Rhubarb Wine 2019 - The Making Of...

On a wet Wednesday evening in late May, Claire and I drove to Nick's house in Morley to gather rhubarb. In previous years, Nick has delivered rhubarb to us but we were curious about his allotment and so made arrangements to visit. Nick lives within the Rhubarb Triangle and he has an impressive patch. His rhubarb originated from our garden and, whilst our plants are fine, his are flourishing. Giving rhubarb away in vast quantities helps Nick control his stock but it threatens to take over. The remainder of his allotment is well-ordered and lush and the rhubarb is kept in one (large) corner.

Between us we pulled up 6 lbs of stalks, concentrating on the pinker variety, and this was not a difficult or lengthy task. One cup of tea later we were on our way home with our haul, plus some chard plants for the garden.

I started the wine on Friday night, 31st May, whilst Claire was out rehearsing string quartets for Saturday's party. 6 lbs of rhubarb stalks is what is required for a double batch. I washed these, chopped them into slices of about 1 cm in thickness (only spilling one bowl over the floor and swearing loudly) and put them into my bucket. I added 6 lbs sugar and 12-and-a-half pints of boiling water. Rhubarb wine is really very easy!

Saturday morning I added a teaspoon of yeast and pectolase and a teaspoon and a half of nutrient. Ordinarily I would have put this into demijohns on Wednesday, but Wednesday night is WYSO night, so I did this on Thursday instead. I fished the rhubarb pieces out with a colander as far as I could and kept these in a sterilised bowl. I then used the jug, funnel and sieve method to get the (now striking pale pink) liquid into its demijohns. There was quite a gap in each demijohn by the end so I washed my hands and squeezed down the saved rhubarb, pouring the released liquid into my jug. This went into my spare bottle for topping up the demijohns.

With either great foresight or luck, I emptied the jug into the bottle after getting about three-quarters of a pint. When the jug had another half pint in, I knocked it over, spilling its contents all over everything. There was much swearing at this point, followed by a concerned wife coming into the kitchen and some frantic mopping. Not a great disaster in the grand scheme of things, but intensely annoying.

I racked this on 3rd July, less than a month from putting it into its demijohns. It got half a pint of water and 3 oz sugar divided between the two demijohns.

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

Rhubarb Wine 2017 - The Making Of...

The end result

King's Cross Station, after midnight, is a magical place. It is a huge domed space, empty of people save for a few late night revellers returning home. Last Saturday night I was one of those - reliving my youth after a 'Quarter of a Century Since Graduating from Warwick' reunion. Being in the station with Caroline, Susan and Stuart was only a short moment, but my favourite of the weekend.

Four people in their late 40s pretending to be 22 again

On Sunday 14th May I came home to find nearly 7 lbs rhubarb waiting for me to make into wine. Nick had dropped this off from his allotment on Saturday and in return was rewarded with two bottles of last year's rhubarb wine. This strikes me as a good deal which makes everyone happy. I made the rhubarb up to 9 lbs from our garden, which is the right quantity for a triple batch.

Some of our rhubarb - with flowers (which one is meant to avoid)

All the rhubarb was washed and cut up into slices - none more than an inch and most considerably less than that. I put the sliced rhubarb into my bucket and poured 20 pints of boiling water over it, releasing a wonderful scent of stewed rhubarb. My recipe requires 9 lbs of sugar for a triple batch, but I only had half of that. It being a Sunday evening after an exhausting weekend, I couldn't be arsed to go round to medium-sized Sainsburys to get more, so I put in what I had and made the rest up on Monday. I can't imagine this two-staged approach will affect the wine.

On Monday morning before work (and so before the second application of sugar) I added the yeast and a teaspoon-and-a-half each of nutrient and pectolase. By Tuesday this was frothing nicely.

Rhubarb frothing nicely (plus my foot)

I put all the liquid into my three demijohns on Friday night, 19th May. As with most wines, I removed the bulk of the fruit with a collander and then proceeded with the sieve-jug-funnel method, leaving a gap at the top of each demijohn to avoid explosions and filling a bottle with some wine for later topping-up purposes. By the time I had finished this it was eight o'clock and Claire & I were both hungry. We left the wine, pale pink and bubbling, and had a fabulous Turkish meal at 'The Olive Branch'.

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

Blackcurrant and Raspberry Wine (mostly) - The Making Of ...

