Apple Wine 2019 - Fourth Bottle (1), 16th-18th April 2021

Mostly this bottle came after a drink in someone else's garden. The most recent easing of Lockdown allows groups of six people to mix outside and we have taken full advantage. On Friday we were drinking cider in Mark's garden - some of the apples came from our tree and the fizzy stuff was excellent. Then on Saturday we drank top quality champagne with David & Liz to celebrate David's birthday. The apple wine was a bit of a come down after that. Alright and little more.

Pear blossom in our garden on 17th April

Strawberry Wine 2019 - Third Bottle (4), 22nd December 2020

Well, this wasn't a great idea. After an intense three weeks at work, the hardest that I have had for an age, I got the £8.4m contract in Calderdale exchanged and promptly drank the greater half of a bottle of champagne. I then opened this bottle of Strawberry - which was superb: a proper strawberry taste - and we finished that too. As I say, not a great idea. One can overdo the concept of celebration. It led to a poor night's sleep, feeling muddled the next morning and a short-lived desire to stay away from the booze.

A dull photo taken on 22 December.
I was trying to get the Leeds skyline.

 

Magnolia Petal Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

After last year's Magnolia Petal Wine was a surprising success, I decided to repeat it this year. 

St John the Baptist's Petals

Since the Great Covid 19 Lockdown of 2020 began, I have been going on hour-long walks early every weekday morning, and many of these have taken me past Angie and Phil's house. I noticed that their magnolia tree was not as prolific with its petals as last year, so on these long walks I have been trying to spot magnolia trees elsewhere. One of these was outside St Edmund's in Roundhay, where I surreptitiously gathered fallen petals (which remain in our freezer). Another was at St John the Baptist's Church in Adel, which was the halfway point of my 7-mile walk on Good Friday. This magnolia tree was of the 'small, delicate' petal variety which meant an age gathering enough to make it worthwhile. But I can think of worse ways to spend a sunny Bank Holiday.

Magnolia Petals outside Phil & Angie's

That evening, Angie came past our house on her run and stopped to tell me (at a safe distance!) that her tree was now discarding its petals and I was welcome to collect these at any point. This I did on Saturday morning, 11th April. I meant to make the wine that afternoon and evening, but instead Claire and I cut each other's hair (I am now completely bald!) and then she seduced me into drinking a bottle of champagne rather than make wine. Therefore, I have made wine this Easter morning whilst listening to Classic FM's Hall of Fame.

I measured 6 pints of petals and put these in my pan with the thinly peeled peel of two lemons and one orange. I poured in 7 pints of water and put this onto boil. When the water was getting close, I added 2lb 8 oz of sugar and once it reached the boil I let it do so for 20 minutes.

Petals that I used

I squeezed the orange and lemons and put the juice into my bucket along with 500g of minced sultanas (yes, I am mixing Imperial and Metric, for which I make no apologies). I then poured the contents of my pan (petals now brown and sludgy) over this and stirred it all around.

The mixture in its bucket

Later that night I put in the yeast and a teaspoon each of tannin, pectolase and nutrient. On Friday night, 17th April, whilst Claire was out processing Covid 19 samples, I put the wine into its demijohn. It is a murky beige.

 

An arty shot of the demijohn.

Having racked this on 7th June, I cannot tell whether it is going to be good or not. It has yet to clear properly. I fit 2 oz sugar and three-quarters a pint of water into the demijohn.

If you want to see how this wine turned out (and for a comedy photo!), click here.

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2018 - Third Bottle (B5), 10th-11th April 2020

I have another string to my bow: on Saturday I cut Claire's hair. Now that all non-essential shops are closed, Claire cannot go to the hairdressers. I think I did quite a good job. In return, Claire shaved my head, so I am now completely bald. It is an odd feeling, not having hair, and I think an experiment that I won't repeat. More because the process took an age and by the end of it both Claire and I were bored. Anyway, I opened this bottle on Friday night and we finished it on Saturday, shockingly after drinking a bottle of champagne. Blackcurrant is the dominant flavour.

After the haircuts

Apple & Strawberry Wine - Third Bottle (3), 12th April 2019

After last weekend's excesses (particularly Friday) I decided to have a week off alcohol. I managed Sunday to Wednesday. But, Thursday was Cornelia Gruntfuttock's birthday, so a bottle of champagne was obligatory. Then Friday night wouldn't be proper without at least part of a bottle. We had a whole bottle instead.

