Prune & Parsnip Wine 2020 - First Bottle (3), 6th February 2021

This Prune & Parsnip is entirely acceptable but not quite as good as previous years. Claire describes the taste as 'more urine-y', which I suspect is not a compliment. It is thinner, more acidic and less like sherry. Maybe future bottles will be better.

The day felt wasted, though I don't know why. I wrote a letter to Ellis, played Scrabble with Mom and stocked up with groceries at Sainsbury's. The weather didn't help: nonstop rain which was oppressive and frustrating.

The view from my car window, on our drive.

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

Rhubarb, Elderflower & Mint Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

It is with this wine that I say Adieu to my forties. They have mostly been very kind to me. At their start I was just finishing off my MA in Medieval Studies and now at their close I am in a job that I enjoy and I feel settled in my life. The decade has seen two redundancies, a published book, moving house, a dear friend dead, two new cats, a strange and frightening world order, two nephews and the current pandemic. Put like that, my forties sound far more traumatic than they, in fact, were. They have certainly not been uneventful. What better way to mark their close than (or, alternatively, as I had a free Saturday, how else should I spend it except by) making Rhubarb, Elderflower and Mint wine?

Our rhubarb is very much past its best, so I sent a message to Liz to find out if she had any spare. Happily she had plenty and brought round 2 lbs. I managed to get a further pound from our plants to obtain the 3 lbs required for the recipe.

About half the elderflowers came from the elder tree growing in the Synagogue hanging over our back fence; the rest came from trees on Bentcliffe Drive and the elder in Allerton Grange Field. Stripping these to get a pint of flowers was always going to be the dullest part of making this wine, but was enlivened by listening to Mark Steel's in Town on BBC Sounds.

Over the past few years my 'handful of mint' used in this wine has been getting larger and Claire thinks that this is to the wine's detriment. Therefore this year I have only picked a small handful - and mostly spearmint (rejecting those leaves with cuckoo spit on them).

I chopped the rhubarb into thin pieces and put this, the elderflowers and the chopped mint into my bucket with 3 lbs of sugar. I poured over 6½ pints of boiling water and left this overnight. On Sunday morning, 14th June (my 50th birthday), I put in a teaspoon of yeast, nutrient and pectolase.

I meant to put all this into its demijohn on Friday night, but instead had a Zoom meeting with Rachel and Duncan, where we drank a gin and tonic and then a bottle of (real) red wine. Doing anything productive after that was not going to happen. Instead, the wine went into its demijohn on Saturday morning, 20th June. It is a light pink and fermenting as it should.

The wine and Kato

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

Elderberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (B1), 19th-20th August 2018

With only a 'Bread Sauce Master Class' from Claire to help me, I did a whole roast dinner yesterday: chicken, roast spuds, onion gravy, bread sauce and strangely shaped cauliflower. The unexpected thing was actually how easy it all was (if time consuming). Keith, Jaki and Ellis turned up during the beginning stages of the onion gravy - they were passing and dropped by. It was lovely to see them. Oh - the wine. It was elderberry and good. (Sufficient description?)

Elderberry Wine - Third Bottle (A2), 1st April 2018

Judith cooked an enormous slab of beef for our Easter lunch, and I opened a bottle of elderberry wine to go with it. The food was superb and the wine was passable. This is not my best vintage of elderberry. Andrew's adjective of choice was 'frunty' and I have no idea whether that is a compliment or not.

The weekend was excellent, starting with a lovely visit with Keith and family (we taught Ellis how to play 'Cheat'), going round Craster to buy kippers, watch the waves crash against the pier and get thoroughly cold walking much of the way to Dunstanburgh Castle, and finishing the Guardian cryptic double crossword.

Rose Petal Wine - Eighth Bottle (C3), 30th March 2018

Bob & Judith's boiler has packed up - so this was an ideal time to visit them for a weekend. We took plenty of clothes and decided that washing would be an unnecessary luxury. In the evening, after visiting Keith, Jaki and Ellis (who I hadn't seen since June, which is far, far too long) I opened a bottle of rose petal wine. It was the only bottle we drank between the four of us, which is unusual, but it was a good one. Chilled, of course.

Strawberry Wine - First Bottle (1), 2nd-3rd July 2016

Whilst I definitely had at least a glass of this wine, I am struggling to remember how it tasted. This suggests that it was far from awful and I suspect it was rather good. It was one of the first bottles finished at our house-warming party. The event was a success, with more people coming on Saturday than Sunday. Keith and Ellis showed up on Saturday and it was lovely to see them. Keith was a little subdued but Ellis was, of course, centre of attention - filling every room he was in and charming all our guests. He claims he was being chased by Gina's two girls, but I saw little evidence of that.

Blackcurrant Wine - Fifth Bottle (6), 5th April 2014

Rachael (my sister) asked for some of my wine and I had just poured the last of the blackberry. I offered her Prune & Parsnip or this, so Blackcurrant it was. At this point we were still sitting in the dark and I didn't keep track of who had any, but the bottle was quickly emptied by my assembled relatives. This is not surprising - blackcurrant is one of my very best.

