Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry - Final Bottle (6), 29th January 2016

The Gooseberry has really come to the fore in this flavour for its final bottle. Despite being red in colour, the wine has a crispness ordinarily associated with white wine. I think this has been the best bottle of the batch.

It has been our second quiet Friday night in a row, much of it sat in front of the stove reading. My book is a sixteenth century account of Spaniards exploring the New World: the source material for our Book Group group The Moor's Account. Historically fascinating, but with frustrating gaps that the fiction fills.

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry - Fifth Bottle (2), 30th August 2015

Sunday is meant to be a day of rest. I spent it washing floors, tidying rooms and digging soil. It is a hard life. The cleaning tasks are in preparation for putting our house on the market. Until we get a buyer, we are going to have to live without clutter and mess. It will be a challenge. The gardening was at the new house, where we met more neighbours. There is a definite feel of community there - and it turns out a former colleague lives two doors down.

We drank this wine to two splendid curries, one of which involved mutton, and the wine was suitably fruity. It is another one which matures well.

From this ...

... to this

Blackberry & Red Gooseberry Wine - Fourth Bottle (1), 12th April 2015

The kitchen is now decorated. It has only taken eleven years. Claire has worked tirelessly over the last week, finishing (or at least getting on with) all those jobs that we really need to do before attempting to sell the house. Because I am inept, my offered help has been graciously declined. However, I did cook the Sunday roast, and do the shopping, and take things to the tip.

We drank this bottle with the roast chicken, and very good it was too. I think this flavour is improving with age.

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Third Bottle (4), 28th February 2015

Our house-hunting has started in earnest. We looked at two today: a 1930's semi in Oakwood and a Victorian stone-built former bookshop in Headingley. The latter was extremely tempting: it even had a large cellar ideal for wine storage. But the garden was too shady and had a right of way running through it. And it sounded like there might be problems with the neighbours. I loved the house though, and am rejecting it with reluctance.

We drank this bottle by way of commiseration. It was a little dry and a bit thin, but far from my worst, and we have had a jolly evening on the strength of it.

I was tempted ...

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Second Bottle (5), 13th December 2014

This bottle was our post-WYSO concert celebratory drink. It wasn't very nice. Too sharp and dry. The fruit is distinctive, though. I may add sugar to the next bottle. Anne was here and claimed she enjoyed her glass, but I suspect politeness.

The concert went well - Amy's bassoon concerto was splendid, but I split my G# in the big bassoon moment in the Brahms. Curses.

The evening almost started very badly indeed. Nick, the conductor, got lost when walking from our house to the venue. I went looking for him in a panic, couldn't find him, returned to the church and discovered that he had found his way after all. Phew.

Our conductor is missing ...

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

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Final Bottle (6), 6th July 2014

I have found a new source of blackcurrants. Lindsay has a bush in her garden, and her neighbour has what appears to be a blackcurrant plantation. I was encouraged to come round and pick fruit, so took this final bottle of Blackcurrant & Gooseberry with me to aid the process.

I was merrily picking blackcurrants when I heard a shriek from the kitchen. The bottle had obviously exploded. Dylan, Lindsay's 7-year-old, told me not to worry as "Mum is always shrieking". Lindsay poured four glasses of wine - we were joined by Anthony and the neighbour (also called Claire) and all agreed how good it was. Claire (as in my wife) didn't have any because we had then to drive to Julia's to feed Soots. Knowing that blackcurrant is her favourite flavour, I fully appreciate the sacrifice that she made.

Lindsay, Dylan and Claire picking blackcurrants

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry - Fifth Bottle (3), 2nd May 2014

We are in Millbeck in Cumbria, staying in a cottage with Rachel, Duncan, Ann and Nick, and I have brought seven bottles of my wine along, of which this was the first. It was one of many bottles finished on a wonderful, laughter-filled evening. Duncan caused me to weep with hilarity and now (the following morning) I cannot remember why. It was a good night.

This bottle of wine was excellent - really tasty, full of fruit with a beneficial fizz. Everyone liked it, and they were not merely being polite.

The people with whom I am sharing a cottage

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Fourth Bottle (4), 1st February 2014

I had the lion's share of this bottle. It was a post-Music Club event, and a Music Club where I played a Beethoven Trio with Pat & Peter. Earlier in the day I had suggested to Claire that I put two bottles to one side - something nice and something nasty - and we could open the one which best suited the performance. Claire, reasonably, questioned why she should be punished twice.

In fact, the performance went as well as it ever realistically was going to go, so I came away pleased. Lots of people said nice things about it. Therefore I think I was justified in drinking more of this than was strictly fair. It is an excellent bottle of wine - one of my very best.

(This is not us!)

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Third Bottle (5), 28th-29th November 2013

This bottle spanned Thanksgiving I and Thanksgiving II. Claire decided that because she only cooks a turkey once every two years, she should get a large one and have two dinner parties. Did I say large? I mean enormous. It is currently Sunday morning, and (not counting soup, to which you can add four) the turkey has provided 14 hungry people with plenty of meat. And there is still loads to go.