Have I mentioned how good apple & strawberry wine is? It is so light, so refreshing and the fruit flavour is present without being overwhelming.

Rhubarb, Mint & Elderflower Wine - The Making Of ...

Quiet weekends are a marvellous thing. Whereas last weekend was a whistle-stop tour of Newcastle and family, this weekend has had nothing specific planned. A perfect opportunity to indulge in some wine-making. And, in fact, Rhubarb, Mint & Elderflower is one of those wines which requires much of the day to be set aside. I didn't help myself by also deciding to bottle 3 demijohns of blackberry wine. Rinsing and sterilising 18 bottles is perhaps not the speediest or most interesting aspect of the wine-making process.

And elder tree in bloom

On Saturday, 9th June, early afternoon, I set out to Allerton Grange fields with plastic bag in hand. The elderflowers are a week earlier than usual and gave off more pollen than I remember seeing before as I picked them. I concentrated on the blooms with a hint of citrus yellow and only took a few per tree. This bit of the elderflower process takes no time at all and I came away with less than half a bag full.

Not quite a pint of elderflowers and rhubarb sticks

It was the next bit that was tedious in the extreme; stripping the flowers from their stalks. I did this outside so that the tiny flies could roam free (and not end up covering our windows) and it took me over an hour. Even at the start I was not particularly careful about avoiding the thinnest bit of the stalks, and by the end I cared not a jot. This produced a little less than a pint of flowers, which is Good Enough.

Spear mint from our garden

I plucked just over 3 lbs of rhubarb stalks from our garden, sliced these up - they are starting to get woody - and put these in the bucket. I added the elderflowers and a medium sized handful of mint - both pepper and spear (but not water-mint which is unpleasantly bitter) - which I shredded.

The main ingredients in the bucket

I poured in 3 lbs of sugar and 6½ pints of boiling water, gave it all a stir and left it over night. On Sunday morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of pectolase & nutrient.

I put this into the demijohn on my birthday (Thursday) whilst drinking pink champagne. The wine will not be suitable for vegans. It has a number of black specks, which I assume are tiny drowned flies. Still, it is a pretty pink colour.

The end result

Mango Wine - Fifth Bottle (3), 26th-27th January 2018

I see that it is exactly a year since I last opened a bottle of Mango Wine. It will be some time before I open the final bottle. This was truly horrible. I only once got a hint of a taste resembling fruit. Otherwise the wine was dry and bitter and did not even have the grace to be interesting. Of course we finished the bottle - though it took a Friday and Saturday to do so.

On Saturday Chris and Kate were here. After a bottle of champagne, to celebrate their engagement (my brother, getting married!) I poured them each a glass of Mango. Kate was distinctly unimpressed and declined to finish her glass. How rude!

Ginger Wine 2018 - The Making Of...

Now that I have finished my Wine Alphabet, I am inclined only to make nice wines. Experimentation is all well and good, but when I look through my wine cellar I see that I still have too many bottles of Punishment Wine. I have yet to finish Whitecurrant, Vanilla, Lemon & Lime or Ya Ya Pear, and I haven't even started drinking Inca Berry & Raisin, or bottling Jasmine Tea. All were made to tick a letter off my list and I wonder if these will be left for my executors to distribute. Therefore, I have promoted Ginger Wine to a regular - on the basis that 2016's batch was so good - and it will now be my January brew. It should remain a single batch wine, however, on the basis that it has an unusual taste.

The ingredients measured out

I started making this wine on Sunday, 7th January and I have followed my 2016 instructions nearly precisely so far. I weighed out a 5 oz piece of root ginger and 1 lb sultanas, and I counted out four lemons. I skinned the ginger and then sliced it finely - so finely that it is more accurate to refer to the pieces as shavings. Each lemon had the outermost bit of peel sliced off - this was a dull task and I was not entirely successful in avoiding the pith. I minced the sultanas in the food processor and squeezed the lemons. The ginger, outermost lemon peel, sultanas and lemon juice all went into the bucket and I poured 3½ pints of boiling water over it. I am dubious that leaving this 24 hours before I put in 2½ lbs of sugar and another 3½ pints of boiling water has any effect, but this is what I did in 2016 and therefore what I did this time.

