Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Final Bottle (B3), 18th-19th November 2015

I think it has taken all twelve bottle and three years, but finally I thought this flavour was quite good. It fizzed on opening and had a dry & refreshing taste. Any mustiness was subtle (but not quite unnoticeable). The answer to horrible wine must be to leave it for several years before opening.

We started the wine on Wednesday night after WYSO (Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto - wonderful) and before Claire began her experiment to cure insomnia (basically don't try to go to sleep and when you do, sleep in a different bed to your husband). We finished it on Thusday, when Claire was feeling refreshed from a proper night's rest and I had been kept awake by Aggie wriggling, washing and scratching.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Eleventh Bottle (A6), 9th-10th July 2015

What a difference a day makes. On Thursday evening everything was doom and gloom. We had just returned from the new house and Claire asked me to open a bottle of something nasty. Thursday's skeleton in the closet was a leaking pipe that the owner had not mentioned. He had helpfully set up a container to catch the drips and this was entirely full. Claire had a sleepless night. Friday was far, far better. We had a series of workmen round, all of whom said "This is not a disaster" and we are both moving towards feeling excited.

The wine was not nearly as nasty as anticipated - an odd flavour that tastes neither of elderflower or gooseberry.

Gooseberry & Elderflower - Tenth Bottle (A5), 20th-23rd April 2015

Another bottle of nasty gooseberry & elderflower dispensed with. Actually, it wasn't too bad - just bad enough. There is an underlying hint of bitterness and something a little cloying. Still drinkable, though.

This week has been a busy one, socially, for me. Orchestras started up again after Easter, I was in Ilkley on Tuesday, when this bottle was opened and then more wind quintets in Harrogate on Friday. That left Thursday to have my share of this wine. I had meant to be out drinking beer with a load of solicitors and other "professionals in the construction industry", and I even made it to the relevant pub. But on arriving I only recognised one person, realised that I didn't want to be there and walked out. Not a social triumph.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Ninth Bottle (A1), 4th-6th March 2015

The first couple of glasses from this bottle, whilst the wine was still a clear golden colour, were absolutely fine. The flavour was maybe a little full-on, but it was entirely acceptable. As the bottle progressed, however, the wine became murky and brown, and the final glass after Book Group on Friday night cause a headache on Saturday morning.

Book Group was lots of fun. We were discussing The Minaturist by Jessie Burton and about half of us liked it. I was in the other half. The evening ended with me inadvertently being extremely insulting to Helen. She tells a great story, and last night it was about how her bank card was frozen for Unusual Activity, which mostly consisted of her buying a tea cake and Hello magazine at Leicester Forest East. I suggested that she contact You and Yours as they often run stories on "slightly interesting ancecdotes". Oops.

Gooseberry & Elderflower - Eighth Bottle (B1), 21st-23rd January 2015

This bottle was rather less nasty that expected. It came out fizzy and I anticipated mouse champagne. In fact it was dry very slightly musty but otherwise entirely acceptable. I opened it after a WYSO rehearsal, which was mostly spent on the third movement of Schumman's First Symphony. This is soduko in musical form.

Most of the bottle, though, was drunk on Thursday night while I was watching Broadchurch. The Guardian comment boards are full of criticism, and I understand that this series is entirely unrealistic and a disappointment compared to the first. However, there is such a thing as Dramatic Licence. Proper court procedure would make a dull programme. And the cast is consistently good to keep me watching.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Seventh Bottle (A3), 17th-20th September 2014

My attempts to be witty can sometimes get me into trouble. On Wednesday evening, at WYSO, we were rehearsing the orchestral part to Weber's bassoon concerto. Amy isn't coming to do the solo part until October and Nick asked if I wanted to fill in. In a mock disappointed tone, I said that I didn't have the music. The librarian leapt to her feet and presented it to me - so I spent the night busking my way through a concerto. And I loved it. It was all very approximate; and impressionist painting of a concerto; but I came away feeling that I had left a job well done. I have been smiling about it for days. After that, a bottle of nasty wine could only disappoint.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Sixth Bottle (A4), 10th-13th June 2014

It was the Feast Day of St Ithamar on Tuesday. I cooked a spicy tomato and cod dish by way of veneration and opened a bottle of Gooseberry & Elderflower wine. Admittedly, this is a long way from one of my best wines. It is on the 'just drinkable' spectrum, and not a wise choice for a wine to pay homage to a saint. Within five minutes of me opening it, a bottle of blackberry exploded. The cork shot into the air and wine volcanoed out. Obviously Ithamar was displeased, and pointedly chose something rather better and more fitting to his celebration. We still had an open bottle of gooseberry & elderflower, however, and have drunk it slowly throughout the week. Its musty taste seems to have lessened as the wine has aged.