The cats woke me up irritatingly early this morning, Sunday 6th July. Stanley wanted food, and on his second time of asking, forty minutes before the alarm was due to go off, I carried him downstairs and shut him in the front room. Then Aggie started making a fuss. I swore heartily at her but Claire woke and pointed out there was something wrong. Aggie was dragging her leg, but with no noticeable injury. We wonder if she has had a stroke - she is at least 17 - and we will monitor her over the next few days. Now it comes down to it, I realise I am quite fond of Aggie, despite her being the worse of cats.

Aggie

Anyway, one of my tasks this morning was to clear Julia's freezer of fruit. She had helpfully organised it so that fruit was at the top, vegetables in the middle and meat on the bottom shelf. Except beetroot seemed to be classified as 'fruit'. I checked with Claire to make sure they weren't plums. In total I came away with 4 lbs 2 oz of blackcurrants, 1 lb 2oz raspberries, 12 ½ oz of a blackberry and apple mix and a bag of redcurrants, which Claire is turning into jelly but allowing me ½ oz for the wine.

We then went to Julia's allotment to return her key - another significant moment in saying 'farewell' - and I took a small handfull of whitecurrants (¼ oz) to add to the mix. I calculate that this comes to 6 lbs 1¼ oz fruit - which is enough for a double batch.

The fruit had defrosted by Sunday evening, so I crushed it in its bucket, added 6lbs of sugar and 12 pints of boiling water. The next morning I added the yeast, two teaspoons of nutrient and one of pectolase.

On Saturday morning, 12th July, the wine went into its two demijohns. Ordinarily I would have done this a day or two earlier, but my evenings have been taken up with a less-dreadful-than-expected concert and Book Group. The wine is still bubbling away, though, and is very dark pink in colour, with what looks like a massive sediment forming. Aggie appears to have recovered, so my thoughts of a final visit to the vets were premature.

If you want to see how this wine turned out (and it was very good!), click here.

Elderflower Wine - Tenth Bottle (B2), 29th June 2014(ish)

This is the second bottle of elderflower I have given away. Mary was the grateful recipient, and it was given in thanks for having me around for a meal in between a rehearsal and concert in Ilkely. She has recently acquired an allotment, so providing a bottle was not an entirely selfless act. The elderflower is in her fridge and I drank a bellini instead. The assembled guests wondered whether this was wise  before a concert, and the answer proved to be 'yes'.

We played Wagner's Rienzi Overture, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto and Nielsen's 4th Symphony. I had not been keen on the programme, but in performance finally, finally the symphony made sense. It was exhilerating and that was unexpected. Sleep did not arrive easily on Sunday night.

Carl Nielsen

Crab Apple Wine - Seventeenth Bottle (A5),11th May 2014

There is a lot to do when someone dies, and doing it helps with the grieving. While you are filling in Probate forms and discussing funeral arrangements, it is all to do with the person you are missing so, so much and therefore includes them in the process. Most importantly within these tasks, Claire and I netted Julia's redcurrants on her allotment. The person who takes over will benefit and I have hope that I might too. It felt like the right and proper thing to do. Claire donned a bee-keeper's uniform and told the bees on the allotment that Julia had died. This, apparently, is what one does.

I opened a bottle of crab apple on Sunday night and it was a good evening, if busy, with cooking, washing up and making Vanilla Wine.

And you may be relieved to hear that I should stop banging on quite so much about Julia over the next few posts. But it has been a traumatic experience which filled every thought.

Julia's redcurrants last year

 

Vanilla Wine - The Making Of ...

A couple of weeks ago I was idly flicking through CJJ Berry when my eye was caught by 'Vanilla Wine'. I had never noticed this before, and - of course - this is the obvious choice for a wine beginning with 'V'. Yet, looking through the recipe, there is a glaring omission. For a vanilla wine, there is a distinct lack of vanilla. It called for rhubarb (six pounds), lemon (two) and hawthorn blossom (a gallon). This required serious amendment if I was to genuinely tick off the letter V. I decided that 8 pints of hawthorn blossom was ridiculous, so I have used three pints instead, and substituted a vanilla pod for the remainder. Otherwise I have (mostly) kept to CJJ Berry's ingredients and totally ignored his method.