The ingredients prepared and in the bucket

I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of Pectolase and Nutrient on Tuesday morning. After stirring the mix once or twice a day, I put the wine into its demijohn on Friday 12th January - Claire's birthday. This was a quick job, which was a Good Thing, because we weren't allowed to have Claire's Birthday Champagne until I had finished.

I left a large gap in the demijohn overnight to allow the initial vigorous fermentation to settle down before topping it up from the wine saved over.

For this wine, my water measurements were exactly right and I have a good feeling about how it will all turn out (and if that isn't tempting fate, I don't know what is).

Ginger Wine in its demijohn

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

Orange Wine - Fourth Bottle (A4), 9th June 2017

Well, that General Election result was rather better than feared. I had imagined that Labour would be wiped out, that the NHS would become increasingly privatised, that Austerity would only become harsher and that Food Banks would multiply (incidentally, when did they become a thing?). But with the Tories only barely winning and there being a strong and rejuvenated Opposition, surely there must be more compromise, more attention to the needs of the many?

I suggested to Claire that we open champagne, but she thinks that is overdoing things - Labour still lost. Instead we had a bottle of (rather good) orange wine and ate bananas covered in melted chocolate and custard.

Crab Apple Wine - Fifth Bottle (A2), 24th October 2015

After a solid day of painting the new kitchen (albeit with watered down matt emulsion, creating a depressingly patchy effect), Claire and I went round to Rachel's for a meal. I took a bottle of crab apple with me, which we had after the gin and the champagne. We were fed babaganouche (and I'm not sure if that is how to spell it or how many words it is - but it was mostly aubergine and garlic) followed by a Mediterranean chicken teggine. Mostly, though, we were there to adore Duncan's new kittens - a tabby and a rag-doll. Just lovely.

Elderberry 2010 - Final Bottle (C2), 14th June 2014

I considered my birthday to be a special enough occasion to open this final bottle of elderberry wine. It was delicious - smoother than any elderberry I have drunk before, with a complex, earthy taste. Leaving it to mature is the way forward.

The day as a whole has been excellent. I got a grand haul of presents, including the first 3 series of Cabin Pressure on CD, and spent the afternoon driving round Harrogate and environs inspecting artists' studios. There was some beautiful work and Claire has her eyes on a particular potter - Steph Black.

At home we drank champagne in the garden with Rachel & Duncan (the cork shot into a rhubarb patch) and then ate a fabulous Balkan meal. Claire cooked an Albanian chicken and lemon soup, Bulgarian potato dumplings, Turkish lamb-stuffed tomatoes, a Romanian mushroom, cream & cheese dish (heart attack in a casserole), Yugoslavian rose-water jelly and Turkish date balls.

As I say, an excellent birthday.

Strawberry Wine - Fourth Bottle (2), 22nd February 2013

Tonight we have had a feast, mostly involving curry. It is Rachel's 44th birthday, and as Duncan is currently living it up in Boston, she has spent it here. Claire gave her a crocheted petri dish full of crocheted cacti as a present, and I gave her a bottle of strawberry wine. I say 'gave' but 'shared with' would be a more accurate phrase. It was the second bottle of the evening as we had already finished the pink fizz.

Strawberry wine goes surprisingly well with curry - and we had many varieties: fried patra, fish, dall, spinach and lamb together with a number of dips. I have a talented wife. Was it gluttony to finish the evening off with generous helpings of tiramisu?

Orange Wine - Eighth Bottle (A5), 11-12th October 2012

Finishing the orange wine tonight was not the best of ideas. There was two-thirds of a bottle left and we had already drunk a bottle of champagne. Consequently I am currently feeling woozy. And woozy is a fabulous word.

The champagne was a gift from Darren for basically doing my job. He is an excellent boss. But a bottle of bubbly was not quite enough for a Friday night and somehow we have polished off the orange wine. Damn.

I started the bottle with a phone call providing legal advice to Paul - Bridget's husband (as opposed to the Canadian version) - about leasehold law. Alcohol and legal advice is a winning combination. Having only had once glass though, I think what I said was mostly accurate. Good job he didn't ring tonight.