Xmas Tutti Fruti 2020 - Second Bottle (A5), 15th January 2022

I took this bottle to York with me, where we had a lovely weekend with my parents. Mom cooked 'Biochemist's Lamb' and we spent the evening drinking and chatting. Pop had several helpings from this bottle so I think he enjoyed it. Rightly so! It is a light, fruity red with a touch of fizz.

On Sunday I went to the Unitarian Chapel with Mom & Pop and quite enjoyed it. I have little spirituality, though, and had to suppress that. The best element was the music: there was a terrific pianist who played Piazolla, Janacek and Lionel Bart!

Taken on 15th January

Cherry Wine 2018 - Fifth Bottle (1), 19th July 2021

As Sunday was an entirely sober evening, we were justified in opening and finishing a bottle on Monday. Also, it was Pop's 80th birthday so that was cause for celebration. We had spent the weekend in York, which was more convenient than being there on the Big Day itself.

The cherry wine was far better than I had expected. Claire used 'medicinal' to describe it, but not in a bad way. There was something rich and deep about its taste and maybe Cherry is one that matures well.

Pop, and the cake that I made him.

Blackcurrant Wine 2019 - Eleventh Bottle (B5), 27th June 2021

A Sunday bottle of wine. The day had been quiet, though pleasant. We had meant to go to York, but the car being repaired at the garage put a stop to that. Probably it is time to replace it, but that prospect does not fill me with joy. Instead I made a Coffee & Cranberry Loaf.

We drank this blackcurrant wine, which is excellent, to a roast chicken dinner and some of the best gravy that Claire has ever made. It is the redcurrant jelly that makes the difference.

Cranberry & Coffee Loaf

Rhubarb, Elderflower & Mint 2020 - Second Bottle (5), 5th June 2021

The week has been a veritable social whirl: to York on Tuesday for Mom's 80th, Book Group on Friday (albeit virtual) and then a proper dinner party at Angie & Phil's on Saturday. Yes, we spent most of it outside, but that was because it was a lovely summer's evening rather than a Government Edict for the Protection of Society. It was a marvelous evening and felt so normal. Life will return to much as it used to be and we are on the first steps of that.

I took this wine at Liz's request and it is an excellent bottle. So much so that I may make a double batch this year.

Angie's recipe for Rhubarb & Custard Cake

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2020 - Second Bottle (2), 23rd May 2021

I am a weak man. After Saturday's excesses I thought that I would have an evening away from the booze. But then Claire said that she would quite like a bottle opening and I found myself in the cupboard under the stairs fishing out a bottle of Prune & Parsnip. Oh well.

The day had been excellent. I spent much of the morning wandering around York trying to see it as a tourist might (and there were lots of tourists there). Then it was Big Breakfast and a game of Scrabble with Mom & Claire - Proper Actual Scrabble rather than playing virtually on-line. I lost badly, but that is only slightly important. The wine was actually a fitting end to the day.

Our Scrabble Game

Rose Petal and Orange Wine 2019 - Fourth Bottle (1), 22nd May 2021

Lockdown has taken a significant move towards release. We can now visit people indoors and stay over night. Our first visit, therefore, was to York where we spent Saturday night with my parents, the Eurovision Song Contest and this bottle of Rose Petal & Orange which I think everyone enjoyed. It retains its buttery smoothness.

Spending time with Mom & Pop was wonderful and, of course, immediately felt normal. Getting rapidly drunk on a Saturday night at Heworth Green is such a pleasure! As was Eurovision - as ridiculous and camp as ever. And we watched it exchanging WhatsApp messages with Todd & Anne, who were sharing the experience 8,000 miles away. 

A picture I took in York the following day

Blackcurrant & Raspberry Wine 2020 - Second Bottle, 11th-13th April 2021

Sunday was a day of many pleasures. The best of these was spending time in the garden of 60 Heworth Green, huddled around an outdoor stove chatting with Chris, Kate and my parents. It has been months since I have seen any of them and though we were there for only 90 minutes, it was glorious. We were snowed upon but that just made it all the more memorable.

In the evening we had another virtual dinner party with Rachel & Duncan, where this was our second bottle opened, after a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate Cornelia Gruntfuttock's birthday. The wine is excellent and I will save a bottle for Rachel & Duncan to taste when we eventually see them in person.

