Rose Petal & Orange Wine 2019 - Fifth Bottle (4), 11th July 2021

We had another virtual dinner party with Rachel & Duncan on Sunday night and this was our bottle of choice (after a small whisky smash). The food was a Turkish dish: Lemon & Apricot Cinnamon Chicken: so something involving rose petal for the wine was perfect. There was a more pronounced orange flavour than I had remembered, but that wasn't a bad thing. The meal was sumptuous - and easy to make. And then for pudding I produced a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake.

White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake

Rhubarb Wine - Seventh Bottle (B2), 18th January 2019

Claire cooked a spicy mackerel sauce over pasta and wanted a white wine to go with it. Of all the wines I have, I think rhubarb is the natural choice. It is dry and subtle enough to be a cool, refreshing drink.

We had a pleasant and relaxed Friday evening, though I started it grumpy. Probably I was just hungry and my blood-sugar levels were low. A plateful of spicy mackerel over pasta followed by large amounts of chocolate and an episode of Midsomer Murders fettled that.

Rhubarb Wine 2015 - Tenth Bottle (B5), 29th April 2018

Chocolate and rhubarb wine is not a good mix. I was disappointed with my first glass: it had the taste of a wine that had aged badly; sour and musty. Claire said she had not picked this up. My second glass was far better and I can only put this down to not having had a mouthful of chocolate immediately before it.

The food we ate was curry (of the bean variety) with fabulous yoghurt pancakes. It all made my eyes water, though. I have a large mouth ulcer on my top lip, which makes eating hot food painful. Claire insisted I take some paracetamol - thinking it unreasonable that her cooking should make me cry.

Elderberry Wine - Sixth Bottle (A4), 18th August 2017

When Bob and Judith visit, Claire cooks up a storm and we get through a lot of wine. Friday night was no exception: lamb stew with aubergine sauce, and peppers stuffed with bulgar wheat, accompanied by two and a half bottles of wine, of which this was the last. All aspects were lovely - though all we had the energy to do afterwards was sit in the front room and eat chocolate. By ten o'clock everyone was in bed, having had a thoroughly satisfying evening.

Elderberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (A2), 18th June 2017

Whilst it was not my birthday on Sunday, I had my birthday tea. This was steak cooked rare, exotic mushrooms and a green salad, followed by chocolate grouting for pudding. It was meant to be a mousse but 'light' and 'fluffy' appeared not to be on the menu. All delicious and all accompanied by a fabulous elderberry wine.

The day had been the hottest of the year so far, and with typical timing we spent most of the afternoon indoors, rehearsing Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony for the concert next weekend. Still, we spent the evening outside.

Blackberry Wine - Third Bottle (C4), 16th October 2015

Claire and I showed the height of moderation by only drinking one bottle between us on Friday night. We both felt we could manage more but made do with bush tea, Pringles and chocolate instead. This is the epitome of a healthy lifestyle.

The blackberry wine was finished by 8 o'clock, and I was a little disappointed with it. It was too dry and had less of a blackberry taste than usual. We then watched the final episode of Madmen's first series, which was excellent. Only another 6 series of 13 episodes each to go, then.

No mention of Pringles, chocolate or blackberry wine here.

Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine 2014 - The Making Of ...

This is my November wine. Yes, I know that technically it is still October (the 19th to be precise) but Crab Apple & Strawberry is now my regular November brew. The apples, though, are starting to go over and leaving it another fortnight might be too late. So I spent some of yesterday afternoon standing on a garden chair picking apples for both this wine and Claire's crab apple & chilli jelly. She has already made crab apple and roast garlic jelly (click here for the recipe - it is in the comments section) - which is either genius or insane. We try it tonight.*

When I got up this morning I took the strawberries out of the freezer, and by the early afternoon they had all defrosted. My time in between was partially spent making a lemon drizzle cake for tonight's meal with Richard and Linda. It is a total disaster. The middle has sunk and if I had set out to create a brick in cake form I could not have done any better. I am really quite upset about it and I have to present it tonight as pudding.

A brick in cake form

Ingredients in the bucket

Anyway, I mashed the pound of strawberries in the bucket and then washed and sliced the 4 lbs crab apples and put them in too. This was covered in 3 lbs sugar and 6½ pints of boiling water. I then made a fish pie and needed both chocolate and gin to restore any sort of good mood I might have had before.

Next morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of pectolase and nutrient, and then left the wine until Friday 24th October. On getting home from work I transferred the liquid into its demijohn. As with crab apple proper, I fished out as many of the sliced crab apples as I could with a collander and then used the 'measuring jug, sieve and funnel' technique.

I thought that after having left the liquid for five days the yeast activity would have died down a little and so filled the demijohn to its top. It became apparent as I was racking my blackberry wine that my assumption was wrong. There was a whole load of froth trying to escape through the air trap. One emergency job with a sterilised teaspoon and turkey baster later I managed to control the situation, and the wine is looking splendid.

