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.

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2019 - First Bottle (B3), 1st February 2020

I think this batch of Prune & Parsnip is paler than previous vintages. That does not affect the taste, however, which is very much Business as Usual.

I opened the wine on Saturday evening after an entertaining day which started with the first rehearsal for Don Giovanni - which I will be playing all the coming week - and ended with Midsomer Murders. In between I visited the Kirkgate Market Food Hall, which is excellent - packed with street food vendors (I had a Vietnamese sandwich), people and some terrific buskers - and went to Carla's leaving party. So it has been a day of many pleasures.

The fabulous buskers - Luna & the Moon

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

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

This year I have decided to do a single batch of Prune & Parsnip, and consequently will do a double batch of Orange Wine next month. Whilst I am certain that I am not drinking less, it feels like I am drinking more proper wine, which means that the home-made stuff is accumulating rather.

The Fruit & Veg stall where I bought parsnips

I bought my parsnips on 8th February from Kirkgate Market. I was in town anyway because I had a WYSO meeting with Jude & Katie (which ended with me sitting in Leeds Town Hall listening to the BBC Phil rehearse the Romeo & Juliet Overture) followed by the last night of playing in the pit for Don Giovanni. So I went to one of the Fruit & Veg stalls and bought the 2 lbs of parsnips required for this wine. My server looked about 14 - and very probably he was. I think 14 year-olds are allowed to have Saturday jobs.

Prunes & Parsnips

Whilst I meant to make the wine on Sunday I delayed it until Monday 10th February, which I had taken off from work to recover from a week of Mozart. I cut the parsnips into small pieces and boiled them in 8 pints of water for 20 minutes (bringing the parsnips in cold water up to the boil rather than putting them directly into the boiling water).

Weighing the ingredients

I sliced up 8 oz prunes into three or four pieces per prune and put these into my bucket along with 2 lbs 12 oz sugar. Once the parsnips had finished boiling I poured the water into the bucket, leaving the parsnips to one side. Claire used a small selection of these to make a curried mashed parsnip dish, which was rather good.

Chopping the parsnips

In the evening, after an Airedale Symphony Orchestra rehearsal, I put in a teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient and pectolase and then pretty much ignored the wine until Saturday morning, 15th February. That was when I put the wine into its demijohn. As the only thing to sieve out was the prunes, I did not bother with a colander. It was not a long process. The amount of water used was just about perfect and I now have a demijohn full of the brownest of wines.

The brownest of wines

By racking on 12th April  2020, this had cleared beautifully and needed little additional sugar. I dissolved 1 oz in half a pint of water and poured this in.

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

Blackberry Wine 2017 - Fifteenth Bottle (A1), 7th-8th February 2020

Bizarrely, after reading the above two entries, I was a little disappointed with this wine - certainly on the Friday evening. By Saturday I thought it had improved. But I did not get the mouthful of blackberries sometimes experienced. Both nights the wine followed performances of Don Giovanni done by Leeds Youth Opera, where I was playing second bassoon in the pit. It has been an exhausting week but one thoroughly worth doing. There are some talented youngsters in Leeds. It has left me with a head full of music, which is lovely unless I am trying to sleep.

First and Second Bassoon in the Pit

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.

Strawberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (1), 30th June 2018

I took this bottle to Karen's Chamber Music Party in Ilkley. Claire was playing quartets by Schumann and Mozart, and I was the designated drinker. It was a lovely evening and civilised way to spend a Saturday - listening to string quartets whilst knocking back the wine. The strawberry wine was mostly drunk by me and Sophie - who thought it particularly good. Quite rightly too. Strawberry wine is one of my best. It is stuffed with strawberry flavour but stays on the right side of 'dry' and has a beneficial fizz. What's not to like?

Orange Wine - Second Bottle (B3), 18th-19th April 2018

We seem to have gone from winter to summer in one fell swoop. The weather has changed from cold and wet to positively balmy. Long may it continue.

