Whitecurrant Wine - Final Bottle (3), 17th November 2018

This bottle did not even reach an average score of 1 at my Wine Party. It got 0.48, and my specific instructions were to rate each bottle 1-5. Whitecurrant wine, though, did not come last. I see from previous posts about Whitecurrant that I opened a bottle for my Wine Party in 2014, and this proves that Whitecurrant wine is one best drunk young.

One person (and I do not know who) wrote "Startling! Kerosene, Creosote, Vinegar" and awarded it a 0. Sooz could not even bring herself to rate it and wrote "The death of angels."

W is for Worst (but for Zucchini)

Crab Apple Wine - Thirteenth Bottle (C3), 14th March 2014

Mostly I am on the mend. My cold has improved, I am neither shivering or feverish and my desire to flop into bed is only moderate. However, the gum around my one remaining wisdom tooth has flared up again and if it is no better on Monday I will go to the dentist. It has to come out - this is becoming too frequent. Tonight I have tried to numb it with gin, followed by crab apple wine, and this is only partially successful. How very irritating. Still, once this one goes, I have no more wisdom teeth and my mouth should remain pain-free.

My dentist's

Orange Wine - Sixth Bottle (A2), 22nd August 2013

Hurrah! The Great British Bake Off is back. For the only evening this week, Claire and I were both in. She spent much of the evening on viola practice and I made wine. And, when all this was done, I cracked open a bottle of orange and we settled down to watch amateur cooks bake cakes.

The Great British Bake Off is a lovely programme: even though it is a competion and someone gets eliminated at the end of every episode, there is no cruelty to it. Claire cried when the hopeless, lovable Toby got knocked out (mostly for making his angel cake with salt, not sugar) and decided she needed to get some sense of perspective. I suspect drinking a bottle of orange wine between us on a Thursday night contributed to the emotion.

Hopeless, lovable Toby

Crab Apple - Bottle C6, 6th-7th July 2011

This was a nearly explosive mid-week bottle. We came back from our last regular WYSO rehearsal before the concert, deciding that a nightcap would be Just the Thing.

Our cellist soloist turned up on Wednesday and he is how I imagine angels must be - masculine, bearing a shock of unruly dark blond hair, and Scottish. He played the Elgar beautifully and I look forward to Saturday's concert.

When I opened the bottle the wine gushed out and my usual trick (that never works) of trying to catch the wine in my mouth did not work. I lost about half a glass before pouring some into the first receptacle that came to hand - my breakfast tea mug - but thereafter no wine was wasted. I say that, but there is currently a quarter inch left in the bottle which is mostly sediment and the plug-hole will be its destiny.