The weekend as a whole has been a great success, with everyone but Jennifer (my father's sister), Tom (my father's sister's daughter's son) and Paul (my sister's partner) making it. Ellis (my brother's son) and Myles (my sister's son) have mostly been centre of attention - but that is right and proper. They were in danger of being kidnapped for being far too sweet.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - First Bottle (B2), 25th December 2013

Tutti Fruti 2012 is better than Tutti Fruti 2011. It has a richer, deeper taste with elements of pepper. Mind you, it was (very nearly) my last bottle of the evening and so I might have lost my sense of discernment.

Immediately after the meal we opened presents, so there was a flurry of wrapping paper and thank yous. Ellis's presents included a horn, a bell and a drum - none of which came from his parents. I was responsible for the drum and expect to be cursed often and loudly during the year.

Claire said she didn't want any presents, so I got a reputation for bravery by not getting her any. I did, however, get the nephews to wrap my chin so that I could present her with a goatee.

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

Blackberry Wine - First Bottle (A6), 31st August 2013

What a splendid evening, and in fact what a splendid day. We have spent it in York, mostly picking blackberries for the 2013 vintage of this wine. I had not expected Keith and family to be here, but they arrived shortly before we left for the cemetery. It has been far, far too long since we have seen them - November last year - and Ellis was initially scared of me. But he was soon showing me his hoola-hooping skills and chatting merrily away.

We all sat around the dining table in the evening, eating a bring-round curry and making lots of noise.

The wine was good - drier than previous years, with a slight fizz and possibly not as alcoholic. But, as I say, the day was splendid.

*

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

Blackberry Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

It is Blackberry time of year again. I have been watching them ripen on my daily walk to work over the past few weeks. Whilst there is about a month of picking left, this weekend straddling August and September was the most convenient for us. Pop was keen to help out but was busy Sunday (our traditional day of picking blackberries), so we went to York Victorian Cemetery on Saturday afternoon, 31st August, with baskets and plastic bags. Keith and family were also visiting, so came along. I didn't see Keith, Jaki or Ellis once we got to the grave yard, but based on the blackberry-coloured smears round Ellis's mouth it looks like he enjoyed himself.

I forgot my camera. This is a photo from a Google search

Before Pop and Kai arrived I struck up conversation with an old man who was also picking blackberries for wine. We met at the grave of Robert Burton (1830-1904), whose fruit was particularly lush, and swapped notes. Other graves providing blackberries included Walter Rymer, Amos Howe Harris, Walter John Underwood and Eliza Jane Dunkley. We will drink a toast to them when the time comes.

Claire picked 6 lbs 4 oz blackberries, I picked 6 lbs 1½ oz (with help from Pop and Kai) and Mom got about 2 lbs. This was plent for the 12 lbs of fruit needed for a triple batch, with a manageable quantity for the freezer.

Blackberries picked by Claire

I started the wine on 1st September. Weighing the fruit is a messy job and produces hands that Lady MacBeth would find distasteful. I did not wash the blackberries, though I picked out the mouldy ones and got rid of as many grubs as I found.

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand

I crushed the fruit in its bucket and poured over 15 ½ pints of boiling water. Later that evening I added 7 ½ lbs sugar, and the next morning I put in the yeast (burgundy) and two teaspoons each of nutrient and pectolase.

The blackberries before crushing

On Thursday night, later than I had wanted - mostly due to a large pile of washing up - I transferred this all into three demijohns. For some reason blackberry wine takes the longest of any wine at this stage, and Claire had to remind me that I was enjoying myself. I have left a little space at the top of each demijohn as the fermentation is at the assertive stage and I have kept some wine back in a bottle for topping-up purposes.

If you want to see how this wine turned out, click here (and see me get a drenching)

When will we three meet again?

Tea Wine - Fifth Bottle (4), 31st October - 6th November 2012

Tea wine seems to be one of those bottles that is not finished with any haste. This took a week to drink. That suggests some reluctance on the part of the drinkers. It was an eventful bottle, however. On its first night I went to play wind quintets in a house where the resident 16 year old was having a Halloween party. All I can say is that there was some competition for noisiest grouping, and having a trainee paramedic playing French Horn proved to be a Good Thing.

The next night's glass was drunk after a long drive, before which we had been celebrating Ellis's second birthday. He is a charming toddler and never walks but runs, in the way two year olds do.

The rest of the bottle was unexceptional.

Bonfire Wine - First Bottle, 5th November 2011

This bottle of wine was doubly appropriate. We drank it both on Bonfire Night and on the occasion of Ellis's first birthday celebration. I had a 190 mile round trip to the party, so could only drink half a glass, but that half glass was marvelous. It is a dry, fizzy red wine with many flavours including a strong taste of chilli with just a hint of heat. The assembled guests, of whom there were several, all said they enjoyed it too (though, curiously, I did not see any having a second glass).

Keith, Lee and Robert ushered us into the garden and set off a gazillion fire works which fizzed and hissed and banged and exploded into an array of colours, leaving the air thick with smoke. It was a lovely day and evening, and the best part of it was seeing Keith and his family so happy and settled.