Nectarine Wine - Final Bottle (3), December 2020 - 21st May 2021

I can't remember when exactly I opened this bottle (it was before Christmas), but it was a wine that both Claire and I rejected for being Too Nasty. Rather than do the sensible thing and pour it down the sink, I put a cork in the bottle and stored it in the porch. There it stayed until this week, and I have had a glass most nights. It is just drinkable and that is good enough for me. 

On Friday night I was very much out of sorts (see Orange 2020 for an explanation) and finished the bottle, knowing that I would wake on Saturday with a headache. I woke on Saturday with a headache.

A photo from earlier in the week. Orchestra is Back!!!

Nectarine Wine - Fifth Bottle (4), 27th August 2020

This wine has not improved with keeping. Claire could not think of anything good to say about it beyond that it was not undrinkable. I decided, on the strength of this bottle, that Nectarine is not a flavour from which to make wine again. It was bland, thin, slightly bitter and not what one would look for in a white wine.

In other news, I made a quiche.

Taken on 27 August

Nectarine Wine - Fourth Bottle (5), 18th-20th September 2019

Pringles and Nectarine Wine make terrible companions. On Wednesday after WYSO I had both together and wondered why the Nectarine Wine tasted quite so bitter. Claire was more positive, saying that for a mid-week bottle, this one was rather good. Then on Friday I drank the wine without the Pringles and the bottle was transformed. It was refreshing and light and tasted of nectarines. Lesson learned: cheap, salty snacks are not a wine's best friend.

Nectarine Wine - Third Bottle (1), 27th-28th February 2019

There is a slight fizz and a distinct nectarine taste to this wine. It is dry yet fruity and I am pleased with it - to the extent that I may make it again one day. Claire thinks it is a mid-week bottle, which is what this was, but I am not so sure. The circumstances in which we have drunk this have been entirely unremarkable - listening to The Archers, eating a tomato, bean & chorizo dish and chatting to my father.

My nectarine wine

Nectarine Wine - Second Bottle (2), 17th November 2018

Nectarine is where the Wine Party and I disagree. I think this is a rather decent bottle of white wine: fruity, light, pleasant. My guests, on the whole, disagreed. It came twelfth out of sixteen with an average score of 2.58 out of 5. This just shows how flawed market research can be. Someone complained of its slightly bitter note, another thought there was an unpleasant aftertaste and someone else wrote "For emergency use only".

N is for Not As Good As I Thought.

Nectarine Wine - First Bottle (6), 5th August 2018

From my previous experiences of Peach, I had expected Nectarine wine to be average at best and disgusting at worst. This bottle exceeded my expectations, and in a good way. There is a taste of nectarine, certainly, but it is subtle. It hangs there from the first sip, but the overall taste is a medium-dry white wine. In years when nectarines are plentiful and I have not already made too much wine, it is worth repeating this one.

We drank the bottle on the Sunday after Rydal, which is always a little melancholy - with a heavenly week having just gone and the expectation of work to come.

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

Nectarine Wine - The Making Of...

My wine making thumbs have been twitching. Having made Blackcurrant in July this year, it looked like August was to be an empty month. This, of course, would be sacrilege, and Something Had To Be Done. On Saturday morning, 18th August, I dropped Claire back at the house with our week's shopping and drove to Harehills, promising that I wouldn't come back with anything too exotic. My thoughts were either Tomato or Nectarine - I have not done either - depending on which were cheap.

Nectarines were being sold twelve for a pound and that fitted the bill nicely. The argument 'against' is that my attempts at peach wine have been Bloody Awful, and nectarines are closely related. The argument 'for' is alphabetical. My only other N wine has been Nettle, which Claire described as tasting like chopped liver and fag ash, and this has to be better. Right?

The Stones

Anyway, I started the wine on Sunday, making it up as I went along. I weighed out 5 lbs of nectarines - which came to 30 in number, washed them and chopped them into small pieces, discarding the stones. (The stones themselves weighed 11 oz). I put the fruit into my bucket and gave it a thorough mashing. Having read that peaches give very little body to a wine, and I presume the same is true of nectarines, I added 8 oz of minced sultanas. At this stage the mixture looked like particularly colourful vomit, but smelt divine.

I added 2 lbs 12 oz sugar and poured over six and a half (UK) pints of boiling water. About eight hours later, when the mix had cooled, I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of pectolase, tannin and nutrient.

Particularly colourful vomit

On Thursday night, 24th August, I sifted out the solids and put the liquid into its demijohn. I could have used at least half a pint less water in the recipe. The wine is an attractive peachy-orange, but I hear from Facebook posts that it will take an age to clear.

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