I opened this orange wine for something to drink after WYSO. It is the Pontefract Proms term and Wednesday was our first rehearsal. The music is its usual mix of light classical (Marriage of Figaro Overture) and modern cheese (a Richard Rogers Medley) but it is good to have Nick back at the helm.

We each only had a small glass, saving most the bottle for Thursday, when we finished it and then went for a slightly drunken amble round the neighbourhood in the evening warmth.

Modern Cheese

Blackcurrant & Gooseberry Wine - First Bottle (2), 3rd August 2017

This bottle was a well deserved celebration for performing the solo bassoon part in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. I have been practising for weeks, and it went better than I could have hoped. There is nothing more thrilling than playing well to an audience. Consequently I drank most of this wine myself, though shared some of it around. It has a sharp, tart taste where both blackcurrant and gooseberry are pronounced. Janet thought it was wonderful, but I am struggling to remember who else at Rydal I pressed it upon.

(I would like to share the video of the cadenza, which is on Facebook, but I am struggling to post it. You may be able to see it here.)

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

If you want to read a fuller account of how it felt to perform, keep on reading:

The orchestra started up and this was it; we were really going to do it. There are about eighty bars before the soloists come in and I spent them trying not to shake. And then, all of a sudden, we were playing. The notes were there, doing what they should, piecing themselves together and I was partly responsible. I certainly wasn't relaxed, not at the beginning, but the sheer exhilarating terror started to lessen. The entries were made and bars rest were counted correctly. This was going well. This was getting towards fun. The first movement is both the best and the easiest and when it was over, the audience and orchestra applauded. The second movement was slower than any of us would have liked - it requires sustained, stable notes and these are not comfortable on the lip. I felt my first passage of semiquavers slipping away from my fingers but I wrestled them back into control and the remainder of the movement played itself. Then it was the Variations. We started at quite a lick and those bars of semiquavers at the beginning, which I have been practising so hard, were perfect. Not a dropped note or a fluff among them. Variation two was less good (and my personal low of the piece) but once the music is running past you, all you can do is run at its speed and hope to regain your footing. The variations were all slower than I would have liked - we were following the conductor's beat, which was an error but difficult to break out of. However, the tempo was not so slow as to kill the music and at the end we got a huge round of applause. Then we did the first movement again. This time I was entirely relaxed. I had already done this and knew I could do it again - and it was fabulous (if I do say so myself). I could not have been more pleased with the result.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Sixth Bottle (A1), 15th July 2017

I have discovered how to improve this wine: chill it, and stop thinking of it as a bottle of red. Despite its colour, this Christmas Tutti Fruti is a rosé and chilling it removes the accusation of thinness. Full bodied red - Begone! Welcome to a crisp pink.

The day has been lovely, if lazy. I did an hour's bassoon practice (the Mozart continues to improve), visited an Open Garden (lots of potential, not realised) and finished The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Carson - a lovely book set in 1976 about growing up and the dangers of community and 'belonging'.

Ginger Wine - Second Bottle (5), 6th-8th April 2017

I make a damn fine ginger wine. This wine was so good that I have decided to make ginger wine again this year - it may even become a regular. The ginger taste is pronounced; it is a drink with a zing. But there are subtleties too, and those are provided by the lemon.

We drank most of this bottle on Thursday because Claire is on holiday this coming week and didn't need to worry about getting up the next morning. Our last glass was saved for Saturday night on our return from a concert in Pontefract: Mozart's Requiem and the middle third of The Messiah. Oh, We Like Sheep.

Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine - Second Bottle (3), 6th February 2016

I wanted a good bottle of wine for Saturday night. It was the evening that I played in Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds at Music Club. And however it was destined to go, something cold, delicious and alcoholic was going to be necessary on my return.

In fact, it went pretty well, though I only just managed to avoid destroying the music in its last few bars. I stopped counting my bars' rest and realised, as the music continued around me, that I would have to come in by guess-work. This was successful, but it spooked me and the demi-semiquaver passage looked alien on the page. I busked the penultimate bar, hoping that playing a repeated E-flat would fit. It did, we reached the last bar successfully and I returned to my seat, knowing that it had been a close call. The wine was welcome.