The snow came later

Orange Wine 2016 - Final Bottle (A1), 26th-27th January 2021

Orange wine is not one that becomes steadily better with age. This was not an awful bottle but was distinctly mid-week. It had that hint of fortified wine that older bottles often acquire. On a personal level very little happened of any note on the two days that we drank this. I made a fabulous beetroot & goat's cheese risotto but that was about it. On a national level, the UK passed 100,000 deaths from Corona Virus. That is about the population of York.

A Hellebore flowering in our garden

Blackberry Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

What an unusually busy weekend we have just had. Saturday was spent yomping in the North York Moors with Bob & Judith - the first time that we have seen them since January. Then on Sunday, 23rd August, we went to York to pick blackberries and see my parents, whose 56th wedding anniversary it was.

Sarah Moore's grave

We arrived at the cemetery at around 11 and mostly went our separate ways to collect brambles. Claire found a bountiful patch that was sufficiently overgrown to be secluded and which led to a bee hive. I was rather less successful, finding the odd stem laden with fruit here and there, but mostly found whole areas where the blackberries were already rotten or covered in grey mould. 

Claire picking blackberries

During this search I coincided with a man and his pre-teen children: Elliot and Isobel, who were enthusiastic bramble pickers. Isobel had a large tub full of blackberries, reserved for crumble, and they were interested in how I turned blackberries into wine. The father commented that the beauty of the cemetery was that there was enough fruit for everyone. "Yes," I agreed, secretly not agreeing at all and seeing him and his children very much as the competition. We went our separate ways and finally, finally I found an excellent area for foraging - near to, but behind, the chapel. Here the graves were Mary Ann Nightingale and her husband George, Sarah Moore and Jane Oldfield. Earlier I had picked from Harriet Atkinson and Robert Burton. Thomas Douthwaite did not figure this year: his grave had been cleared of brambles.

Near the Chapel

Once back in Leeds I weighed the fruit. I had picked 4 lbs 1 oz and Claire won convincingly with 6 lbs 5oz. I used 8 lbs, putting the rest in the freezer, and mashed them in my bucket. I poured in 5 lbs 12 oz of sugar and 11¼ pints of boiling water (though could have used half a pint less). Next morning I added the yeast (Mangrove Jack's R56), 1½ teaspoons of nutrient and a teaspoon of pectolase.

Blackberries in their bucket

I put the wine into its demijohns on Friday 28th August whilst listening to the first Prom of 2020 - played to an empty Albert Hall. And now I have two demijohns of blackberry wine bubbling away.

Two demijohns of Blackberry Wine

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

Blackberry Wine 2019 - Second Bottle (B1), 23rd-24th August 2020

Blackberry Wine felt like the appropriate bottle for Sunday. We had returned from York with 10 lbs of blackberries between us and I was in the process of turning them into wine. It had been a lovely day; as well as spending time foraging for blackberries, we ate Big Breakfast with my parents and Simon Weeds sat outside in the garden and then Claire won at Scrabble.

The wine was a solid red with an earthy taste. We saved half the bottle for Monday night where, unusually, we watched nothing on telly but had an early night instead.

Taken on 24th August - one of my regular walks

Ginger Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

A new decade and an old favourite for the wine. I started the wine on 4th January: the first Saturday of the year. It was a lazy day and one of the few days of the Christmas holiday period which Claire and I had to ourselves. Naturally, I spent it making wine. Thinking back, we did entertain Liz briefly, who came over to return my corker and watch me bottle my dandelion wine.

The ginger ingredients

 (other than sugar, water and yeast)

For this wine I did exactly what I did the last several times that I have made it, but I will write it all down again in tedious detail just in case you, dear reader, are interested.

First of all I weighed 6 oz of root ginger and then took off all its skin and any knobbly bits that were too small to bother with. I chopped the ginger into very thin slices and put this into my bucket. I minced 1 lb sultanas (as always, using the food processor) and put these in too. Next I took the outer layer of skin off four lemons, being moderately successful in avoiding the pith, put the skin into the bucket and the squeezed lemon juice in as well. I boiled 3-and-a-half pints of water and poured this in too.

The ingredients before processing

On Sunday afternoon, before going over to York to see Rachael, Paul and Myles, who were up from Leicester, I poured in another 3-and-a-half pints of boiling water and 2 lbs 8 oz sugar, stirring it all until the sugar dissolved. We had a lovely afternoon and evening in York. Myles, who is on the cusp of his seventh birthday, has decided to go vegetarian. Not a particularly strict one - chicken nuggets may count as a vegetarian meal - but Rachael and Paul have decided to respect his choice as far as possible. Whilst we all ate lamb, Myles had bean balls coated in bread crumbs. Anyway, back at home I put in a teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient and pectolase.

