Ginger Wine 2021 - Second Bottle (4), 8th-9th January 2022

There is a reason that the last time I performed with Alan and Audrey at Leeds Music Club I came away swearing "Never again". I was reminded of that reason on Saturday night where, against my better judgment, I performed with Alan and Audrey at Leeds Music Club. Never again. We were playing humorous and relatively straightforward arrangements of The Nutcracker. Within three bars of starting, Audrey was lost and playing notes from several bars ahead. Alan and I ploughed on as best we could until we recognised where she was and joined up with her. A bottle of wine couldn't come soon enough. This hit the spot splendidly.

 

Wiggy on 8th January

Blackcurrant Wine 2018 - Fifth Bottle (A1), 12th-14th December 2019

This last week has been busy with evening engagements, not to mention how much there is to do at work. Next year I must remember to keep the last three weeks of December free of anything that requires thought process and energy after about 6 p.m.. Anyway, on Thursday I was at Pat & Peter's, and on Saturday I was depping for Leeds College of Music's Christmas Concert. Claire took the opportunities to neck a bottle of blackcurrant wine. Actually, that is unfair. I had a much-needed glass after Pat & Peter's. Peter has started talking about performing again at Leeds Music Club.

At the College of Music concert

Ginger Wine - Second Bottle (3), 24th March 2019

I had expected to drink vast quantities of this bottle as an anaesthetic after Music Club Orchestra on Saturday night. However, my need for numbness was rather less than expected and it was late, so I went to bed instead. Ginger wine was therefore the flavour of choice at a fabulous meal round at Richard and Linda's. Only Richard and I were drink and I had more than was seemly (or so my head told me on Monday morning). It is a good wine, though. The lemon is a hint of a flavour, tempering the ginger.

Richard was chief cook and we had all sorts of delicious things: sardine and mushroom pate, cheesy risotto, Mary Berry's coleslaw (generally I can take or leave coleslaw, but this was great) and apple tart.

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

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Second Bottle (B1), 25th-26th January 2019

Claire is working far, far too hard. She is contracted to work 9-5 Monday to Thursday. Currently she is doing 11 hour days and this week she did 4 or 5 hours on Friday as well. On Friday the only decision she could make was that we were to have a Take-Out. When I asked about wine, she looked at me blankly and then repeated that look when I suggested Xmas Tutti Fruti.

Chris and Kate came by to stay overnight on an unplanned trip to Leeds and it was lovely to see them. Neither tried the wine, however. I finished the bottle (which is a good, fruity red) on Saturday after performing a wind quintet at Leeds Music Club - which went as well as could be expected.

[NB - Photo failing to load - I may need to try from work on Monday. Imagine a photo of some sheet music!]

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Sixth Bottle (A6), 15th-17th August 2018

Xmas Tutti Fruti does a decent job at being a midweek bottle: perfectly pleasant, nothing to write home about. I asked Claire to save me a glass on Thursday for my return from trios at Ann & Alan's. This was a wise precaution. Alan is insistent that we prepare a set for Music Club but we are no longer good enough. Despite having to stop twice in every movement to regroup, Alan thinks we are near performance ready. By the time I got home I needed a large glass of wine.

Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (5), 28th October 2017

Whenever I am playing something at Music Club I will put a good bottle of wine in the fridge so that I have something pleasant waiting for me on my return. This time it was Crab Apple & Strawberry for my first ever solo performance. I was far outside my comfort zone so chose something easy to play well, rather than something showy to play badly: Song of the Penguins by Sam Haywood and  Little Suite by Philip Godfrey. And I gave them a pretty decent shot, meaning the wine was a celebration rather than used to drown my sorrows. Claire had stayed home - she is low at the moment - to watch Midsomer Murders and eat crisps, and she kindly left me half the bottle. It is a fine wine - crisp, fruity, dry and satisfying.

Rhubarb Wine - Seventh Bottle (B3), 23rd September 2017

I have discovered that Claire thinks my onion cooking technique is poor. Apparently I don't let them fry for long enough - particularly when making Boursin Noodles. My bacon cooking technique also has room for improvement. With this in mind, and a glass of rhubarb wine to hand, I made sure the onions were meltingly soft and that there was some browning to the bacon for the evening meal. We should have been at Music Club, but an evening in the company of rhubarb wine (which is excellent this year) and an episode of Torchwood on the sofa seemed preferable.