(In the YouTube video above, it is at 18:11 that I got into trouble. The bassoonist in the clip does it effortlessly, of course.)

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2015 - The Making Of ...

I think it has been several years since I started my Christmas Tutti Fruti on the traditional day, but this year I was taking fruit out of the freezer and weighing it during the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College, Cambridge. The fruit has travelled from the freezer at Carr Manor Mount to the freezer at Bentcliffe Drive and I think Claire has resented it in both. But she now has a whole new drawer in the freezer (almost) entirely empty of fruit.

The ingredients immediately after removing from freezer

This year most of the ingredients come from one of our two gardens - only the blackberries, elderberries, figs and satsuma do not. And the figs come from my parents' garden. This pleases me. The wine is a last hurrah for our 17+ years in the Carr Manors and our first hurrah for Bentcliffe Drive.

The fruit, once it had defrosted

I have 8 lbs 8 oz fruit, and this is made up as follows:

• Blackberries 2lb 1 oz
• Raspberries 5 oz
• Gooseberries (green) 2 lb 2 oz
• Strawberries 1 lb 3 oz
• Figs 9 oz
• Elderberries 2 oz
• Crab apples 8 oz
• Quinces 12 oz
• Rose Petals 2 oz
• Satsuma 2 oz
• Sloes 10 oz
• Elderflowers - a pinch (which also did not come from either garden)

The fruit during mashing

I left it all overnight to defrost, and then until after Christmas Day lunch because there was a vast amount of spiced pumpkin soup in the tureen I needed to use. All the Taylors helped me crush the fruit and the gooseberries proved most difficult. I made my Christmas wish while mashing and stirring, and then added 5 lbs 8 oz of sugar. I added 12 pints of boiling water and left it all until Boxing Day morn, at which point I added the yeast, two teaspoons of nutrient and one of pectolase.

The fruit during fermentation

The wine took two days before there was evidence of fermentation. I put it into its two demijohns on Thursday morning, 31st December, while listening to Mozart symphonies. It took a little longer than anticipated, meaning we missed our 1 pm target of setting off to Cambridge. I now have 25 demijohns on the go and all my air-traps in use.

The wine before going into its demijohns

Blackcurrant Wine - Seventh Bottle (A2), 21st-22nd November 2015

It is rare that I go to a concert in which I am not playing, but that was the case on Saturday night. Chris, the clarinettist in Tony's quintet, was the soloist in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with Harrogate Phil, and three-quarters of the remaining quintet were there to cheer him on. I felt properly nervous as Chris played but, of course, he was brilliant. At the end of long semiquaver passages he visibly gasped for air as a diver might coming up from ocean depths.

On our return I opened up a bottle of blackcurrant, and it was lovely with its alcoholic Ribena taste. We finished it on Sunday after I had spent most the day up a ladder painting an acre of ceiling.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Final Bottle (B3), 18th-19th November 2015

I think it has taken all twelve bottle and three years, but finally I thought this flavour was quite good. It fizzed on opening and had a dry & refreshing taste. Any mustiness was subtle (but not quite unnoticeable). The answer to horrible wine must be to leave it for several years before opening.

We started the wine on Wednesday night after WYSO (Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto - wonderful) and before Claire began her experiment to cure insomnia (basically don't try to go to sleep and when you do, sleep in a different bed to your husband). We finished it on Thusday, when Claire was feeling refreshed from a proper night's rest and I had been kept awake by Aggie wriggling, washing and scratching.