Giving the wine a stir

On Thursday evening, 9th January, I put the liquid into its demijohn. Yet again, 7 pints of water (using UK measurements) proved exactly right. One would think that I have made this before. The ginger wine is a yellowy-beige colour and bubbling with enthusiasm.

The wine in its demijohn.

I racked this on 16th February. At this stage the wine was still bubbling a little. It had a promising gingery taste and I fit in slightly more than half a pint of water with 2 oz sugar dissolved.

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

Cherry Wine - Third Bottle (4), 21st December 2019

I took this bottle to York with me as something a little bit different to foist onto my parents. They claimed to like it, but I think it has a vaguely poisonous aftertaste and Claire refuses to drink it. I hope Mom and Pop don't think that I am trying to speed up the inheritance! We didn't quite finish the bottle and there is still a glass or so lurking in my parents' fridge.

It was a lovely evening in which Mom served duck in rice and I recorded Pop telling the familiar tale of how he and Mom met on a train to San Francisco. This included the events immediately before that, which I had not known - how he travelled to America by boat and where he changed trains.

At a Chamber Music Party, the day after I drank this bottle

Apple Wine 2016 - Final Bottle (6), 22nd February 2020

Apple wine and roast gammon with mustard - a winning combination. Claire described this wine as akin to apple-y sherry and the further I got down the bottle, the better it became. Saturday began in York - where I won at Scrabble - and ended slumped in front of the stove not really concentrating on a Midsomer Murders.

Nothing to do with the wine, but I took this photo the following day.

Magnolia Petal Wine - First Bottle (3), 21st March 2020

Whilst 'Magnolia Petal Wine' sounds like it should be poisonous, it is in fact rather good. There is an unusual herby taste to it and it is quite different to any other wine that I have made. Behind that herb, you can taste the lemon. There is a sweetness to it - not at dessert wine level, but if you want something bone dry this is not the wine for you.

I opened the bottle in York, where we went to visit my parents despite government instructions not to. Mom is very clear that she will not be put into lockdown. However, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot continue to visit for the time being. I hate it and had a small weep as I left them today (Sunday). Probably their health will stay constant. Probably we will all come through this unscathed. Probably.

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

Blackberry Wine 2019 - The Making Of...

Last year I learnt that sometimes Blackberry Wine is not exclusively to be made in September. I do not plan to make that mistake twice.

Fruit has generally been early to ripen this year, so Claire and I first visited York Victorian Cemetery to inspect blackberries on Sunday 11 August. Whilst it was clear that blackberry season had only just begun, the berries that were ready were the largest, most luscious blackberries that I have encountered. After only about half an hour's foraging we had more than 3 lbs between us.

The following Sunday we were in York again, making sure that Pop was alright in Mom's absence now Keith and Jaki had returned up north. He was fine and all three of us went to the cemetery to gather blackberries. This time we got nearly 7 lbs. For a triple batch I need 12 lbs of blackberries, so we went a third time on 25th August, making it a hat-trick of weekends in York - this time the excuse was to see Mom, freshly back from her 60th High School Reunion in Nebraska. It was a hot day and Pop and I went to the cemetery ourselves to finish the job. This was idyllic - the sun beat down and the place was full of birdsong. I had a lovely hour with my father, chatting about this and that, discussing blackberries and getting nettle-stung.

My father, picking blackberries

(I love this photo of him)

The graves I must mention are (as always) Thomas Douthwaite - though his patch is so overgrown you can no longer see his grave -; Margaret Ann, Corporal W and John Doughty Pratt; Dorothy and John William Dobson; George Carlill (a slater); and Walter & Annabel Chambers. Claire picked from Dorothy Akers, who was only 9 when she died, and possibly Fanny Taylor, the beloved wife of Alfred Watson (solicitor of this town).

On Monday morning, 26th August, I mashed the blackberries and added 8 lbs sugar and 16 pints of boiling water. This cooled over the (hot and humid) day and I added a teaspoon each of yeast and pectolase, and two teaspoons of nutrient that evening. By Saturday night, 31st August, the liquid was ready for the demijohns. This went without a hitch and I now have three demijohns full of potentially delicious blackberry wine.

