Xmas Tutti Fruti 2019 - Tenth Bottle (B2), 30th July 2021

We are on holiday. And this time the holiday will involve going away from home! After the disaster that was 2020, Rydal is back on. Whether sitting in a confined space blowing down my bassoon with 40 friends surrounding me is entirely sensible remains to be seen, but I cannot express my joy sufficiently. Friday, though, was exceptionally busy at work and a bottle of wine afterwards was a given. I didn't really pay much attention to this flavour - I was more interested in the effect. The day's edges became suitably blurred.

Taken on 30th July. I like the idea of a shop where
those plotting evil deeds buy their food and drink.

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2019 - Ninth Bottle (A4), 19th June 2021

Having opened a sub-standard bottle of Apple & Strawberry, I opted instead for a Christmas Tutti Fruti. It was a Saturday night after all, and therefore an evening to have something nice. Also we needed plenty of alcohol to dissolve the heat from our meal - 'Devil's Curry', which was as blistering as it sounds. On finishing this bottle we reached again for the Apple & Strawberry which was, perhaps, a mistake. The rest of the night is a barely remembered blur.

My bassoon and reeds - taken on 19 June

Nectarine Wine - Final Bottle (3), December 2020 - 21st May 2021

I can't remember when exactly I opened this bottle (it was before Christmas), but it was a wine that both Claire and I rejected for being Too Nasty. Rather than do the sensible thing and pour it down the sink, I put a cork in the bottle and stored it in the porch. There it stayed until this week, and I have had a glass most nights. It is just drinkable and that is good enough for me. 

On Friday night I was very much out of sorts (see Orange 2020 for an explanation) and finished the bottle, knowing that I would wake on Saturday with a headache. I woke on Saturday with a headache.

A photo from earlier in the week. Orchestra is Back!!!

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2021 - The Making Of...

Saturday 6th February was a dismal day. I woke to heavy rain and it did not let up throughout the lighted hours. When Claire suggested that I drive to collect the week's groceries rather than walk to Chapel Allerton, I took little persuading. Whilst I prefer to buy my parsnips from the independent Fruit Stall, carrying home 4 lbs of them together with my other shopping in a downpour would have been entirely miserable, so I drove to Sainsbury's instead.

Prunes and Parsnips

I left the wine-making until Sunday, 7th February, which was a much more productive and happy day. I managed to have a 5 mile walk, do a modicum of bassoon practice, make a 'Fly Leg' cake (no flies were harmed in the process) and make my Prune & Parsnip wine. The wine making was done whilst listening to the whole of Hansel and Gretel on Radio 3 - such a fabulous opera, and I know nothing else by Humperdinck.

Parsnips, sliced and in the pan of water

Anyway, to make the wine I sliced 4 lbs of parsnips into small bits and put them into 16 pints of cold water, bringing this up to the boil and then simmering for 20 minutes. (This was done in two lots.) Meanwhile, I snipped up 1 lb of prunes, each prune into 4 or so pieces, and put these in my bucket along with 5 lbs 8 oz sugar. When the parsnips had boiled their 20 minutes, I poured the water into the bucket through a colander and threw out the vegetables.

An enthusiastic fermentation

On Monday morning I added a teaspoon of pectolase, a teaspoon and a half of nutrient and two teaspoons of yeast (though I started the yeast first in a jug with a bit of sweetened water, because I am suspicious of this yeast brand). The wine fermented enthusiastically in its bucket until Saturday morning, 13th February, at which point I put it into its two demijohns, this time listening to Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite. The wine is far lighter, far more golden, than it has ever been before.

The wine in its demijohns

Elderberry Wine 2018 - Fourth Bottle (B5), 1st November 2020

What a fabulous bottle of wine! This elderberry is smooth as velvet and dark as midnight. We drank it to a venison sausage casserole towards the end of a proper Sunday. I listened to Broadcasting House in the bath, had a long yet local walk, played Scrabble with my mother (she won) and did a modicum of bassoon practice. Then in the evening we ate and drank well, ending the night in front of the fire watching Line of Duty. This is definitely how Sundays should be spent.

