Mixed Flower & Nettle Wine - Second Bottle (1), 5th August 2021

This wine was unexpectedly popular at Rydal, and of the three that I took, this was the one most enjoyed. Francesca said that it was the best wine of mine that she has tried - though I think her experience is limited. Someone compared it to a Chardonnay, and I am suspicious of their palate.

Thursdays at Rydal tend to be the day that "Too much fun" catches up with you - and so it proved for me. I didn't do any walking (mind you, the weather had broken), but there was still plenty of music, including Dvorak's 8th Symphony, a Beethoven overture and March to the Scaffold

Too Much Fun at Rydal

Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

Sunday 25th October was a day of industry. Our evening was to be spent having a virtual dinner-party via Zoom with Mary. When dining with Mary there is always a theme: we have had foods that rhyme, foods of a particular colour and food that starts with a letter in Dvorak's name. On Sunday Claire chose the theme and that theme was 'Tapas: Pride & Prejudice style'. Therefore much of my day was spent making Spanish dishes and trying to shoe-horn a way of fitting it into Pride & Prejudice. Pickled peppers stuffed with goats cheese and sprinkled with dill represented Lydia for being both cheap and easy. Patatas Bravas represented the early fiery nature of Lizzie and Darcy's relationship.

Lydia & Whickham - Tapas Style

When not making tapas, I was making Crab Apple & Strawberry wine. The 1 lb of strawberries was fished out from our freezer a couple of hours before I started in earnest. I needed 4 lbs of apples, but our crab apple tree only had 3 lbs left on it, so I bulked it out with 1 lb of apples from the tree in our back garden - thus robbing the blackbirds and squirrels of their full ration.

Apples on our tree

I mashed the strawberries, which had yet to defrost fully, in the bucket and whizzed the apples through the food processor, putting these in as well. As 6¾ pints of water boiled, I put 3 lbs sugar into the bucket and gave everything a good stir. Once the water was boiling I poured this into the mix and stirred again. Next morning I added a teaspoon each of yeast, pectolase and nutrient.

The ingredients before processing

On Wednesday evening we drank some of last year's Apple & Strawberry Wine, which was thin and boring. Therefore, I added a teaspoon of citric acid to my bucket as an experiment to avoid that fate - though I don't actually know what effect citric acid has!

The ingredients, after processing

On Saturday morning I sieved out the fruit and put the liquid into its demijohn - this time leaving a gap to avoid any overflow, and storing some wine in a separate bottle for topping up purposes. I could have reduced the water by about half a pint in the above recipe, but now I have a lovely red coloured wine bubbling away in the demijohn.

The End Result

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

Rhubarb Wine - Second Bottle (B5), 1st June 2019

I took this bottle of rhubarb wine along to the Bridgewaters' Chamber Music Party. Claire was playing in three pieces - Brandenburg 6, the Dissonance and a Dvorak piano quartet. I was the designated drinker.

It was a lovely evening and I spent much of it in David and Francesca's fantastic garden learning about different types of bumble bee (there are more than you might imagine). I took my duties as designated drinker seriously and for a while worried that I might be the only one to drink my rhubarb wine. However, I know at least three other people had a go and on the whole their experience was positive.

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Third Bottle (B6), 21st-23rd March 2019

This is the best Xmas Tutti Fruti that I have made for several years. It is without the insipidness this flavour sometimes has and there are complex elements to its taste.

I drank half the bottle on Thursday night whilst Claire was out playing Dvorak piano quartets. This coincided with me failing to get flights to Dublin over Easter. I had left it too late and it was all now too expensive. Instead, Sooz will visit us, but I was cross with myself and drinking half a bottle of wine helped.

Claire had the rest of the wine over Friday and Saturday when I was out playing wind octets and in the Leeds Music Club Less-Dreadful-than-Expected Orchestra respectively.

Dublin Airport - which I will not be visiting