Kiwi Fruit Wine - Fourth Bottle (1), 29th April - 2nd May 2015

After we had both had a glass of Kiwi Wine (which has developed a chemically taste) I noticed that Stan was not his usual self. Rather than greeting us with a demand for food when we returned from WYSO, he had remained curled up. On further inspection he was limping badly and yowled when Claire touched his leg. She rang the emergency vets and we decided to take him in the next morning. I was convinced that this was the end for him and hardly slept. When told on Thursday morning by the vet that it was probably only an abscess I had to exercise all self control not to weep with relief. Ridiculous. But several days later he is still not right and needs another visit.

I finished the bottle after playing half a concert with the White Rose Orchestra - Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto. The soloist was completely mad. In her cadenza she plaed Rondo a la Turk as if arranged by Scriabin.

Orange Wine - Ninth Bottle (A1), 22nd-26th November 2014

Just before I opened this bottle I bottled my 2014 orange wine. This meant I got a direct taste comparison, and I don't think I have done that before. Orange wine that has had a year and a half to mature has a richer, deeper taste than that started only eight months ago. This bottle is moving closer to sherry, but has lost none of its orange flavour.

The abundance of orange wine meant that there was still some left on Wednesday, when we returned from WYSO. Amy played the Weber bassoon concerto and was fabulous. I love this piece - it is so much more fun, and showy, than the Mozart and I await the concert eagerly.

Crab Apple Wine - Sixth Bottle (C1), 8th November 2014

I'm really cross - and over something so trivial as well. I have just watched the final episode of the current series of Doctor Who, and it was poor. After last week's superb episode, I feel cheated. And they killed a recurring character, who I liked, for no reason whatsoever. Unforgivable. So this bottle of wine (the first of my own for over a week) has not been a happy experience. The meal it accompanied, though, was delicious - three different curries and Surprising Rice. And the day as a whole has been good - mostly rehearsing Mozart's Requiem for tomorrow's concert. My biggest failure has been to start the first movement double speed, bringing the whole thing to a crashing halt. I must remember not to do this tomorrow.

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Fifth Bottle (B3), 27th July 2014

I have brought four bottles of wine with me to Rydal and at Katie's request Prune & Parsnip was the first one opened. She said it tasted like Christmas - which is precisely what both Sally and Robert Clack said about it last year. I shared the bottle round though probably drank a little less than half myself. Everyone was positive about it - Rosie particularly so. Her family owns a soft-fruit farm, I discovered today, so it is definitely worth impressing her with my wine.

The day as a whole has mostly involved Mozart and Brahms. We struggled through the latter's first symphony tonight and it is not a piece I know well. Too many sharps, flats and accidentals for my liking.

Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante

Crab Apple Wine - Third Bottle (B2), 5th-6th June 2013

We came back from WYSO on Wednesday humming The Sound of Music, which Nick describes as 'the Stepford Wives of musicals'. As part of our upcoming Pontefract Castle concert (300 tickets sold so far - yikes), we are playing a school arrangement of this, and it is relentlessly jaunty. Nick has promised that next week we will end with something more sophisticated. Mozart's 40th, perhaps. A glass of crab apple wine afterwards helped remove some of the sugar.

We finished the bottle on Thursday after I returned from a WYSO committee meeting. Lots of exciting things are planned for next year, including an all Beethoven programme, something Edwardian and light, and a concert dedicated to the letter F to celebrate the Tour de France. Bizarrely, in 2014 this will start in that well known French city and centre of all that is Gallic - Leeds.

A Photo from our concert at Pontefract Castle last year

Crabapple & Blackcurrant Wine - Second Bottle (2), 8th December 2012

When a concert has gone well there is no better feeling. Spirits and adrenalin are up, and the world is momentarily a happier place. This was the experience last night after our WYSO concert, where we played Beethoven's 8th, Mozart's 40th and a Haydn cello concerto. Three weeks ago I was predicting dire things, but it all came together beautifully (despite my lip dying in the last movement of the Beethoven).

This bottle was a celebration and shared with Rachel, Duncan, Fiona and my mother. It is a light, fizzy red which goes surprisingly badly with lemon drizzle cake but is otherwise a tasty brew. I only had two small glasses on account of the morning's hangover after a work night out.