Hawthorn Blossom on its tree

I picked the rhubarb from Julia's allotment on 10th May. This was only two days after she had died, and I found it almost too emotional. I have since been back to net her redcurrants, and that was much better. Anyway, today - Sunday 11th May - I ventured out to Stonegate Fields to pick the hawthorn blossom. Getting three pints took a fair while and having a measuring jug with me proved to be a Good Thing. I wasn't too fussy about stems or, indeed, leaves. Each pint came from a different tree, and I made a token effort only to pick open blossom, tending towards those with pink stamens.

3 Pints of Hawthorn Blossom plus a random bluebell

At home, I chopped the 6 lbs rhubarb into small pieces and put it in the bucket with 3 lbs sugar. I sliced the vanilla pod lengthways down the middle and chucked that in too. The lemons were peeled thinly and then squeezed, with both peel and juice being added.

Rhubarb and Vanilla Pod

I boiled seven pints of water and poured this into the bucket. This all sat for about ninety minutes before I tipped in the hawthorn blossom. I probably should have waited until the water cooled, but I was worried about the flowers shrivelling and turning brown.

Vanilla Wine in its Bucket

The yeast and teaspoons of nutrient and pectolase went in on Monday morning and I put the liquid into its demijohn on Friday evening, 16th May. Seven pints of water was too much. Six would have done. The wine is its usual rhubarb pink. I had a taste, and at this stage it is mostly unpleasant. Let's hope that it matures nicely.

Vanilla Wine in its Demijohn

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

Gooseberry Wine - First Bottle (6), 8th-10th May 2014

Julia died on Thursday night. Just writing that down makes it a little more real. We came home early from the Lake District to say our goodbyes. In time, my abiding memory will be of Julia-proper rather than ill-and-weak-Julia, struggling for every breath. I weep at inopportune times. At the Sainsbury's check-out wasn't great.

Claire brought me a glass of gooseberry on Thursday night whilst I was in the bath as a suitable wine to mark the occasion. The gooseberries are from Julia's allotment, of course.

I cannot convey the loss.

That's Julia, looking at the camera, singing

Rhubarb Wine 2014 - The Making Of ...

Until now, Rhubarb has always been my May wine. The winter this year, though, was incredibly mild. We had no snow and only a couple of frosts. Therefore everything is early and I find myself making Rhubarb Wine in April. Late April, admittedly, but April nevertheless.

On Saturday, 26th April, Claire and I visited Julia's allotment to pick parsley, dig up parsnips, plant garlic and collect rhubarb. This was all on instruction from Julia, who is finding it frustrating in the extreme that she is too ill to do any of this herself. She hopes that the current invalidity is temporary, and we must hope along with her.

I plucked rhubarb while Claire planted garlic, and got a couple of butch green stalks before changing tactics and going for the pinker stuff. At home I weighed what I had collected - four and a half pounds - and got the remaining pound-and-a-half from our garden. Our rhubarb is doing remarkably well. It must be all the horse poo that Claire put on it in March.

I chopped the rhubarb into small pieces and put it in the bucket. In a change to previous years (only because I did not read the instructions carefully) I added 6 lbs sugar immediately - rather than 24 hours later - and covered it with fourteen and a half pints of boiling water. I can't imagine the early addition of sugar will make any difference. The yeast and teaspoon-and-a-half of nutrient went in on Sunday morning.

On Thursday 1st May (a day on which I moved offices from central Leeds to Horsforth, thus cutting my commuting time from 52 minutes walking to 15 minutes driving) I put all the liquid into its two demijohns, sieving out and discarding the rhubarb. This took me less time than I had feared - about 30 minutes. As usual, the colour is a pleasing pastel pink.

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

Rhubarb Wine - Eleventh Bottle (B3), 13th April 2014

J is not well and I fear she only has a couple of months left. After spending 45 minutes on her allotment digging, Emma and I went to visit her in hospital. Though better than she was on Saturday, J has physically diminished. Her eyes and teeth now look too large for the rest of her face. I will cope badly when she dies.

Anyway, Emma came back to ours for a short chamber music session (the poor neighbours - we sounded dire), lots of vegetarian curry, and a bottle of rhubarb wine. This rhubarb came from J's allotment and therefore seemed appropriate. It is a good bottle - one of my favourite whites.

Rhubarb Wine - Ninth Bottle (B5), 16th February 2014

Today has been the first day this year where I have believed that Spring may eventually come. Being outside, digging on Julia's allotment, has contributed to this feeling. The rhubarb is poking through in our garden, suggesting that more temperate weather is on its way. Claire and I were going to collect horse poo from the local stables to help the rhubarb along, but we spent too long on the allotment to put this plan into action.

