Blackberry Wine 2020 - Fifth Bottle (C2), Mid-August 2021

Claire had this bottle whilst I was in the Brecon Beacons with Rachael & Myles. She says that she has written it up in her diary and hopes that this is Good Enough. It isn't really, but it is also clear that she won't write it up in this one. I think she had a reasonable week whilst I was away - plenty of Midsomer Murders and RuPaul's Drag Race I understand

Rachael in the Brecon Beacons

Blackcurrant Wine - Third Bottle (3), 14th August 2021

It is good to be home! The last two weeks have been excellent: a superb week at Rydal followed by another one in the Brecon Beacons, but returning to the Usual is, in some ways, a relief. A quiet night in with Claire, who did not come to Wales, curled up on the sofa watching a movie with the Snarkalong Film Club was absolutely the right thing to do. This time it was Relative Values: a comedy of manners with a terrific cast, led by Julie Andrews. Nothing demanding or noisy at all.

A running stream in the Brecon Beacons

Apple & Strawberry Wine 2019 - Second Bottle (2), 11th August 2021

This apple and strawberry was far better than I had remembered. Whilst it tasted neither of apple nor strawberry, there was a faint scent of the latter if you gave it a good sniff. If anything, it was like a real white wine.

This was the last bottle of my wine drunk in the Brecon Beacons, and earlier in the day Rachael, Myles and I had been to the Cantref Adventure Farm, which Myles absolutely loved. One of the most joyous things about the week in Wales was being an uncle, doing fun things with Myles that he is likely to  remember into adulthood.

My lovely sister, Rachael

Magnolia Petal Wine 2019 - Third Bottle (5), 9th August 2021

I took this bottle with me to the family holiday in Wales because Claire thinks it is horrid and she is remaining in Leeds. Mom, Pop and Rachael all disagreed. They were enthusiastic in helping me finish the bottle. This was towards the end of a lovely day, which began with Pop and me going on a five and a half mile walk and ascending Bryn Teg. I had planned to go further but Pop had not brought walking boots and climbing hills with an octogenarian in sandals would have been a disaster. Still, it would have hastened the inheritance.

Spending this much time with my father was a delight. The Alzheimer's is taking its grip, but he is still very much Pop and says that on the whole he is happy. And that is the important thing.

Pop and me at the summit of Bryn Teg.

Elderberry Wine 2018 - Seventh Bottle (A5), 8th August 2021

Some of this elderberry wine ended up in an onion gravy. Ordinarily I would use Madeira but I was staying in a holiday cottage in Wales and whilst it was equipped with a hot tub, there was no Madeira to be had for love nor money. Elderberry wine, though, made an excellent substitute.

The cottage was in the Brecon Beacons where I spent six days with Rachael and Myles with Mom and Pop there for the first three. My drive over had been hellish - so the elderberry wine was more than welcome. The setting is lovely: mountains on one side and a wide vale on the other. It was the beginning of a terrific holiday.

Stuck on the M62 - part of the hellish journey

Blackcurrant Wine 2019 - Third Bottle (A1), 4th-5th September 2020

I should have started a week's holiday on Friday. Not that I particularly wanted one, but Work passed and edict that all must take two weeks between July and September. I planned, therefore, on a week's walking holiday in North Wales. However, now is a particularly poor time for me to take a week off, so I have won favour by cancelling something originally unwanted. Instead of being on holiday I opened a bottle of blackcurrant wine, drunk to leftover curry and an episode of Green Wing.

Crab Apples in our garden taken on 5 September

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Fifth Bottle (B5), 22nd-23rd June 2017

Work has been very noisy of late. Not just literally noisy (it has been that as well) but mentally noisy. I come home and my head is full of things to be resolved and incidents of the day just gone. On Thursday night I was partially successful in creating some stillness, or at least shifting the noise to a different quality, by bassoon practice, cooking, Doctor Who and Prune & Parsnip Wine. We were careful to leave half a bottle for Friday - and supplemented the evening drinking with a rhubarb & ginger gin and a nightcap of whisky. Claire got me a bottle of Welsh whisky (Penderyn) for my birthday and it is Wonderful.

Elderberry Wine - First Bottle (A5), 8th October 2016

I had the absolute pleasure of sharing this bottle of wine with Claire and Sue in St Dogmaels. Claire and I travelled all the way to Pembrokeshire to play in Haydn's Creation, but having missed the Abbey Shakespeare this year, it was alson an excuse to see Sue.