A Window at Rochester Cathedral

Recipe for the Spicy Cod and Tomato Dish

1 onion - chopped fine
1 clove garlic - crushed
1 chilli, taking out as many seeds as you want, chopped fine
a few strands of saffron
4 large tomatoes chopped roughly
1 cod fillet
half a teaspoon of sugar
a teaspoon of vinegar (flavoured with herbs if possible)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Fry the onion, garlic and chilli in olive oil until soft
Add the tomatoes
Soak the saffron in a little boiling water for about five minutes, and throw it in
Once the tomatoes have disintegrated a little, add the cod in flaked pieces
Keep cooking for probably until the fish is done (maybe 20 minutes)
Add the sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper
Serve on cous-cous flavoured with salted lemons or artichoke hearts or whatever you want, really.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Fifth Bottle (A2), 7th May 2014

I brought this bottle to Millbeck as my Comedy Bottle. Irritatingly, it was merely okay. Nick said it was not Absolutely Awful, and spoke of it being too large for a white. There is a musty aftertaste, but it is not as pronounced as I had remembered. And when I added cassis, it was definitely drinkable. 'Drinkable' here does not translate as 'Nice'.

The day has been typical for the Lake District in one respect - it has tipped it down constantly. Mostly I have spent it indoors - most entertainingly in the Puzzle Museum in Keswick, which had optical illusions aplenty - some of which made me laugh with delight. Thoroughly recommended.

One of the Puzzle Museum's illusions

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Fourth Bottle (B5), 6th-13th November 2013

The length of time an open bottle of wine sits in the fridge is generally an indication of its quality. This one managed a week. At least it was not poured down the sink. Claire suggested the addition of a sugar syrup to make it better, and this was partially successful, but only partially. The wine has an overbearing sense of mustiness and little taste of its original ingredients. There are still eight bottles to go.

I opened it after a WYSO rehearsal, where we played through most of Beethoven's violin concerto with our soloist, James Pattinson, who is exceedingly good. The bottle was finished after the following week's rehearsal where we played through all of Beethoven's third symphony. These two pieces are currently on my internal juke box and make it difficult to sleep.

James Pattinson

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Third Bottle (B2), 11th-12th September 2013

On the basis that I have too many bottles of this flavour simply to ignore it, I put a Gooseberry & Elderflower in the fridge for a post-WYSO midweek drink. I had expected it to be awful and, in fact, it turned out to be merely not particularly nice. I see this as a distinct result. There was not the ghastly aftertaste of the first bottle, and the overall effect was one of blandness.

Our first couple of glasses were after WYSO (where we started on the violin concerto), while watching The Great British Bake Off. The bottle was finished on Thursday after trios at Pat and Peter's. I have developed a mouth ulcer immediately opposite my pointiest tooth (for which I blame a particularly horrible solicitor I am dealing with at work) and it makes playing the bassoon painful. The wine was an anaesthetic.

I thought this a suitable illustration.

Gooseberry & Elderflower - Second Bottle (B4), 2nd August 2013 (ish)

This bottle was the booby prize for the 'Last Night at Rydal Quiz'. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to offload some of this wine, without having to drink any myself. The team that came last included Imogen, a cellist who had not been to Rydal before and who has made wine in the past. Therefore she took the bottle, not realising how awful it is likely to be. At breakfast this morning I warned her of the ghastly aftertaste, and I am pleased I did, because she had been looking forward to opening the wine. Imogen now has plans to pass it onto someone else. I wonder who the unfortunate victim will be.

Gooseberry & Elderflower - First Bottle (B6), 25th-26th June 2013

Claire's Facebook Status Update currently reads: "The new batch of gooseberry and elderflower wine has a peculiar delayed-action nastiness. It looks stunning (golden, crystal clear and sparkling) and tastes perfectly innocuous for the first ten seconds. Then the full sweaty, mousey nastiness grabs you by the back of the tongue and whirls your tonsils around". Eight people, including three of my cousins, have 'Liked' this. We managed to finish it, though today, the day after, I have had a constant headache. Still, only another eleven bottles to go.