Here is an occasional recipe for Boursin Noodles (serves 2) - which are both easy and delicious:

Ingredients

1 onion
Large clove of garlic
Olive oil
3 or 4 rashers of bacon (maybe streaky, can be smoked or unsmoked)
several mushrooms
A good dollop or two of soft cheese (I used Philadelphia - the recipe says it should be Boursin)
Parsley if you have any and can be bothered.
Some pasta or noodles

Method

1. Slice the onion thinly and fry it in your main pan in the oil for longer than you think is absolutely necessary, making sure your partner is happy with the result.
2. At some point during this frying, crush the garlic and add that
3. Cut the bacon into strips and fry that in a different pan until it goes brown enough to your partner's satisfaction.
4. Put the bacon into the pan with the onions and garlic. Let it fry a bit longer.
5. Slice the mushrooms and add them.
6. Cover the pan and let the liquid come out of the mushrooms
7. When it all looks like it might be done, stir in the one or two dollops of soft cheese and stir.
8. By now you should have been cooking the pasta or noodles.
9. When the pasta or noodles are done, add the parsley to the oniony-bacony-garlicky-mushroomy-cheesy mix.
10. Serve up the pasta and sauce.
11. Eat and enjoy.

Crab Apple Wine - Thirteenth Bottle (B5), 18th-19th March 2017

I put this bottle in the fridge in anticipation of our return from Faure's Requiem, courtesy of Batley Music Club. We had expected dire things, but in fact it only required one glass of crab apple wine each in order to recover.

Most of the bottle was drunk to a roast chicken dinner - our first roast for quite some time. We had spent the day visiting more garden centres than planned, finishing the herb bed and catching up on odds and ends. I finished Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro - which was a morbid, uncomfortable read yet gripping. The wine was equally gripping but pleasingly neither morbid nor uncomfortable.

Rose Petal Wine - Seventh Bottle (B1), 4th-5th February 2017

Often rose petal wine is let down by just a hint of bitterness. Not this bottle, though. It was a delight - floral (of course), not too sweet and with a suggestion of the exotic. We drank most of it after Music Club where I played with Madeleine's quintet. Our theme was 'walking': two Promenades, a Walking Tune and the Washburn Suite (which, admittedly, has very little to do with perambulation). The quintet played well and I came home pleased, though eager for wine. We drank it while eating cheese on chilli flavoured crackers - and excellent way to wind down after a concert.

NB - the Video is the last movement of the Washburn Suite - and my favourite of the pieces we played (and has a great bassoon part). It only lasts a minute and a half. The three other links I have put in are Youtube videos of the pieces we played - though only one is a wind quintet.

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Ninth Bottle (A2), 21st-22nd January 2017

On both Saturday and Sunday nights, when drinking wine from this bottle, there was a sense of relief of a concert having gone rather better than it ought.

Saturday was Music Club, when I played with Pat & Peter - trios by Tim New. The composer turned up (which added to the stress somewhat). We played far better than I had expected and as well as I had hoped, and Prune & Parsnip (another double P) was drunk in the adrenalin come-down.

On Sunday it was the turn of Airedale - where each of the pieces (including Beethoven's Fifth) was under-rehearsed. We got away with it, though, and another glass of Prune & Parsnip went down the hatch.

Rose Petal Wine - Fourth Bottle (A2), 25th September 2016

Autumn is upon us. I can tell this because we had a roast chicken. Food should be seasonal, and a roast Sunday dinner marks the drawing in of nights. A bottle of rose petal wine, particularly one as tasty as this, was the perfect accompaniment. It has a fragrant taste and is the correct level of dryness. As was the day itself. I spent some of it in the sunshine picking elderberries, much of it in our dining room stripping the same off their stalks, and a fraction of the rest practising the bassoon. I appear to have volunteered to play a solo at Music Club. That was careless.