We had a glorious weekend; Sunday morning found us at Poppit Sands in warm October sunlight. Most of the time was taken up with playing - it is wonderful music, though the conductor commented audibly on imperfections during the performance and twice clapped the beat for several bars. Saturday night, though, was a relaxed affair, talking non-stop with Sue and drinking this rather decent vintage of elderberry wine. It has a semi-sweet distinctive taste and it is one that will age well.

St Dogmaels High Street

Crab Apple Wine - Sixth Bottle (C6), 5th-6th October 2016

Hurrah! I am on holiday (sort of). Friday will involve a long drive to Pembrokeshire, which is an official day off work. Thursday was my unofficial day, when I went to London for a conference - and going to London, even if it is work-related, is always a little bit exciting. I managed 15 minutes in Tate Modern as my tourist treat.

As an anticipatory celebration I opened a bottle of crab apple wine on Wednesday - after baking a banana cake - and had my fair share of each, leaving Claire to polish off the bottle as I returned from the Capital.

Rhubarb Wine - Eleventh Bottle (A2), 2nd September 2015

Wednesday nights are not whole bottle nights. Or at least they shouldn't be. Somehow we managed to finish this rhubarb wine. It took little effort. But Claire has the week off work. When I had a week off by myself I went galavanting to Wales. Claire has stayed at home to put the house in order before it goes on the market. Mostly this involves decluttering. I think I got the better deal.

Blackcurrant Wine 2015 - The Making Of ...

Buying a house is an expensive way to acquire soft fruit. On that first, tense weekend when we owned 20 Bentcliffe Drive one of the few pleasures was discovering blackcurrant bushes laden with fruit. There are raspberries and strawberries too, but not in such quantity. Anyone who visited (mostly parents) was put to work and our freezer began to fill with bags of currants.

Blackcurrants and chives (the chives were not added)

Of course, we also have blackcurrant bushes at Carr Manor Mount and these ripened whilst we were away at Rydal playing symphonies and having all sorts of fun. Claire and her parents harvested these during the course of last week whilst I was in Wales. When I came home the freezer was so full of blackcurrants that we had to use a buttress to keep the door closed. (I exaggerate. A little.)

More blackcurrants on their bush

On Monday 10th August I weighed the blackcurrants. Twelve pounds. That is enough for a quadruple batch, so this is what I have done. I mistook a small bag of sloes for blackcurrants and only realised my mistake when they were in the bucket. I rescued as many as I could, but there are still some in the mix.

Blackcurrants (and a few sloes) before mashing

On Tuesday, once the fruit had defrosted and I was back from helping Rory move flats again, I mashed it with a potato masher. This was hard work, took a while and I am surprised that my hands are blister-free. I dissolved 11 lbs sugar in 22 pints of water (in three batches), boiled this and poured it over the mashed fruit. The bucket is close to full and when putting in the yeast on Wednesday evening, 12 August, I noticed the packet warned of "High Foam". Fingers crossed. I also added 2 teaspoons of pectolase and about three of nutrient.

A full-ish bucket

Though I added the yeast on Wednesday, there was no hint of fermentation until Friday afternoon, and I was beginning to think that this would be my worst wine-making disaster yet. However, everything is fine and I put it all into its demijohns on Sunday 16 August. None of the demijohns are full and the recipe (if not the bucket) would have benefitted from another 2 pints of water.

Fermenting blackcurrants

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

Blackcurant Wine - Third Bottle (B2), 8th August 2015

Claire and her parents drank this bottle while I was in St Dogmaels Abbey playing incidental music to the Tempest. They opened it because the gooseberry wine tried earlier in the evening was unspeakably nasty. Blackcurrant was a suitable choice because Bob and Judith had been hard at work in our garden picking fruit for this year's batch. I conclude that this wine was rather better than the gooseberry by the fact that the bottle was empty on my return, rather than a quarter drunk and in the fridge.

Gooseberry Wine - Final Bottle (4), 8th August 2015

Claire writes:

Ben is still in Wales. My parents are staying for the weekend. We've spent much of the time at Bentcliffe Drive, looking at the house and doing things in the garden.