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If you want to read how I made this wine, click here. The 2011 batch was delicious. I don't know what happened!.

Gooseberry & Elderflower - Final Bottle (6), 26th May 2013

Shortly after Richard and Linda arrived I asked Richard if I should open the wine now. A desperate shout of "Yes" came from the kitchen. The cooking was not on schedule and the chef needed encouragement in the form of alcohol. Claire had forgotten how time consuming and stressful making stuffed pasta shells could be. So I poured the wine and it fizzed in the glasses. Gooseberry & Elderflower, when done well, is a wonderful flavour. It is a pity the batch I made in 2012 (and have yet to open) was quite so awful on bottling.

Anyway, we had a fabulous evening with Richard and Linda. They are flying to Minnesota on Wednesday, which was the unnecessary excuse for a feast. The food was exquisite: mussels in a rich onion sauce, green salad, fresh spelt bread, locally grown asparagus, ravioli stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts in a tomato sauce, and, for pudding, a lavendar and cardemon infused custard. Washed down with lots of wine, of course.

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

The raw ingredients

On the strength of one bottle of Prune & Parsnip 2012, this flavour has been promoted to an annual. This could be a mistake, if I take "Gooseberry & Elderflower" as an example. The single batch of that which I made in 2011 was wonderful. I have just bottled 2012's vintage and it is a disaster. Knowing what I did wrong would be useful.

I was in two minds about starting this wine today, 3rd February, because it has been a busy afternoon. Claire and I spent it with WYSO at Wakefield Girls' School, where the heating was firmly switched to 'Off', playing Beethoven's violin concerto to sixth formers. This is my favourite of violin concertos, amongst stiff competition, mostly because it has such a good bassoon part. And the highlight of the afternoon was discovering Sarah is pregnant - due date 14th September, which is the day she had already booked to get married. One day she will see this as an anecdote, and as a reason to cancel a wedding it is one of the best. She has yet to tell her family.

Anyway, once home and having done the washing up, I chopped up four pounds (ish - I didn't measure very carefully) of parsnips into small pieces and put them into our largest pan. These were covered with seven pints of water and put on the hob to boil. I chopped just over a pound of prunes and put these in my bucket with six pounds of sugar.

After having bottled and corked 12 bottles of wine (see above), I drained the parsnips into the bucket, discarding the vegetable (actually, some of it is in the freezer). I worry that I did not boil it for long enough. The pieces of parsnip were soft, but still tasted distinctly of parsnip. I then boiled another seven pints of water and poured this into the bucket too. This was all left overnight and on Monday morning, 4th February, I put in the yeast and nutrient, amylase and pectolase (approximately one teaspoon of each). The amylase is now finished, but had a 'Best Before Date' of September 2007.

I put the liquid into its two demijohns on Friday evening, 8th February. It is fermenting aggressively, and therefore probably just as well that I could have added an extra pint and a half of water in the initial stages.

Aggressive Fermentation

If you want to see how this wine turned out (and it was good), click here

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Fifth Bottle (5), 17th November 2012

Gooseberry & Elderflower was just beaten into second place at the Wine Party by Rose Petal. There was only one point in the final score - this getting 30/42. This did not stop Rachel from describing it as "a bit aseptic", or Duncan labelling it as "sour". Jen was more positive - it was her favourite, though also the last one she tried, by which time her critical faculties will have been in shreds. Claire, I think, was most eloquent: "Neither the sweetness of gooseberry nor the cattiness of elderflower". However, praising a wine by denying its negatives is a suspect way of paying a compliment.

Gooseberry & Elderflower - Fourth Bottle (1), 29th September 2012

We have finished September's wine ration and are now taking an advance on October. Our meal started with globe artichokes and lemon butter, followed by plaice, new potatoes and vegetables in a sorrel sauce, and I gave Claire a free choice at the wine.

Gooseberry & Elderflower is always a winner, and went particularly well with the meal - its sharpness complemented all the flavours.