The blackcurrant & gooseberry was as good as ever, but didn't form part of the meals. It was post on Thursday and pre on Friday. Of the flavours Rory tried (including an 18 year-old bottle of Raspberry, courtesy of Julia) I think this was his favourite.

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - Second Bottle (2), 27th September 2013

It is the night before we travel to America and consequently it has been one of packing and checking and generally feeling hassled. A bottle of wine has helped. It is half past nine, and there is still plenty to do, including setting my alarm for 3:30. I predict little sleep, and my toes will tingle the way they do when I am excited.

Earlier today I thought I might have appendicitis - at work I had severe abdominal pains and was getting ready to cancel the entire trip. It turned out to be lots of trapped wind - [and the rest of the sentence has been removed for grounds of taste]. I wouldn't be writing that down without having drunk half a bottle of wine. And what a particularly good bottle it was. Fruity and delicious.

Blackcurrant and Red Gooseberry Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

Eight days ago I opened my first bottle of blackcurrant and red gooseberry wine. It was really rather lovely - full of sharp, fruity flavour that takes the best from each ingredient. Therefore, when presented with a heavy crop of blackcurrants this year, I decided to do it again.

Both Fruits Together

Our blackcurrant bushes are prolific this summer. Even though we are towards the end of the season I still managed to get nearly two pounds of fruit off them today, 10th August, and there are several pounds in the freezer. Between us, Claire and I are planning another batch of wine, several jars of jam, blackcurrant gin, blackcurrant vodka, sorbet and still plenty left over for Christmas Tutti Fruti.

Red Gooseberries - always the bridesmaid and never the bride

The red gooseberries are doing less well, and I blame the sawfly, which I ignored entirely this year. But there were still enough of them for my arms to get thoroughly scratched and to get the 8 oz needed for this recipe.

I started making the wine this evening whilst also cooking tonight's meal - lamb chops marinated in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary and oregano, griddled courgettes, cous-cous and french beans - so had to be careful not to mix the ingredients and processes. I weighed out 2½ lbs blackcurrants (getting some from the freezer) and 8 oz red gooseberries. These were put in the bucket and I mashed them (after pouring over half a pint of boiling water) while heating 5½ pints of water with 3 lbs sugar dissolved.

The ingredients in the bucket before the yeast was added

Once the water had reached boiling point I poured it over the mashed fruit and left it overnight before adding the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase. I left it for a further four days - till Wednesday 14th August - before sieving out the fruit and putting the liquid into its demijohn. I did this part while listening to Tchaikovsky's Third Symphony on Radio 3. It is not a piece I know at all and, apart from the bombastic and tedious final movement, it is rather good.

The result so far

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

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - First Bottle (1), 2nd August 2013

Really very tasty indeed. But also fizzy. I opened this bottle for our last night at Rydal, and had to be quick with the pour as I saw bubbles travelling up the bottle neck. Very few drops escaped and I was helped by Sally's waiting glass. The taste is sharp and fruity. It is just as light as blackcurrant proper but there is possibly more depth to it. I would have to taste them together to decide.

The evening I drank this was Very Silly Indeed. It involved having to create a two minute opera on the theme of Beyoncé. I was assigned the role of 'Flying Horse' and was required to sing the bass part to Ride of the Valkyries, while a vicar sang the soprano part falsetto. A bottle of wine could only help.

*

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

Blackcurrant & Red Gooseberry Wine - The Making Of ...

We really must buy a larger freezer. I have mentioned this before, though it is usually a problem later in the year when blackberries, elderberries and sloes have all fruited. This year we have harvested more rhubarb, gooseberries and blackcurrants from our garden than expected and our freezer is crammed. To the extent that we had gin & tonic yesterday without ice. Therefore, action was needed, and as blackcurrants tend to get lost in a mixed fruit wine, I decided to make another batch of that.

Our minuscule freezer

When weighing the blackcurrants this morning, 19th August, I discovered I 'only' had 2 lbs 8 oz - half a pound down on the required amount for pure blackcurrant wine, so I have bulked the fruit up with 8 oz of red gooseberries - also from our garden. I suspect frozen ants have made it into the mix too. Our blackcurrant bushes are crawling with them and whilst I tried to avoid them I don't think I had an absolute success rate. One of the buggers bit me during harvesting, so I have little sympathy.

I weighed the fruit this morning and left it to defrost a little before returning to it this afternoon. Once it was in the bucket I poured over half a pint of boiling water to aid its defrosting and mashed it all with a potato masher. Meanwhile I boiled 3 lbs of sugar in five and a half pints of water and poured this over the mashed fruit. I put in a teaspoon of pectolase later the same night, and added the yeast and a teaspoon of nutrient the next morning.

The ingredients

I transferred the liquid into the demijohn on Thursday night, 23rd August, while listening to Stephen Fry on Radio 4 discuss intonation. The process was faster than many wines and I helped matters along by having a glass of Prune & Parsnip, which I had bottled earlier in the evening. I have left a significant gap in the demijohn and stored some wine in a bottle separately for topping up once I am certain the fermentation has calmed.

In fact, it was apparent the next morning that there would be no bubbling over disasters so I filled the gap from the bottle and I now have a demijohn at capacity.

The wine in its demijohn

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