made. I can't understand why it was different to the other two described elsewhere on this blog. There was more depth, a clearer cherry flavour and it was a whole, rounded taste. It was one of our New Year's Eve bottles and we spent this in Cambridge at Duncan's. The evening was lovely: full of food, laughter and alcohol. Between the five of us we got through four bottles plus an initial cocktail. It was certainly enough to stun me. Claire went to bed first, but she had the excuse of suffering from the initial stages of a cold (presumably donated by me). I followed soon after. Neither of us made the midnight chimes.

Cherry Wine - Second Bottle (1), 15th November 2014

Of the wines I made and presented at the Wine Party, this came top with an average of 3.63 out of 5. It was third overall, though; not that I am bitter. Catherine thought it was let down by its aroma but Katie said its smell was reminiscent of buttercup syrup (which I have never heard of). Lindsay, Anthony and Matthew all noted its medicinal qualities. Two people hated it: Alex wrote "You have poisoned my girlfriend" and someone (I suspect Vicky - said girlfriend) commented "brought on wrinkles". I can't please everyone.

Cherry Wine - First Bottle (6), 15th August 2014

The appearance of this cherry wine is beautiful. It is entirely clear and a dark bright red without the thickness of a real red wine. The taste is good too, though perhaps not the absolute classic that I had hoped. My first impressions were that it was on the bland side, but three seconds in, the cherry taste hit. Claire described it as being on the right side of a 'cherry lips' flavour.

I drank most of the wine while rewatching the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who in anticipation of its return next week with Peter Capaldi in the title role. It was just as good and the plot made more sense second time round. I eagerly await next week.

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

Orange Wine - Second Bottle (A3), 16th-17th April 2014

My tongue is on fire and my teeth are coated with caramalised chillies. It is an excellent feeling. Orange wine can only help (although I appear to have finished it). It is Maundy Thursday - which means a very long weekend which we will spend in Newcastle. Too many whiches in that sentence.

I have bottled two flavours while drinking this wine - strawberry yesterday and cherry this evening. Both are good, and they have helped bulk out our alcohol ration. Claire is currently distracting me by rubbing her new gloves against my stubble and declaring "percussion".

Cherry Wine - The Making Of ...

Cherry Wine was never on my list of 'To Dos'. I could not imagine getting enough cherries. Anyone I know with a cherry tree complains that when the fruit is ripe a whirlwind of feathers descend and the birds steal every cherry. However, the summer of 2013 will be spoken of with reverence for years to come as the period of bountiful soft fruit.

Mom rang on Saturday to say that Susan Craig had picked twenty pounds of cherries from her tree and did not want to see them go to waste. I checked my recipe books and found three cherry wine recipes. Two of these required the cherries to be stoned, but one did not and therefore the choice was made. It requires six pounds of fruit, and stoning this amount would have been tedious in the extreme. Removing the stalks was bad enough.

Only some of the cherries Susan brought round

The cherries that Susan brought round were ripe and on the verge of going over. I weighed out six pounds, leaving the remainder (two-and-a-half pounds) for cherry brandy and jam. These were washed and I crushed them with a potato masher in the bucket. I had not expected as much juice as they produced and in retrospect I think I have added too much water. C J J Berry's  recipe called for eight pints, but I boiled six and a half instead and poured this over the mashed cherries. This was all done on Sunday, 4th August.

Cherries in my bucket

On Tuesday evening, 6th August, I strained the liquid into my biggest pan, throwing out the cherry flesh, skin and stones, and brought this to the boil with the lid off. When it reached violent bubbles I poured the liquid over three pounds of sugar - which is a pound less than dictated by C J J Berry. Four pounds of sugar would be ridiculous. I put in the sachet of yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient, citric acid and pectolase the following morning.

Having added the yeast on Wednesday morning

 In my preparations for putting this into its demijohn on Sunday, 11th August, I broke a brown glass demijohn, which caused much cursing. After sterilising it, I added boiling water and heard an unmistakable crack. This is irritating. I am running out of demijohns - they are all full - and only have one unbroken brown one left, currently housing rhubarb wine. Anyway, as suspected, I could have done with at least a pint and a half less water for this flavour, but the colour is a wonderful cherry red.

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