Rhubarb wine seemed the natural choice for tonight, and it is a good bottle. There is something substantial to it and I can't describe it more accurately than that. It is a white wine with body and went well with homemade pizza. My favourite variety was the one with roquefort and artichoke hearts. Just lovely.

Apple Wine - The Making Of ...

I have made apple wine only once before, and that used a ridiculous quantity of fruit - 24 lbs of windfalls. This time my recipe is more sensible, but largely invented.

Apple wine was not one I had planned, but Julia required some emergency apple picking yesterday, Saturday 14th September. It was a balmy early autumn day but the forecast for Sunday was gales and rain. Therefore Julia had to get much of the fruit off her trees to avoid widespread apple catastrophe. As we had no plans for the afternoon, Claire and I went to help and inevitably my thoughts turned to wine-making as I filled sacks with apples. Julia has five apple trees, and I got some off each one, though I shall keep the russets for eating. Of the remaining four, one was a Bramley, one a John something and I do not know the other two. I will try to find out and put in a foot note later.

Five varieties of apple

The apples picked were mostly not quite ripe, and we probably got less than a third off the trees. In fact, the gales that were threatened have yet to arrive and there has been a good deal of sunshine today, so emergency fruit picking was premature.

I have loosely based my recipe on C J J Berry's, but it is a distant cousin. I chopped 6 lbs of apples into small pieces and put them in our largest pan. These were covered with 6½ pints of water and brought to the boil, then simmered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile I put 3 lbs sugar, thinly peeled lemon rind, juice from the lemon and 4 oz minced sultanas in the bucket.

Apples in the pan - 6 lbs with the water only just fit

After the apples had done their 15 minutes, I poured them and the water into the bucket and stirred to dissolve the sugar. In fact, some of the water missed and ended up over the kitchen floor, but probably less than half a pint. It turns out that the remaining amount of water was just about perfect - I have ended up with less than a quarter of a pint of extra liquid.  Anyway, I added the yeast (champagne variety), pectolase and nutrient on Monday morning, 16th September, and sieved the liquid into the demijohn on Thursday evening, 19th September. This took a long time as the apples had turned into puree and I had to be careful not to get the 'solid' (not that it bears this desciption with ease) into the demijohn. Instead, I got much of it over my shirt. Clean on today, too. Bah!

The wine is cloudy with just a hint of sunset to its colour.

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

Whitecurrant Wine - The Making Of ...

Whitecurrants are misnamed. Beigecurrants would be the more accurate description. But I am pleased that this misnomer exists, because it means I get to tick the letter 'W' off my alphabet of wine. When Julia mentioned her whitecurrant bushes looked promising this year, my ears pricked up for this reason. On hearing that they needed netting to defeat the birds, I drove to her allotment as quickly as residential speed limits would allow. Then I made space in a busy Saturday, 20th July, to go and pick them.

Whitecurrants are more difficult to pick that their red siblings. The bushes are lower, which involved crouching and sitting and getting badly stung by nettles. Several hours later my hands were still throbbing. The fruit grows in strings, hanging below the branches and, as with redcurrants, I picked the fruit on their stems, and made no effort to remove the greenery.

I came away from the allotment with 2 lbs 15¼ oz of whitecurrants. The recipe calls for 3 lbs, and I looked on my harvesting as 'Efficient' rather than 'Three Quarters of an Ounce Short'.

I washed the currants on Sunday 21st July, put them in their bucket and crushed them. I dissolved 2 lbs 12oz sugar in six pints of water, brought this to the boil and poured it over the fruit. On Monday morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase.

I sieved out the currants on Friday 26th July and put the liquid into its demijohn. The amount of water was spot on. This, I think, is the palest wine I have made. I hope this does not translate into a dull flavour.

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

Redcurrant Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

Several weeks ago I helped Julia net her redcurrants. She thought they looked promising but knew that without a net they would serve only as bird food. This was a wise thing to do. The redcurrants are abundant.

Ruby clusters

I made arrangements to meet Julia on the allotment this morning, Sunday 14th July. It being fabulous weather - we are getting a proper summer, the first we have had for years - I forsook my beloved Broadcasting House and turned up with Claire at 9:30. Despite the early hour it was already hot and we needed suncream.

