Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine 2020 - Second Bottle (4), 27th October 2021

Not a bad bottle of wine at all. Perhaps more crab apple than strawberry, but lovely and light. We drank the whole lot on a Wednesday evening, mostly because I was making pancakes. That may appear to be a non-sequitur but making pancakes always puts me in a bad mood. They take longer than they should, rarely reach the edge of the pan and flipping them can go badly wrong. Still, the resulting 'Pancakes Stuffed with Ham and Mushroom in a White Sauce Topped with Parmesan' (snappy title) was absolutely delicious and worth being grumpy for.

Taken on 28th October - a new shirt!

Gooseberry Wine 2020 - Third Bottle (1), 25th-26th August 2021

Instructions for a beetroot & goats cheese risotto directed me to use 150 ml of dry white wine. Having nothing real in the house, I thought that gooseberry would work so opened this bottle. My supposition proved correct: the risotto was excellent and it is a good one to have in my repertoire. The wine wasn't bad either, though not as dry as I had remembered. It was improved by chilling. There was a glass left for Thursday - a day in which a dental hygienist looked at my teeth after four years. Torture!

A fallen and sawn up tree on my walk.

Apple Wine 2018 - Final Bottle (5), 3rd October 2021

I made a pie! A pork & apple pie with cider gravy. It was really rather excellent, and obviously a bottle of apple wine was the natural one to choose. The wine was delicious too - light, fruity with a distinct apple taste and it is probably the best apple wine that I have made.

My day was spent entirely indoors, unless one counts the excursion into the garden to pick sage and two bay leaves, and most of that was spent in the kitchen. As well as the pie, I made ginger biscuits and bread. I learnt that I should bake ginger biscuits for rather less than 15 minutes and that it is unwise to keep pastry in the fridge for three hours.

The result of me sneezing (startling a cat)

Orange Wine 2018 - Eleventh Bottle (A3), 22nd July 2021

Mostly I made quiche whilst this wine was in play. England is having a heatwave at the moment - so a perfect time to be baking. We are off to Cambridge on Friday evening and need an easy meal during the journey - hence the quiche. A glass or two of orange wine to help the process along is never a bad thing, particularly when the pastry starts falling apart. Orange wine, though, is not one to write reams about: it is a reliable white that has a citrus kick. Finishing the bottle was no hardship.

Oh - I did my first ever Lateral Flow test.

My quiche and lateral flow test

Strawberry Wine 2020 - First Bottle (4), 2nd July 2021

Claire and I disagree about the merits of strawberry wine. I love its ruby-red colour, its lightness, its taste of strawberries and appreciate that there is a hint of real wine lurking beneath that. Claire thinks it is okay. Because Claire does not particularly enjoy it, we have several bottle of strawberry wine yet to be drunk and for the first time since probably 1999 I won't make the flavour this year.

We drank the bottle to another one of my excellent quiches (he said, modestly) - this time 'The Sick and the Weak' quiche, made from elderly vegetables we have been hoarding.

My Excellent Quiche

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

Apple & Strawberry 2018 - Fifth Bottle (4), 19th-20th June 2021

After opening this on Saturday we decided that we wanted something rather better, drank a bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti, and then returned to this bottle for extra room-spinniness. It isn't a terrible bottle of wine, but there is a hint of the bitter. There was a glass each remaining for Sunday - a day which I mostly spent in the kitchen making Delia's ragu (superb!) and a Rhubarb & Custard cake (rather less so). On the whole a quiet and gentle weekend.

Rhubarb & Custard Cake in the making

Blackcurrant Wine 2019 - Tenth Bottle (A4), 12th June 2021

A Saturday bottle of wine. The day had been lovely. I spent most of the morning making an asparagus and emmental quiche - which was a Triumph (he said, modestly). Then Richard & Linda came round for lunch, during which the Triumph was eaten with relish. We stayed outside enjoying a British summer's day and it was great to be entertaining again. Late afternoon I played Mom at Scrabble (always a weekly highlight) and in the evening we drank blackcurrant wine (another Triumph) whilst being disappointed with Gross Pointe Blank - far duller than I remember it being in 1997.