A tree with a heart, encountered on my walk

Rhubarb Wine 2018 - Ninth Bottle (C5), 15th-17th August 2020

Claire didn't hate this wine! Demijohn C must therefore be acceptable in some way that Demijohns A and B are not. However, she only had a small portion of this bottle, having drunk too much on Friday night.

I spent Saturday clearing stuff out of our broken fridge-freezer and then putting it into our new one. More interestingly (barely), I took my bassoon over to Bingley for it to be repaired. It has needed a service for several years and has now stopped playing its lowest notes. I very much hope that this will not be terminal! Nearly a week later I have yet to hear the prognosis.

Leaving this bottle so long between finishing it and writing about it, I cannot bring its taste to mind. Much like other rhubarb wines, I expect.

A photo taken on 15 August

Orange Wine 2016 - Eleventh Bottle (A3), 14th May 2020

Thursday was not a good day. There is water dripping through our kitchen ceiling and I found out that Eric from Brooke North's post room and Renate have both died. Eric was killed by prostate cancer and Renate by a weak heart. She died alone and in November, and that makes me sad. A genealogist is trying to find out if there are any relatives, but I will not be able to shed any light on that. Anyway, we had finished the orange wine by the time I was rung by Mike about Renate, so I did not raise a glass to her. Next bottle, though ...

In memory of a fellow bassoonist

And here we both are, about 7 years ago

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2017 - Tenth Bottle (B4), 22nd-23rd November 2019

This bottle was one of those rare creatures that we opened on a Friday and finished on a Saturday. Even more unusual, unless one counts a Negroni each on Friday, we didn't have anything else to drink either night. This is mostly explained by the presence of a WYSO concert on Saturday. I didn't want a hangover on the day and by the time we finished it was rather late.

The concert went brilliantly and I was stood up for particular applause for the bassoony bit in Alborado del Gracioso by Ravel. In case you hadn't noticed, I thrive on being centre of attention.

The altar in the church we performed

 (and taken on 23 November 2019)

Blackberry Wine 2017 - Fifteenth Bottle (A1), 7th-8th February 2020

Bizarrely, after reading the above two entries, I was a little disappointed with this wine - certainly on the Friday evening. By Saturday I thought it had improved. But I did not get the mouthful of blackberries sometimes experienced. Both nights the wine followed performances of Don Giovanni done by Leeds Youth Opera, where I was playing second bassoon in the pit. It has been an exhausting week but one thoroughly worth doing. There are some talented youngsters in Leeds. It has left me with a head full of music, which is lovely unless I am trying to sleep.

First and Second Bassoon in the Pit

Elderberry Wine 2016 - Tenth Bottle (A5), 4th April 2020

The National Theatre is releasing plays on YouTube whilst the entire country is required to stay indoors. Last night, Claire and I shared a bottle of elderberry wine whilst watching One Man, Two Guv'nors. It was a light-hearted farce; patently silly with some excellent physical humour and just what is required in strange times like these. Great bottle of elderberry too.

I had spent much of the day working in the garden: digging out clay to form a vegetable bed. Gardening is much like bassoon practice: I never want to start, but once I am doing it, I actively enjoy it. I haven't touched my bassoon for nearly two weeks.

Hellebores in our garden

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Eighth Bottle (A6), 16th-17th January 2019

On Wednesday and Thursday I really should have done some bassoon practice. There is a concert on Sunday and my lip has yet to recover from the Christmas lull. Instead, I drank prune and parsnip wine. It is a tasty bottle, but not a true substitute for getting those tricky semi-quavers under my fingers. Still, there is always Friday - so plenty of time to prepare. Nothing remarkable happened either day; the most exciting thing was seeing two cars collide in slow-motion outside work.

