Rhubarb Wine 2018 - Twelfth Bottle (A1), 7th July 2021

I have yet to let on to Claire that this bottle came from the Rhubarb Wine vintage that she claims is nasty. She drank it without complaint. It was a Wednesday evening bottle in a week that has been the most sociable for a very, very long time. We had Pat's 80th on Saturday, an impromptu meal at Mary's on Sunday and wind quintets in Harrogate on Monday, with trios to follow on Thursday and Book Group (albeit that one by Zoom) on Friday. That is pre-lockdown levels of sociability and then some. So of course a quiet night in on Wednesday became a whole bottle night.

Wiggy and I had a disagreement about the chair

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2019 - Third Bottle (B4), 17th January 2021

Little Miss Muffet 

On Sunday evening we had a Zoom High Tea with Mary. Our theme was 'nursery rhymes'. Claire made Little Miss Muffet and the terrifying spider from meringue. Alas, Mary is a vegetarian, so she was unable to have a little lamb, but instead took on the Queen of Hearts' persona and made some tarts. I made a Sicilian Orange and Lemon cake - which only has a tenuous connection - but it was excellent. As light as any panettone. We didn't mean to finish this bottle of wine, but somehow it slipped down just a little too well.

My Sicilian Orange & Lemon cake

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.

Orange Wine 2018 - Seventh Bottle (A4), 21st July 2020

A Tuesday night bottle. You can tell that we are still on Lockdown. When Mary came over on Sunday, she asked whether Covid 19 had turned us into a Chunk, a Hunk, a Monk or a Drunk, and for us the answer is "a Drunk". Not an ideal thing to be, but right at the moment life could be significantly better. Having opened the bottle at 6:30, it was inevitable that we would finish it, and I do make a splendid bottle of orange wine.

Taken on 21 July

Kato explaining how life could be better

Orange Wine 2018 - Fifth Bottle (B6), 5th May 2020

Whilst I am on holiday this week, Tuesday was a day to be idle. On Monday I had walked nearly thirty thousand steps, so a day of doing little was excusable.

We drank this orange wine after a lovely Zoom conversation with Mary. Social isolation is all well and good, but I do miss my friends. We chatted for nearly an hour and a half, covering everything from Jane Austen to haircuts, and then Claire and I shared this orange wine.

Taken on 5th May - 

Socially distancing outside a shop

Blackberry Wine 2018 - Third Bottle (B4), 9th-10th November 2019

This bottle is where I and the Wine Party disagree. I thought that this wine was disappointing - much less than blackberry wine can be. My guests voted it into second place, with an average score of Very Nearly 4. Mary was particularly effusive about it. She awarded it a 10 out of 5 (for scoring purposes I reduced this to 5.5) and christened it 'The Badgers'. Duncan, however, agreed with me, giving it a 2 and commenting on its thinness. I don't think that 2018 will go down as a classic Blackberry Year.

Elderberry Wine 2017 - Fourth Bottle (A3), 9th-10th November 2019

Exploiting the theory that elderberry wine needs time to mature, I did not open a 2018 elderberry for my Wine Party, but instead fished out one made two years ago. And it did alright, coming 5th out of 12 with an average score of 3.64. It was still my least popular red of the evening. Nick described it as lighter than expected and Mary was most effusive, writing 'Fabulous', scoring it 5.5 and quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail on her score card.

As ever, the Wine Party was an excellent evening, though Claire flaked out early, at a point where I had been wondering if I could go to bed. That would have made us Terrible Hosts, so I manfully kept on drinking.

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!

Jasmine Tea Wine - Third Bottle (5), 5th-12th September 2019

I can't remember why I chose Jasmine Tea Wine as a Thursday night bottle or, indeed, what we did on the night I opened it. I do know, however, that it is an acquired taste which I have yet to acquire. There is something too heavy about it - it cloys on the palate. Mary had a small glass when she came over on Saturday and preferred it to the rose petal wine. Thereafter it sat in the fridge and I drank it during the week that Claire was at a conference learning about flow cytometry. The wine served its purpose, but I can't be any kinder than that.

Flow Cytometry

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Second Bottle (B5), 6th April 2019

When I asked Mary what bottle I should bring, she asked if I had any parsnip wine. She remembers a relative from her youth making this. Prune & Parsnip was deemed close enough, so this is what I took over. It was the night before our Airedale Symphony Orchestra concert and we stayed over in Ilkley. It was an entertaining evening and all woke with headaches the next morning. Mary was particularly impressed with the prune & parsnip wine, which we drank with an Amaretto and White Chocolate cheesecake. As this was the last bottle drank, I blame it for Sunday's grogginess.

Crab Apple Wine - Twelfth Bottle (D4), 28th February 2017

This year I shall be giving nothing up for Lent. It has been a policy of mine for the last 46 years. But that did not mean that pancakes were to be denied on Shrove Tuesday. We were invited to Mary's to flip pancakes, stuff them with all sorts of exciting things and take part in a pancake-related quiz. Mostly this was questions about her home village of Olney - where a pancake race takes place every year amongst the female parishioners. It was a lovely evening, and my crab apple wine was (genuinely) enjoyed by the assembled throng - all four of us. I didn't start the drive back from Ilkley until a quarter to eleven, and for a Tuesday night, that is life in the fast lane.