The Triumph

Gooseberry Wine 2020 - Second Bottle (3), 3rd June 2021

I cooked Hot Tomatoey Garlicky Asparagus on Thursday, which is not as successful as its cousin, Hot Tomatoey Garlicky Prawns - or even the mackerel variety. The asparagus gets lost in the mix. 

Jayne joined us for the meal - the first person (other than us) to eat inside our house for well over a year. It was excellent to be able to play host again. I opened a bottle of Gooseberry Wine to mark the occasion, though Jayne was driving and had none. Whilst Claire thought that this was little better than a mid-week bottle (on account of it not having sufficient gooseberry flavour), I disagree. It is semi-sweet with a bite, and well worth getting stuck into.

It was my mother's 80th birthday the previous day

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2019 - Sixth Bottle (C1), 22nd-23rd April 2021

We are creatures of habit. Wednesday night we watch Spiral and Thursday night is now Derry Girls and Staged. Our television plans are written on a list at the weekend, along with what we will eat that night and who is to be chef. 'Spontaneity' is not a word I know. I don't, however, plan which bottle to open and base that on a combination of what we are eating and what we both fancy. On Wednesday night that just happened to be Xmas Tutti Fruti. This wine is excellent, one of the best vintages I have made, and merits more than a mid-week status.

A random photo taken on 22 April

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2017 - Final Bottle (B5), 4th April 2021

This bottle was retrieved from our crypt on Easter Sunday. I had spent most the day in the kitchen, making peanut-butter cookies, followed by a lemon meringue pie (a Triumph, he said, modestly) and then the beginnings of Spiced Beetroot Wine, all while listening to Classic FM's Top 300 Countdown. 

This wine was a sherry-like as ever and was certainly effective. It would be dishonest to blame the subsequent poor night's sleep on anything else.

Peanut-butter Cookies

Lemon Meringue Pie

Dandelion Wine 2019 - First Bottle (4), 1st April 2021

"Odd" was Claire's description of choice. Followed by "Not unpleasant" but that was as positive as she got. I like this wine: it is very much 'home brew' but not in a bad way. The taste is sweet and had a hint of vegetable to it. I would happily serve this in polite company.

We drank the bottle on Maundy Thursday during which I was culinarily adventurous - Roquefort and mushroom stuffed pancakes a la Nigel Slater. Pancakes have been my downfall in the past, but last night they were circular and unholy, which I count as a success.

Taken on 2nd April - Cherry Trees and Sloe Bushes in bloom

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

Apple Wine 2019 - Third Bottle (4), 25th March 2021

I enjoyed this bottle rather less than Claire. It was the wrong mix of thin and bitter. Claire, though, claimed to like it. I find this surprising, seeing as she is keen that we start drinking real wine more often.

The wine was opened and finished on Thursday - which was one of those Lockdown days which was indistinguishable from many others. Tuesday was different because I made a soufflé but that was possibly the most exciting thing that happened all week. Thursday was reheated leftovers and an episode of Taskmaster. Both excellent in themselves but not in the realms of 'Different'.

Taken on Wednesday on my morning walk.
I have, of course, adjusted the colour.

Orange Wine 2020 - First Bottle (B5), 6th March 2021

This is another successful orange wine. It is difficult to wax lyrical about it when it tastes pretty much the same as every vintage made. The wine is sharp, clear and has the expected citrus taste. I think it drier than 2019's batch, but that is neither a good nor a bad thing. We drank it mostly whilst making a spinach & bacon quiche - I was in charge of the pastry and Claire the filling. We were meant to save some for the Saturday Night Snarkalong (Cowboys and Aliens) but the bottle was empty by then. The film wasn't nearly as camp as the title suggested, and that was a disappointment. We switched it off half way through and made our way to bed.