Rose Petal & Orange Wine - Second Bottle (5), 24th-25th October 2018

Wednesday evening was dominated by Beethoven. We are playing his Sixth Symphony at WYSO, and it is a long, high blow for first bassoon. By the end of the evening my lip had collapsed and a restorative glass of wine was welcome. Rose petal & orange is a great mix: complex and interesting. Towards the end of my glass I added a dash of whisky and I thought that worked too (though Claire tried it and disagreed).

On Thursday we finished the bottle to The Great British Bake Off's semi-final - which had been ruined for me earlier in the day by a colleague who revealed the result. I told him "Actually, I'm very cross about that". He is only new to the firm, and young - so maybe I overreacted.

Crab Apple Wine - Twenty First Bottle (E1), 15th-16th November 2017

As we returned to the house from WYSO, Claire asked whether we had any wine. We have rather a lot, so I fished out a bottle of crab apple from under the stairs. It had been a good rehearsal - I have new bassoon reeds and they make such a difference. I had not realised how much effort I expended in playing on my old ones. I can now do dynamics and everything! Anyway, a glass of wine slipped down easily but I showed restraint by not refilling my glass.

The rest of the bottle waited till Thursday, when I spent much of the evening watching I Know Who You Are. This second series is not as good as the first - a common occurrence. It is too event-led, whereas the last series depended on characters.

Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (5), 28th October 2017

Whenever I am playing something at Music Club I will put a good bottle of wine in the fridge so that I have something pleasant waiting for me on my return. This time it was Crab Apple & Strawberry for my first ever solo performance. I was far outside my comfort zone so chose something easy to play well, rather than something showy to play badly: Song of the Penguins by Sam Haywood and  Little Suite by Philip Godfrey. And I gave them a pretty decent shot, meaning the wine was a celebration rather than used to drown my sorrows. Claire had stayed home - she is low at the moment - to watch Midsomer Murders and eat crisps, and she kindly left me half the bottle. It is a fine wine - crisp, fruity, dry and satisfying.

Blackcurrant & Gooseberry Wine - First Bottle (2), 3rd August 2017

This bottle was a well deserved celebration for performing the solo bassoon part in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. I have been practising for weeks, and it went better than I could have hoped. There is nothing more thrilling than playing well to an audience. Consequently I drank most of this wine myself, though shared some of it around. It has a sharp, tart taste where both blackcurrant and gooseberry are pronounced. Janet thought it was wonderful, but I am struggling to remember who else at Rydal I pressed it upon.

(I would like to share the video of the cadenza, which is on Facebook, but I am struggling to post it. You may be able to see it here.)

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

If you want to read a fuller account of how it felt to perform, keep on reading:

The orchestra started up and this was it; we were really going to do it. There are about eighty bars before the soloists come in and I spent them trying not to shake. And then, all of a sudden, we were playing. The notes were there, doing what they should, piecing themselves together and I was partly responsible. I certainly wasn't relaxed, not at the beginning, but the sheer exhilarating terror started to lessen. The entries were made and bars rest were counted correctly. This was going well. This was getting towards fun. The first movement is both the best and the easiest and when it was over, the audience and orchestra applauded. The second movement was slower than any of us would have liked - it requires sustained, stable notes and these are not comfortable on the lip. I felt my first passage of semiquavers slipping away from my fingers but I wrestled them back into control and the remainder of the movement played itself. Then it was the Variations. We started at quite a lick and those bars of semiquavers at the beginning, which I have been practising so hard, were perfect. Not a dropped note or a fluff among them. Variation two was less good (and my personal low of the piece) but once the music is running past you, all you can do is run at its speed and hope to regain your footing. The variations were all slower than I would have liked - we were following the conductor's beat, which was an error but difficult to break out of. However, the tempo was not so slow as to kill the music and at the end we got a huge round of applause. Then we did the first movement again. This time I was entirely relaxed. I had already done this and knew I could do it again - and it was fabulous (if I do say so myself). I could not have been more pleased with the result.