Rhubarb Wine - Tenth Bottle (A4), 22nd-23rd April 2016

For a second night on the trot I left Claire home alone while I was out galavanting. This time I was drinking (too much) beer with Matthew and John, reminiscing about Emsleys and catching up with each other's news. Claire had rhubarb wine for company and a quiet night.

On Saturday we each had a large glas before Music Club - I was performing a Peter Muller wind quintet and thought wine could only help. It didn't. I remained as nervous as ever. We played fairly well, and I don't know why I feel more pressure playing at Leeds Music Club than anywhere else.

Where Matthew, John and I went drinking

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.)

Blackberry Wine - Fourth Bottle (C6), 14th-15th November 2015

Concerts and floods were the dominant themes for this bottle.

I opened the blackberry wine after coming home from Music Club, where Bill, Theresa and I had played a suite by Swan Hennesy. We only played moderately well and I was cross with Bill for getting a beat ahead and then missing a repeat. Still, the blackberry wine opened with a 'pop' and sparkled.

We finished the bottle on Sunday after returning from ASO's concert in Ilkley, which was Elgar's tedious Second Symphony. Getting to Ilkley was a challenge. The Wharfe had burst its banks and we had to approach Ilkley over the moor. Rose'y couldn't get there at all so the concert was made all the more interesting by a first bassoon sight-reading his part.

Rose Petal Wine - Fourth Bottle (A4), 12th-13th September 2015

We wanted a bottle with a garden theme, and rose petal wine best fits that criterion. Our afternoon was spent at Laura's, taking a large number of plants from her garden with which to stock our new one. They all had frightening Latin names, but all I can remember is Lungwort and Hellebore.

I opened the rose petal wine after the first Music Club of the season, which was a good evening: not a duff performance, with Dawn as the highlight singing French songs. The wine was lovely; sweet and fragrant; but it was late and we only had two glasses each.

Redcurrant Wine - Sixth Bottle (A3), 18th-19th April 2015

I see that I complained of mustiness for the previous bottle of redcurrant. This one was fine, with no hint of moth or dead mouse. It has a sharp sweetness that I like. I opened it after a particularly good Music Club in which Glenys sang in Danish and Pat & Peter's clarinet quartet played brilliantly. But having slept badly on Friday night, Claire and I only had half the bottle between us.

We finished it tonight after a busy day in which I made bread, went to the tip, washed up twice, started my mango wine, brooded about the carpet man, shopped at Sainsburys, cooked two meals for the week ahead, moved furniture, did some bassoon practice and kept Claire supplied with hot drinks.

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Second Bottle (B1), 21st-22nd March 2015

Claire handed me a glass of Prune & Parsnip wine the instant I stepped through the door on Saturday night. Music Club had overrun and the first half had been the dreadful, dreadful orchestra, so my need was great. We then shared the bottle in bed, discussing 20 Bentcliffe Drive, which we had visited for a second time earlier in the day. It was a proper, serious discussion, helped along by the wine, starting with what we liked about the house (all the unchangeables), moving onto what we didn't like (all the things that can be changed) and then whether to make an offer and what offer to make. I felt like a proper adult, and we both came to the conclusion that this was the house for us. It led to a restless night.

Blackberry Wine - 21st Bottle (C5), 20th-21st March 2015

What a fabulous bottle of wine. This reminds me why blackberry is my favourite flavour. The first mouthful was pure, sweet fruit. I opened it after an excellent day with my colleagues, spent in a minibus driving round West and North Yorkshire looking at sites we might buy. There were bacon sandwiches and a partial solar eclipse thrown in too. The cloud lifted briefly for the latter and, ignoring all warnings, I looked directly at the Sun to no ill effect.

Claire finished the bottle while I was at Music Club playing in a god-awful orchestra, murdering light music. The second half was much better, but went on too long.

Rhubarb and Elderflower Wine - Third Bottle (1), 7th March 2015

This was a post-Music Club bottle, and one that I needed. Madeleine's quintet performed the first and second movement of the Taffanel (though not necessarily in that order) and we were okay. Claire says that we were more than that, but I am a perfectionist, and right now I can only remember the wrong notes, the mis-taken breaths and the places where I did not feel in control. The wine has helped and things are not currently in quite so much focus.

                                                  and his wind quintet