The picking was easy. Redcurrants hung off the bush in ruby clusters. I stood in one place and filled a container and then a bag. There was no effort involved. If I thought I was coming to the end of a spot, I only needed to look at a slightly different angle, and a whole new redcurrant seam would be revealed.

I had only intended to make a single batch of wine, but we came away with enough for a double, enough for recurrant jelly and a few more besides. Claire weighed out six pounds while I was out picking strawberries. On my return I washed them and put them in the bucket, without stripping the fruit from their stalks. Crushing the redcurrants took very little time. I boiled twelve pints of water with five-and-a-half pounds of sugar dissolved in it (but in two stages) and poured this over the mix.

Six pounds of redcurrants (and some camomile)

On Monday morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of pectolase and nutrient. Ordinarily wine takes 24 hours or more to show signs of fermentation. Not in this weather. It is bubbling away happily 12 hours later.

I sieved out the fruit, putting the wine into its demijohns on Thursday 18th July. This was a quicker process than I had feared, and it needed to be. Tonight has been a busy evening - what with rescuing Claire from a house that would not lock and doing a spot of emergency tidying. The wine's colour is a fabulous magenta.

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

Gooseberry Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

I arrived home last night, 28th June, to the message that Julia's whitecurrants were in urgent need of netting and the gooseberries were ready to be plucked. Now, I am particularly keen on preserving the whitecurrants as they will tick off another letter from my wine alphabet project, so I arrived at Julia's allotment at just after ten this morning. It was a fine day and after a quick inspection of her plot, including a brand new high-tech been hive and a plum tree laden with more fruit than it knows what to do with, I set to work on the gooseberry bush.

There were plenty of berries, but most were not yet ripe. I concentrated on the largest fruits and this involved practically crawling underneath the bush. Nearly twelve hours later my arms look as if I have been tormenting Aggie when she is in a ferocious mood. However, the scars are worth it. I came away with exactly six pounds of gooseberries and safe in the knowledge that the whitecurrants were securely netted.

At home I weighed and washed the fruit and intended to spend the afternoon picking elderflowers. Instead, I got otherwise distracted and decided the elderflowers could wait a day.

Washing the fruit

In the evening, after cooking a particularly delicious pork, cashew nut and lime stir-fry and bottling my blackberry wine, I sliced the gooseberries using the food processor. This was a much faster and less painful process than trying to crush them with a potato masher, which has been my method in previous years. I have added 3 lbs of sugar and 6 pints of boiling water. This is a simpler, quicker method than directed by C J J Berry and I suspect just as effective. I put the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase into the mix the following morning.

I sieved the liquid into its demijohn on Thursday night, 4th July. It is an opaque phlegm-coloured mix, and I predict a relatively large sediment. I have filled the demijohn to its neck and this may prove to be a mistake.

The space between the liquid and the neck

 shows how much wine bubbled out

Elderflower Wine - Eleventh Bottle (B2), 31st May 2013

The very best bit of Friday was standing in Julia's allotment enjoying the late evening sun. It has been the coldest spring for 50 years and some days we still rely on the central heating, but Friday was lovely. I was at the allotment to net her redcurrants. The pigeons have been causing havoc and I hope to make redcurrant wine this year. So when I got a call for help I drove over immediately.

The rest of the evening was spent getting slowly sozzled while listening to Radio 4 and spending quality time with Claire. This is how Fridays should be spent.

Rhubarb Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

It has been a busy Sunday. Technically Claire and I are still on holiday, having returned from a fabulous week in Gloucestershire only yesterday. However, today - 12th May - has been industrious. I have made bread, done the weekly shop, washed more dishes than is reasonable, practised the impossible fourth movement of Britten's Sea Interludes, started my dandelion wine, bottled 2012's crab apple wine, made onion gravy, dug some of Julia's allotment and still had time to start this year's Rhubarb Wine.

Julia's enormous rhubarb patch

Julia has an enormous rhubarb patch and she encouraged me to take lots. I pulled up several stalks, mostly remembering to grip from the base so that they made a satisfying 'pop' as they came away from the root. This way I got four pounds of rhubarb, and Claire harvested me a further two pounds from our patches at home. I don't think she trusts me not to destroy our plants. There is one stalk from her grandmother's patch and three from Shirley's (which is the pinkest of the lot).

I sliced each stalk thinly and put them all in my bucket. I have covered this with fourteen-and-a-half pints of boiling water and will leave it just over 24 hours.