This wine is nasty. My parents are refusing to supply comments for publication, which tells you all you need to know. Ben can finish this one when he gets home.*

Bob writes:

This is a perversion of my own opinion. An entertaining ethanol delivery system, if no more.

Bob doing things in the garden

*I had a glass when I got home, and then poured it down the sink. It was truly awful.  

Crab Apple Wine - First Bottle (B4), 3rd-4th August 2015

I carried this bottle in a suitcase all the way to Pembrokeshire. It neither smashed nor exploded and I was able to share it with Sue (my lovely, lovely host) immediately before a dress rehearsal for The Tempest. This meant that I was somewhat tipsy for my walk down the steep hill into St Dogmaels village and for the play, but I did not blow into my bassoon at inappropriate moments.

The play (like the wine) was well done - I particularly liked the four Ariels and the Ferdinand & Miranda scenes played for laughs.

Blackberrry Wine - Sixteenth Bottle (B), 2nd-6th August 2015

Claire writes:


Ben has gone to St Dogs for the Abbey Shakespeare again, so I am in control of the wine diary. I wanted something nice to help with the post-Rydal gloom, so chose this - but I think it might be the one-litre bottle which:
a) I hope doesn't get me into trouble; and
b) had probably take me several days to finish.

After a few hours doing the garden at Bentcliffe Drive, I came home and made myself a crumble as part of the post-Rydal coping strategy.

Orange Wine - Sixth Bottle (B2), 14th-15th August 2014

Hurrah. The Great British Bake Off is back on the telly. I drank orange wine while watching the second episode, and it is surprising quite how tense watching other people make biscuits can be. I put it down to clever editing and the use of screeching violins. This is the third series that I have watched and I have yet to get bored. I know it is cosy and middle class, but then so am I.

We finished the orange wine on Friday evening before eating. It marked the end of my first week back at work after a fortnight's holiday. I feel like I am suffering from jet lag, which is not what one usually gets after returning from Pembrokeshire. Will orange wine help adjust my body clock? Frankly, I think it unlikely.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Eighth Bottle (A2), 10th-13th August 2014

It took me about nine hours to get home on Sunday. This is around the same time as it would take me to get to the American mid-west. Instead, I was travelling back from Wales. I returned to find the dregs of various bottles remaining. After finishing these, Claire opened a bottle of Christmas Tutti Fruti, and we had half of that too.

This is an entirely unmemorable bottle of wine - nothing wrong with it and not even particularly bland, just not delicious.

I helped finish the bottle on Wednesday evening while listening to a Dumteedum podcast on which Sooz appeared, comparing The Archers to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry - First Bottle (3), 9-10th August 2014

Claire writes: I'm slightly disappointed with the wine - can't really taste blackcurrant. As I did nothing of note on the 9th, I will leave the rest of this entry to Ben, who can have some wine and then recount traveller's tales.

Ben writes: Well, I'm back from Wales having had a raucous, marvellous time. I have swum in the sea, played music to bats, walked in sunshine and stayed up well past my bedtime. It is, however, lovely to be home.

St Dogmaels Abbey, where I played

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

Elderflower Wine - Eleventh Bottle (A6), 7th-9th August 2014

I shared this bottle with Sue Jones in St Dogmaels, over grilled mackrel caught the day before. It was a lovely meal and elderflower goes well with fish. I had spent the day at a beach near Cwmtydu, some of it being swept up and down by turquoise waves.

The wine did not affect my playing of incidental music to The Merchant of Venice which was performed in the grounds of St Dogmaels Abbey. Nor did it affect my ability to down a quick pint in The White Hart afterwards.

Being on holiday is excellent.

The beach with turquoise waves

Kiwi Fruit Wine - Third Bottle (2), 7th-10th August 2014

Claire writes:

This bottle was threatening to open itself on the day that we returned from Rydal. To my "joy", Ben declared it just about acceptable that I should drink it while he is in Wales. "Yippee". I had been studiously ignoring it, but fancied something cold and a bit fizzy tonight, so bit the bullet. It is bland, inoffensive and tastes nothing like kiwi fruit*.

Watched the fist episode of Bake Off 2014. One of the contestants looks horrifyingly like my PhD supervisor. Gave me quite a turn.

The annual courgette glut has started.

Ian Eperon - the PhD supervisor

A contestant on Great British Bake Off

* She lies