*After having tried it, I can assert it is both genius and insane.

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

Rhubarb & Elderflower Wine - Second Bottle (1), 12th August 2013

"Rather better than I had anticipated" is a common reaction to my wine.

I took this bottle to the Wands as Paul and family are over from Canada and Helen promised chocolate cake. Because I was driving I only had a small glass, but I made sure I had the first glass so I could manage expectations. Happily, this is a good bottle, and it looks delightful  - pink and bubbly. I think the Wands were genuinely impressed.

It was a lovely evening, and very noisy. Paul and Allie have four rambunctious children. Alexander and Ellie wanted to be around the adults. Adam and Alice did not. Alex is two years older than I was when I met Paul, which is hard to believe. I see a fair amount of Paul in him - not so much in looks, but in humour and interests. Just slightly geeky but with social grace too.

Blackberry Wine - Fifteenth Bottle (C1), 27th May 2013

This was meant to be a bottle of elderberry, but I couldn't find one and we were in a hurry to leave the house. Our destination was a Bank Holiday Feast at Ros's. Having drunk too much on Sunday I was on driving duties. This was a shame because there was plenty of real wine on offer. Still, I consoled myself by eating vast quantities of lamb and roast vegetables. Pudding was plentiful, and the blackberry wine was opened for this course. We had meringues, a chocolate pot each, and bowls of stewed rhubarb and strained yoghurt. All combinations were tried, and the prize went to 'meringue and chocolate'. The wine was delicious, of course (what little I had) and it was a lovely way to end a relaxing long weekend.

Prune & Parsnip - Second Bottle (A2), 8th February 2013

This bottle was not quite as good as the last. There is something just a little pointed about it. Drinkable, certainly, but not quite delicious.

I chose prune & parsnip tonight because I have spent much of the evening putting 2013's vintage into its demijohns. Despite having finished this process almost an hour ago, I still feel sticky.

[Claire has just announced that she will be the one upstairs eating all the chocolates, so I had better finish this off quick.]

Our meal was haggis with a medley of vegetables past their first flush of youth. I don't know why I used to be squeamish about haggis - it is a fabulous dish, full of meaty goodness. Also known as "sheep's lungs".

Gooseberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (3), 27th January 2013

Gooseberry wine goes badly with galoptious chocolate mousse, but is otherwise a splendid bottle.

We had an unexpected invite to share a Sunday roast with Ros, John and Alex, collecting Julia in a taxi on the way. I wanted to take one of my good wines, so chose this, unsure what the roast would be. It turned out to be lamb, so I drank real red for that. However, there were another three courses, and gooseberry wine accompanies both cheese and Eve's pudding (which I had never heard of before) rather well. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday night.

Elderberry Wine - Fourth Bottle (B4), 1st-3rd January 2013

This was the first bottle of the year, and I only got two sips. I should point out that this was through choice. The dizziness that began on 27 December continues, though is lessening, and I want to see if avoiding alcohol helps. Obviously I hope it does not, and I have mad a doctor's appointment for Monday morning. My guess is some inner ear infection that is likely to clear up by itself.

Anyway, the two sips I got (one on Tuesday, one on Thursday) revealed a dry elderberry which is rather different from previous years, but pleasing.

Instead of drinking wine I had hot chocolate as compensation and started reading a fabulous book - Gossip from the Forest by Sara Maitland - which examines the history and cultural significance of both forests and fairy tales - each chapter ending with a tale retold.

Hawthorn Blossom - Bottle 3, 20th-25th October 2011

We opened this on Thursday when I was glum - though I cannot now remember why. Possibly because my finger hurt after I had crushed it on two consecutive days in exactly the same manner. Anyway, Claire thought that I needed both chocolate and wine. Which was a mistake. There is something about Hawthorn Blossom Wine that goes very badly indeed with chocolate.

Leaving the wine in the fridge until Sunday improved it, but even then it is only nearly nice. There are floral, honeyed overtones which should be delicious, but there is something lurking below which makes the entire experience a failure. Still, a glass on Sunday watching QI and another in a bath tonight were just about welcome.

Crab Apple Wine - Bottle A1, 23rd & 24th April 2011

I bottled the three demijohns of Crab Apple Wine on Saturday. Claire had the brilliant idea of not putting a cork into this bottle as I was doing this, thus saving me approximately seven pence. It also made the choice of which flavour to drink far easier.

Most of the bottle was drunk on Saturday night to home-made goats' cheese and rocket pizza - which is an excellent combination, though molten goats' cheese can take the lining off the roof of one's mouth. We also watched the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who, which was fabulous. It was properly scary and intriguing and funny, and waiting a week for the next one feels like punishment.

I finished the wine tonight, Easter Sunday, after a phenomenonly lazy day involving squishing 77 sawfly larvae, failing to do the Guardian Soduko and general lying around, occasionally eating chocolate.