When I got home from work on Monday evening, 13th May, I added six pounds of sugar, the yeast and two teaspoons of nutrient. Then on Friday I transferred it all into the demijohns, sieving out the rhubarb while listening to Michael Tippet's First Symphony on Radio 3. This was a long, sticky process but has produced a delightful candy-pink liquid. I have not filled the demijohns to the neck as I suspect the fermentation will be violent.

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

Dandelion Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

The raw ingredients

 I thought I had missed the dandelions this year. Generally dandelion wine is one to make in April. Today is 11th May. However, we suffered the coldest April in decades, meaning everything is late flowering. Walking through Gloucestershire fields last week, it became apparent that the dandelions were just hitting their peak, meaning there would be no problem getting enough 100 miles north in Leeds. I mentioned my quest for dandelions to Julia when discussing relieving her of several rhubarb stalks and she told me there were plenty of them surrounding her allotment. I would be doing her a favour to take as many as I needed before they turned into clocks.

The weather this Sunday afternoon was not ideal for picking dandelions. Generally one wants bright sunshine so that the flowers are fully open. Instead my only choice was drizzle. The dandelions were mostly three-quarters open, and this was good enough. I took a measuring jug and plastic bag with me and collected six pints of flowers, which was about half an hour's work.

Back at home I put all the dandelions in a bucket and collected a handful more from our back garden. I poured over 7 pints of boiling water and I am now meant to let them sit until Tuesday. My timetable does not allow for that, so I will do the next stage late on Monday night instead.

Before the water went into the bucket

I arrived back from Airedale at 10:15 p.m. already tired and set to work. The dandelions and liquid were poured into the big pan and set to boil. This revealed several blades of grass and a slug. It was a very small slug, but a slug nonetheless. I removed it and will pretend I did not see it.

I sliced thin peel off two lemons and an orange and put these peelings in the pan. Three pounds of sugar went in and I boiled it all for ten minutes. Meanwhile I minced a pound of raisins and juiced the citrus fruit, and these ingredients went into the (slug-free) bucket. I poured over the pan contents and left it over night (during which I slept remarkably badly). On Tuesday morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient, pectolase and tannin. I put this into its demijohn on Friday, 17th May. It is remarkably brown, but smells fabulous.

Remarkably brown wine

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

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine 2012 - The Making Of ...

Soft fruit is ripening later than usual this year. It is no surprise - the weather has been diabolical. But as gooseberries are just coming into their own, and elderflowers are still abundant, it made sense to do this wine again. 2011's vintage is extremely good, so have decided to do a double batch.

I met Julia at the allotment on Saturday afternoon, 23rd June, during a rare break from the rain. The day before we had June's monthly average rainfall in just 24 hours. Julia has several gooseberry bushes and we picked fruit from a couple - taking the larger berries in the hope that this would allow the smaller ones to swell in time for a second picking. Between us we picked 8 lbs 4 oz and in return I dug two patches of ground for her. One of these involved taking out several butch thistles. These come out with a pleasing 'pop', their tap root in tact.

Then on Sunday, around noon, I went to pick my elderflowers. Claire and I had gone to Pannal to play chamber music with some WYSO string players, practising for a surreal-sounding concert on 21 July which is to fuse classical music with Hip-Hop. Once my bit was over I wandered to the parish church, where I had seen an elder tree, and picked about half a plastic-bag's worth.

Back at home I stripped the flowers (Radio 4 at hand, as always) which came to seven-eighths of a pint. I measured 6 lbs of gooseberries and put these, the flowers and 1 lb of minced sultanas into the bucket. I then had a frustrating and difficult time trying to crush the berries with a potato masher. Claire made it better by bringing me a gin & tonic and helping cut the berries with our super-sharp knife.

(Quick aside - I have just fettled Claire's hiccups by shouting BOO at her very loudly.)

I added 12 pints of boiling water and 5 lbs 8 oz sugar. The yeast and about a teaspoon each of pectolase and nutrient went in on Monday morning, 25th June. I sieved out the fruit and flowers on Friday evening, 29th June, and put it into its two demijohns. This was a tedious task as the liquid took an age to drain through the sieve. The wine is possible the brownest that I have made, which does not fill me with hope. I anticipate a large sediment.

Brown wine (plus Quince ready for bottling to the right)

*

To get my first impressions on the first bottle click here. I'm not sure what I did wrong!