Damson Wine 2020 - Fourth Bottle (3), 23rd September 2021

We have an infestation of Taylors. Bob, Judith and Susanna are staying for several days - and that is a thoroughly good thing. I was dashing out playing trios with Pat & Peter so really only had time to open this bottle, have a small glass and leave the Taylors to it. Reports of the wine were positive, and it was the first of two drunk on a Thursday evening. I am so pleased that our house is open to guests again.

Taken on 20 September - the view from my office

Damson Wine 2020 - Third Bottle (5), 27th-28th August 2021

Claire fancied a red on Friday night and neither of us felt the inclination to cook, so a bottle of Damson wine and a take-out curry it was. The wine was not as good as I had remembered: too dry and slightly thin, but certainly drinkable. Claire enjoyed it, saying that it had hints of real wine.

The curry was blisteringly hot and we made inroads into our yoghurt mountain in an attempt to cool it down.

There was half a bottle left for Saturday night, which we drank to the Snarkalong Film choice: 9 to 5. Whilst the film is unsubtle, it had aged remarkably well and is a pure joy.

Taken on 27 August - our damson tree

Damson Wine 2020 - Second Bottle (4), 19th-20th May 2021

Well, this is rather splendid. There is a distinct damson taste, it has a fizz to it, the colour is glorious and it achieves a lightness that makes this wine an entirely pleasant drink. Now that I have a source of damsons I will make this one of my regulars. There was little of note to happen on Wednesday when we opened the wine. On Thursday I went for more blood tests to see if there is anything sinister causing my weight loss (Spoiler - there isn't). And it tipped it down both days. Oh for some sun!

A cactus is flowering.

Damson Wine 2020 - First Bottle (2), 7th March 2021

Ordinarily I would wait another five months before opening this bottle. However, I snapped the string when corking it, so we drank it as a young wine. It isn't bad at all - whilst not reaching the heady heights of Damson 2018, it was a light and fruity red that was pleasant drinking. Now that I know where there is a damson source, this could become a regular.

Sunday mostly involved making cake and wine. The cake was a date, apple & walnut Tea Loaf, and was superb. Cake making is pleasingly easy. The wine was orange, and you will be able to read about that elsewhere on this blog. I also finished Grownups by Marian Keyes - a book that I was prepared to sniff at, but which was compulsive and I was sad to have finished.

The Tea Loaf

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

Damson Wine 2020 - The Making Of

Since Lockdown started, I have been working from home. Whilst I thought that I would hate this, it is something that has definite advantages. I miss the camaraderie of office life, but there is a certain freedom in being alone at home with the cats and my own kitchen. To stay fit, I have taken a long walk every morning before work, and on Thursday morning, 20th August, this took me along Broomhill Drive.

Our damson tree - not enough damsons

I noticed several damsons on the pavement and grass verge of this particular street. Many were looking unblemished, so not having a bag with me, I filled my pockets. It is unfortunate that both pockets have holes, so I had to walk the remaining kilometre holding onto my trousers, occasionally feeling a damson roll down my leg. When I regaled Claire with this story that evening, she mentioned that there was a damson tree in Potternewton Park. Friday morning's walk was decided upon.

My disappointing first view of the damson tree

My first sight of the damson tree was disappointing: the fruit was impossibly out-of-reach. But then I looked at the ground: surrounding me were damsons with their blue-purple dusty covering, looking like eggs from an exotic, flightless bird. This time I had a bag and picked up the fruit that was still intact.

Like eggs on the ground

At home I weighed my haul - with those from Broomhill Drive, I had 5 lbs 9 oz, and I only needed 4 lbs of these for a batch of wine. I put the damsons in a bowl, freezing what was surplus, and covered them in water for 10 hours.

Damsons in my bucket

In the evening I mashed the damsons - they are surprisingly yellow inside - covered them in 2 lbs 12 oz sugar and poured over 6½ pints of water. (It turns out that 6 pints would have done.)

Surprisingly yellow

On Saturday morning I added a teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient and pectolase and, in the evening when I read about what I had done in 2018, I added a teaspoon of citric acid. Over the next few days I gave my bucket of liquid a stir, and then put the wine into its demijohn on Wednesday night, 26th August, sieving out the solids. This process (including the sterilising time) took not quite the whole of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, which was playing on Radio 3 whilst I did this.

Fermenting in my bucket

The wine is lighter than I remember from two years ago, but still a splendid red.

A splendid colour

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

Damson Wine - Final Bottle (6), 14th June 2020

This was the bottle that I chose for my 50th birthday. It is such a good wine - rich plum tastes combined with a vanilla smoothness. We drank it to steak in a blue cheese sauce, and then a second birthday cake for pudding.

One of my two birthday cakes

The day was perfect and I should have a significant birthday more often. In the morning Claire and I went for an 8 mile walk, centering on Lead Church. Then we went to York for a socially distant birthday lunch with Mom and Pop in the garden. Back home for a snooze and we finished by Zooming with Chris & Kate, Mom & Pop, and Todd & Anne.