We spent the rest of the evening waiting for Doctor Who to be available on i-player, and then watching it when it finally arrived. I had been worried about the episode, it being the Pond's last one, but it was terrific. Well written, scary in places and with the best exit for Companions ever. I cried and Claire called me soppy.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Third Bottle (3), 10th August 2012

I opened this bottle for Book Group in preference to the half bottle of tea wine left standing in the fridge for nearly a week. We were discussing The Help by Kathryn Stockett - a story of domestic racism in 1960s Mississippi. On the whole it was a 'Hit', with Claire and I being the most reserved. It is immensely readable, rattling on at a pace, but we both felt it was writing by numbers, clearly written for book groups to discuss with the rather simple message 'Prejudice is Bad'. It is not our generation's To Kill a Mockingbird despite the back cover blurb.

Book Group was a little down on numbers, but both Richard and Jenny had half a glass each of the wine and enjoyed it. Rachel stuck resolutely to the rosé. Her loss.

Tea Wine - Third Bottle (1), 28th-29th June 2012

This has been the nicest bottle of Tea Wine so far. Though sweeter than ideal, and swampy in both colour and texture towards the end of the bottle, the taste is good. It has lost the bitterness of this flavour's first batch. Halving the amount of tea in the recipe was the correct thing to do.

Claire started the bottle on Thursday evening, whilst I was at Pat and Peter's playing trios. For the first time in well over a year I played the flute. This caused havoc with my bassoon playing for the remainder of the evening and reminded me why I don't get the flute out more often.

We finished the bottle on Friday evening, much of which was taken up with putting my Gooseberry & Elderflower into demijohns, which was a tedious process, and bottling the Quince wine, which was not.

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine 2012 - The Making Of ...

Soft fruit is ripening later than usual this year. It is no surprise - the weather has been diabolical. But as gooseberries are just coming into their own, and elderflowers are still abundant, it made sense to do this wine again. 2011's vintage is extremely good, so have decided to do a double batch.

I met Julia at the allotment on Saturday afternoon, 23rd June, during a rare break from the rain. The day before we had June's monthly average rainfall in just 24 hours. Julia has several gooseberry bushes and we picked fruit from a couple - taking the larger berries in the hope that this would allow the smaller ones to swell in time for a second picking. Between us we picked 8 lbs 4 oz and in return I dug two patches of ground for her. One of these involved taking out several butch thistles. These come out with a pleasing 'pop', their tap root in tact.

Then on Sunday, around noon, I went to pick my elderflowers. Claire and I had gone to Pannal to play chamber music with some WYSO string players, practising for a surreal-sounding concert on 21 July which is to fuse classical music with Hip-Hop. Once my bit was over I wandered to the parish church, where I had seen an elder tree, and picked about half a plastic-bag's worth.

Back at home I stripped the flowers (Radio 4 at hand, as always) which came to seven-eighths of a pint. I measured 6 lbs of gooseberries and put these, the flowers and 1 lb of minced sultanas into the bucket. I then had a frustrating and difficult time trying to crush the berries with a potato masher. Claire made it better by bringing me a gin & tonic and helping cut the berries with our super-sharp knife.

(Quick aside - I have just fettled Claire's hiccups by shouting BOO at her very loudly.)

I added 12 pints of boiling water and 5 lbs 8 oz sugar. The yeast and about a teaspoon each of pectolase and nutrient went in on Monday morning, 25th June. I sieved out the fruit and flowers on Friday evening, 29th June, and put it into its two demijohns. This was a tedious task as the liquid took an age to drain through the sieve. The wine is possible the brownest that I have made, which does not fill me with hope. I anticipate a large sediment.

Brown wine (plus Quince ready for bottling to the right)

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To get my first impressions on the first bottle click here. I'm not sure what I did wrong!

Gooseberry & Elderflower Wine - Second Bottle (4), 5th June 2012

Tonight's meal required a sharp white, so I opened a bottle of gooseberry & elderflower. I was a little pre-emptive, however. The bottle was opened at 6:30 and we did not eat until nine. So matching food and wine rather went out of the window. It was still a good wine to serve to Bob, Judith and my father - all of whom joined us for the meal - because it is definitely one of my best whites. It is full of its base flavours, yet is more rounded than most homebrews.

We finished the wine quickly whilst picking at chorizo, olives and locally grown asparagus. The evening has been lovely, chatting about family (both Claire's and mine) and generally having a relaxed, entertaining evening in. However, now I must sleep and I have yet to make tomorrow's sandwiches or pack my work bag.