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

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Seventh Bottle (A3), 13th July 2019

Rachael and Myles were in York on Saturday evening and Claire had abandoned me to paint pottery in Northallerton. Rather than spending an evening alone, I went to York (the second time in a week) and took a bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti with me. The wine was good: dry, interesting: and I drank most of it. My favourite part of Saturday night, oddly, was doing the washing up with Rachael helping. It is rare that the two of us are together by ourselves and when we are we generally have intense conversations. Saturday was no exception.

Rhubarb, Mint & Elderflower Wine - First Bottle (3) 8th June 2019

Yet again, this flavour is fabulous and proves that I should make it every year. It has a freshness and lightness and is very drinkable indeed. There is a hint of mint that Claire believes should not be any stronger - it would be unfortunate to have a toothpaste-flavoured wine. I think it is more subtle than that, but will take her advice and not increase the mint in this year's batch.

We drank the wine in York, where my parents were surprised by our arrival. I had told them a couple of weeks ago, but crucially they had not marked it on the calendar. Despite, or maybe because of, the surprise, it was a lovely evening.

Spearmint

Rose Petal 2015 - Sixteenth Bottle (C1), 17th May 2019

I took this bottle over to York with me on Friday night, where my parents are entertaining Troy, my second cousin once removed. Apparently I have met him once before; when I was 11; but all I remember is his younger brother's drum kit. He had a Myers' look to him and the same rambling eloquence, and it was a genuine pleasure to meet him. I'm not sure what Troy thought of the wine, though. He had a glass (and also the final, somewhat murky last half glass) but mostly stuck to the beer.

This wine has not aged badly at all - the rose flavour is more subtle than other vintages and it has a slightly sweet but still refreshing taste.

Kiwi Fruit Wine - First Bottle (2), 14th April 2019

"If I was served this in a pub, I would be disappointed but I wouldn't complain."

This was Claire's verdict on Kiwi fruit wine. The main problem is that this wine is too sweet. Otherwise, it is mostly bland. Beautifully clear, though, despite my misgivings when making it. We drank the bottle after a Sunday spent in York, partly to see Mom & Pop, and partly to have a wander round York Open Studios - where I bumped into may people connected with my teenage years.

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

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2018 - The Making Of...

Though I pretend not to, and despite being distinctly grumpy at work, I do enjoy Christmas. More accurately, I enjoy the feasting, the friends and family, and the sheer laziness of it. Today, Sunday 23rd December, has emphasized the last of these. I got up late and, other than a jaunt out to pick up provisions from Harehills, I have done very little. Or 'very little' unless one counts wine-making, which personally I don't. A hobby does not fall into the category of 'chore' (though rinsing and sterilising equipment is never exciting).

This afternoon I began my Christmas Tutti Fruti, though this has only consisted of digging fruit out of the freezer, weighing it and putting it into my bucket to defrost. In total I have 8 lbs and ¾ oz of fruit, which is enough for a double batch. Taking the fruit in the order that I added it I have:

Quince - ¾ oz

• Elderberries - 6 ¾ oz
• Blackberries - 7 ½ oz
• Strawberries - 10 ½ oz
• Rosehips - ¾ oz
• Sloes - 12 ½ oz
• Blackcurrants - 3 lbs, 3½ oz
• Redcurrants - ½ oz
• Raspberries - 4 oz
• Gooseberries - 1 lb 6½ oz
• Apple - 9 oz
• Satsuma - One (weighing in at 2 oz)

I left the fruit overnight to defrost. That evening, my Christmas started in earnest with Christmas carolling round the neighbourhood, organised by Angie for St Gemma
's Hospice. This is the event which marks the beginning of Yuletide for me - it is a pleasure to sing carols half-remembered from my youth, in a group where virtually everyone else can sing in four-part harmony.

The crushed fruit, with sugar added

On Christmas Eve I waited until 3 p.m. and the strains of Once in Royal David's City from King's College, Cambridge before mashing the fruit. I added 5½ lbs sugar and 12 pints of boiling water and gave it all a good stir, crushing any whole gooseberries I found with the back of the wooden spoon. The yeast, nutrient, pectolase and a small quantity of tannin went in on Christmas Day.

The fruit, fermenting in its bucket

I left the wine mostly unstirred (on account of being in Newcastle and York) until Sunday, 30th December, when I put the wine into demijohns. The wine has the most sludge that I can remember and made the process long and sticky. The following morning I weighed the discarded fruit. From the original 8 lbs, it now weighs 3½. The rest must be juice.