Rhubarb Wine - Fifth Bottle (C6), 22nd-23rd July 2017

Our only weekend bottle (unless one counts Friday) and thus unusual. I opened this wine after depositing Adam in Holmfirth to watch his father's Madness Tribute Band (we heard a sound check that was painfully loud). Earlier I had taken Adam to see the Arlom graves in Almondbury - I'm sure every 16-year-old's idea of a good time is visiting their great great great great grandfather's tomb.

Back at home we drank warm rhubarb wine (not quite as good as cold) and read our books. Claire is on a Dalziel and Pascoe kick and I am enjoying A Desert in Bohemia by Jill Paton Walsh. The remnants of the wine were finished on Sunday before we went to a concert in the Rawdon Friends' Meeting House in aid of Amnesty International. It was bassoon and flute trios played brilliantly by the Meltemi Trio, and a good night out.

A Special Kind of Madness - the said Tribute Band

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Sixth Bottle (A1), 15th July 2017

I have discovered how to improve this wine: chill it, and stop thinking of it as a bottle of red. Despite its colour, this Christmas Tutti Fruti is a rosé and chilling it removes the accusation of thinness. Full bodied red - Begone! Welcome to a crisp pink.

The day has been lovely, if lazy. I did an hour's bassoon practice (the Mozart continues to improve), visited an Open Garden (lots of potential, not realised) and finished The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Carson - a lovely book set in 1976 about growing up and the dangers of community and 'belonging'.

Ugli Fruit Wine - Second Bottle (3), 8th July 2017

Claire was in a curry making mood, and this is when I like her best of all. We needed something sharp that would hold its own against hot and flavoursome food, and Ugli Fruit Wine fit this description nicely. Despite its name, it is a decidedly pleasant drink.

We had spent a lazy Saturday pottering: Claire gardening and viola practice, me wine-making and bassoon practice. This summer we will be playing Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in Eb at Rydal (the version for wind quartet as soloists) and I'll be doing the bassoon solo.  I am both excited and terrified, and I need to get the semiquavers under my fingers.

Gooseberry Wine 2017 - The Making Of...

On returning from work on Thursday, having had an alcohol-free Wednesday, I thought a small whisky would be in order. First, though, I checked my diary to ensure I had no engagements for the evening.  "Quintets in Harrogate," it read. "Bugger," I thought, and shelved the whisky idea. I grabbed my bassoon and headed to Esther's. The evening was a lot of fun and the Taffanel Quintet particularly so. At the end, Esther asked if anyone wanted any gooseberries because she had rather more than she needed. I decided to push my luck and asked if she had 6 lbs. She did. Esther has been stock-piling gooseberries for years because no-one in her family likes them, so she fished around in her freezer and came back with bags labelled '2015' and '2016'. I defrosted these overnight and began the wine on Friday evening, 30th June.

Our gooseberries untouched by pigeons

It has been several years since I have made gooseberry wine. We have plenty of bushes at home and this year I hoped I would be self-sufficient. However, we also have a family of three fat pigeons in our garden who are partial to the fruit. Oh, for a shot-gun and a good aim!

Anyway, I put the gooseberries in my bucket and spent ten minutes mashing them. Having been frozen and defrosted, they mashed easily and gave out a lot of liquid. I added 2 lbs 12 oz sugar and poured over 6 pints of boiling water, giving it all a thorough stir. Next morning, 1st July, I added a teaspoon each of nutrient, pectolase and tannin as well as the yeast.

Gooseberries fermenting

On Wednesday afternoon, 5th July, I put the wine into its demijohn. I am on holiday this week, but had had nothing specific planned and an afternoon of solid wine-making (after an hour and a half's nap) is a relaxing way to spend time away from work. I removed the gooseberries from the liquid firstly with a colander and then using a jug, sieve and funnel - making sure not to fill the demijohn too full. The wine is a pleasing light green and bubbling away.

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

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.