My Birthday Lunch

Lead Church

On the Walk

 

On the Walk

Damson Wine - Fourth Bottle (1), 16th February 2020

Sunday nights usually require a bottle of decent red, and this is about as decent as they come. It was a fairly lazy day - mostly enforced upon us by inclement weather (Storm Dennis, apparently). But in between the rain and the hail, we managed to plant three new trees: a greengage, a medlar and a quince. Claire is going to try to train the quince tree so it is a fan against our back fence.

In the evening I made involtini and we watched half a Morse before collapsing into sleep. These lazy days can be so exhausting.

The Quince Tree on planting

Damson Wine - Third Bottle (5), 2nd January 2020

Rachel requested a bottle of damson wine specifically for New Year, and who am I to refuse? It is excellent and has vanilla overtones. We drank it after a day spent in Cambridge where we went to a zoological museum full of bones and animals preserved in jars, followed by dim sum at a Chinese restaurant which possibly got some of their ingredients from this museum.

We finished the damson wine before sitting down to eat salmon, where Richard & Wendy joined us. The May holiday has been organised - we are off to Shropshire this year, though it is possible that Richard & Wendy won't be able to make it. Richard is off to Alaska to climb USA's highest peak.*

My 2nd January photos have disappeared from

my phone - here is a 1st January one instead

* Oh, if only we had known. Obviously the holidays didn't happen.

Damson Wine - Second Bottle (2), 28th November 2019

Damson wine is not going to get the chance to mature to a ripe old age. This is the second bottle drunk in the space of three weeks. I chose it as a Thanksgiving bottle because it is one of my best, and I wanted to treat our guests. As well as Richard & Linda, we had Andrew, Sooz and Cindy over to share the Thanksgiving meal. And what a meal it was - everything that is traditional about Thanksgiving plus a tricolor nut loaf and sprouts pan-fried with garlic and parmesan. The wine was, rightly, enjoyed by all. There is a deep plumminess to it that certainly was not present in the years that I made plum wine. Definitely a wine to make again.

NB - There is no photo that I have not already put up for the days around Thanksgiving. Sorry.

Damson Wine - First Bottle (4), 9th November 2019

This was the clear winner of 2019's wine party. It was a fruity red with a distinct damson taste and enjoyed by nearly everyone, getting on average a score of 4.125 out of 5. Pleasingly this was Claire's favourite of the night, which means that I may get a claim to some damsons from our (relatively new) damson tree next year.

Janet detected a citrus aftertaste and Mary thought it would go well with a white chocolate cheesecake (but, frankly, what wouldn't?).

I didn't score the wine this year but if I had I think this would have been my personal winner as well. I am now regretting having given a bottle away to Emma!

Damson Wine - The Making Of...

Two years ago, Claire and I planted a damson tree sapling in the front garden. Where Claire had images of damson jam and damson gin, my thoughts were of wine. We both looked forward to branches weighed down by their fruit. So far it has produced not a single damson. Therefore, when Emma mentioned at work that her mother had been storing damsons in her freezer and I was welcome to have a bag, I indicated that I would be a glad recipient.

Our damson tree

On Thursday 1st November, Emma brought the damsons in and it was important that I turn them into wine that evening - defrosting fruit never lasts beyond a day. I was busy with wine-making duties anyway - racking my elderberry and putting apple wine into its demijohns.

3 lbs 2 oz damsons

On consulting four recipe books only one told me to de-stone the fruit, so I ignored that one. One told me to put chalk into the wine, another advised wheat or barley and a third talked about sultanas. This is my first time of making damson wine and advice is there to be ignored. So I went for the simplest option - using only damsons, sugar, water and yeast.

The recipe books I ignored

There were 3 lbs 2 oz damsons, which is a little under the 4 lbs advised by recipe books (to which I was paying no attention anyway) so I declared this sufficient and put them into my bucket. They mashed easily. I put in 1 lb of sugar and then found I had no more sugar in the house. (A further 1 lb 12 oz went in on Saturday morning.) This was covered by six and a half pints of boiling water, stirred and left over night to cool. I then put in 1 teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient, pectolase and citric acid.

The wine with the yeast having been sprinkled in

The wine went into its demijohn on Tuesday 6th November, even though I was out all evening playing quintets in Ilkley. This meant that I had to be organised, so I got everything ready to sterilise before I left for work that morning. On my return I took time only to feed the cats before setting to and covering all equipment with a sodium metabisulphite solution. Putting the wine into its demijohn took about half an hour and I now have my first ever batch of Damson Wine bubbling away.

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

Cath Wadsworth's Damson Wine - 8th August 2018

How irritating! Cath Wadsworth's damson wine was delicious on first taste and rather better than most the wine I make. It was rounded and fruity, clear and attractive in colour. I have been given the recipe - 3 lbs damsons and 3 lbs sugar for a single batch. Once our damson tree produces enough fruit for both jam and wine (so far we haven't had a single damson, but it is only two years old) I will give this flavour a go. I'll cut down on the sugar, though. This wine fell very much into the dessert-wine category, and so a bottle between two would be a bit much. Emma (the wine-maker's daughter) has now earned her spot as "Best Colleague Ever" and can secure this place by bringing me more of her mother's wine.