A Hebe in our garden

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

Prune & Parsnip 2019 - Tenth Bottle (A1), 25th February 2021

Claire and I are both working really hard at the moment. By Thursday evening our brains were still full of the day just gone and this 500 ml bottle of Prune & Parsnip seemed like the perfect amount with which to blur the edges. I cooked a family cookbook recipe - Kittery Baked Fish - which was both easy and delicious. Turns out that bacon and white fish is a winning combination and I shall definitely make this again. It being a Thursday, we watched Taskmaster which is gloriously, addictively silly and just the tonic for the day.

A new shirt

Rhubarb Wine 2017 - Fifteenth Bottle (B1), 19th February 2021

Two things of note happened today: I gave a training session to the Sales Department in the morning, and I made a smoked haddock risotto in the evening. For the former, because it was outside my comfort zone, I wore my battle-armour - a nice shirt with Uncle Gerry's waistcoat. It worked, and I found myself enjoying giving the talk. For the latter, no special clothing was required and the result was delicious. I can now do Risotto! The wine went well with it: an ordinary white wine strangely not dissimilar to one made from grapes.

Some of the ingredients for the risotto

Rhubarb, Elderflower & Mint Wine 2020 - First Bottle (6), 14th February 2021

Our Valentine's meal was sponsored by mint. Not only did we drink this bottle of wine, but we had gin & tonics with a mint garnish, Vietnamese Mint Chicken and Nigella's Vietnamese Salad, featuring mint. We must have had delightful breath after all of that.

The wine was excellent and I opened this vintage because Claire has been disparaging about the previous two years. It is zingy and light, and it is a shame that I have given a bottle to Liz!

Our Vietnamese Chicken was another Padian Food pack that we cooked along with Rachel & Duncan. (Who says Valentine's Day should be a romantic meal for two?) It was blistering hot but delicious - the correct level of sourness. Another lovely evening.

I also made cake - a nut meringue slice

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

Blackberry Wine 2019 - Ninth Bottle (C1), 11th-12th February 2021

It turns out that making stew is really easy. You just put some meat and vegetables in a pot with enough water to cover and then let it cook on the hob for a couple of hours. To mark my new found skill (which was an Irish stew with dumplings) we drank half a bottle of blackberry wine, which is the correct wine for a peasant's meal. The rest was finished on Friday before Book Group, which was an entertaining discussion on Parade's End - a huge book with which I have struggled and not enjoyed.

Patterns in the Ice - taken on 11 February

Orange Wine 2019 - Fifth Bottle (3), 31st January - 2nd February 2021

Sunday night was another virtual dinner party with Rachel & Duncan, this time to celebrate Duncan's birthday. Our Zoom screens went on at 6, we drank our aperitifs and began cooking a Malaysian Chicken Curry from Padian Foods. Early on in the process I opened this orange wine, which was butter smooth and delicious. We had an excellent evening: over three hours of cooking, eating, drinking, conversation and laughter. Once this pandemic ends we will continue these virtual sessions.

I also made biscuits that day, and this is them in progress

Orange Wine 2016 - Final Bottle (A1), 26th-27th January 2021

Orange wine is not one that becomes steadily better with age. This was not an awful bottle but was distinctly mid-week. It had that hint of fortified wine that older bottles often acquire. On a personal level very little happened of any note on the two days that we drank this. I made a fabulous beetroot & goat's cheese risotto but that was about it. On a national level, the UK passed 100,000 deaths from Corona Virus. That is about the population of York.

A Hellebore flowering in our garden

Blackcurrant Wine 2019 - Seventh Bottle (B1), 15th January 2021

Having had a massively busy December where I was working 1,000 miles an hour, it is nice to have a gentle January. This week I was able to take Claire's birthday off entirely (and made a Swiss roll!) and on Friday lunchtime Claire and I went for a walk in Moortown Park, which had turned into a winter wonderland. The amount of snow we have had this week has been unusual.

In the evening I cooked a tortilla (chorizo makes everything better), we watched ER and drank this bottle of blackcurrant wine. It was an unexciting yet thoroughly satisfying day.

 

The Swiss Roll that I made