Peach & Banana Wine - First Bottle (4), 5th April 2014

I had the first glass from this bottle and Rosie (my father's sister's daughter's daughter) had the second. It is the Extended Family Gathering and I promised Rosie - who helped make this wine - that I would bring a 'Peach and Banana'. My impressions were that it is okay, but no more than. Claire (my wife - seeing as in the next few posts I will be identifying how I am related to people I mention), however, thinks it is horrible and therefore we will probably not drink the remaining five bottles with any speed. I thought 'peach' was prominent but others said 'banana'. It is a little sweet and there is a cloying tendency, but it is drinkable (honestly) whatever Claire might say.

The original ingredients

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

Elderflower Wine - Sixth Bottle (B5), 25th January 2014

Saturday was going to action filled. Our original plan was to have a day out at Spurn Point with Rosie, but that was cancelled so Rosie could be with her immediate family. Then I thought I would spend time in town doing my Annual Clothes Shop. A fierce rain-storm in the early afternoon suggested this was unwise. Instead I spent much of the day watching series 2 of The Bridge, a satisfying and bloody Scandi Crime Drama.

In the evening, because it was Burns Night I had a dram of whisky - and because it was Saturday night, a bottle of elderflower wine. It is a good bottle, though maybe an acquired taste. It has a full, open flavour and went well with the pigeon pea casserole and saffron rice. The pigeon peas came from a tin labelled 'Best Before August 2007'. I take sell-by dates with a pinch of salt.

Peach and Banana Wine - The Making Of ...

This wine was entirely unplanned. My wine making muscles have been twitching over the last week. We are now at 8th June and there are no hints of elderflowers or roses, and the gooseberries are a long way from ripe. I knew I wanted to rack my Kiwi fruit wine today, and I always like to do two processes at the same time to make efficient use of my sterilising solution. Therefore, when I walked into Noshis for our weekly fruit and veg shop, and saw they were selling manky peaches and bananas past their first flush of youth off cheap, I siezed the moment.

Manky fruit in soft focus

I made this wine five years ago and remember it as being rather lovely. However, buying ingredients in the summer does feel like cheating - so once every five years is probably about right. In all I bought six peaches (for a pound) and five bananas (for 60p) and added a sixth banana from our fruit bowl. In weight this accounted for a pound and a half per fruit, after getting rid of stones and skins. This may not be enough. Last time I had twice the peaches but two thirds the bananas. We shall see.

I chopped the peaches, discarding the stones, and put the fruit in the bucket with 3 lbs sugar. I peeled and chopped the bananas and put these in a pan with 2 pints of water. This was brought to the boil and I simmered it for 15 minutes. During this time I mashed the peaches and sugar. Then I poured the bananas and water into the bucket and gave it all a good stir. A couple of hours later I added four pints of boiling water and left it overnight. The yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase went in on Sunday morning.

Peaches and sugar in the bucket

I left this until Thursday and then put Rosie - my first cousin once removed - to work. She transferred the liquid into the demijohn while I bottled the elderberry. I could have added another pint of water to the process. The wine's colour is currently an attractive golden yellow.

'Attractive golden yellow' or 'Dishwater grey'?

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