Hedgerow Wine - Final Bottle (6), 29th July 2012

There is something about Brahms that requires a bottle of red wine. I think it is his dark, brooding harmonies and complex rhythms. There is also something about struggling unsuccessfully to play his third symphony that requires a bottle of red wine. I think it is the sense of frustrated failure.

We are at Rydal Hall and this is the first of three bottles of homebrew that I have opened. Though I drank about half of it myself, I thrust a taster onto as many people as I could. And everyone said they thought it was good. I recognise that this was not a scientifically controlled test. It is a good bottle, though, with a complex fruit flavour and sufficient body. The fizziness is a little disconcerting, but does not take much getting used to. It is a shame, therefore, that this is the last bottle of its kind.

Hedgerow Wine - Fifth Bottle (5), 16th June 2012

We had a warming winter meal - a sausage and lentil casserole with mashed potato and diced swede - that called for a bottle of red wine. It might as well be February. The weather has been so horrid recently that I have forgotten what sun and blue sky feel like. Hedgerow wine fitted the bill nicely, and we drank our last glass in a shared bath.

Earlier in the day we had played in a workshop on Mozart's 40th Symphony held at Carr Manor School. Claire and I had expected dreadful things, but in fact it was all rather jolly and musically not bad. Being a three minute walk away was just an added bonus.

Hedgerow Wine - Bottle 4, 15th-17th March 2012

Wednesday was the WYSO AGM (and that is far too many acronyms in the space of a sentence). Which is irrelevant to this bottle, because I realise we didn't open it until Thursday. I drank that evening's share to sausages and mash, followed by a long hot bath.

Ordinarily we would have finished the bottle on Friday, but I was too sleepy for even a glass after returning from the Wakefield G & S (there - another acronym) Society production of H M S Pinafore, which was all rather jolly in an am-dram kind of way. Buttercup and Captain Corcoran were both good, and the other leads were variable.

Coming back through Wakefield on a Friday night was eye opening. I'm sure dresses never used to be quite that short.

Hedgerow Wine - Bottle 3, 1st January 2012

We have just returned from Julia's Feast. It was nearly a year ago that we gathered for a similar occasion to hear Nigel Pargeter plummet from Lower Loxley's roof. This time there was no radio soap opera to interupt the festivities, so we had to make do with eating and drinking far too much. The food and company were both splendid - there were ten of us round the table, which was stuffed with salmon and gammon and smoked mackerel and pate and pineapple and exciting cheeses. This wine was a more than adequate accompaniment. It is as fruity as its name suggests and has a fizz. I think everyone liked it.

Hedgerow, Bottle 2, 12th November 2011

This was one of three reds that I took to my Book Launch and (if emptiness of bottle proves anything) was the most popular. The blackberry was hardly touched.

I had a glass of this one; it is a light and fizzy red, and really rather good.

The book shop, Philip Howard Books, has two rooms. I was signing books in the front whilst Claire was being barmaid in the back. There was always the noise of people having a good time drifting out from this back room. Generally there were fewer people in the front, but it meant I had a chance to talk to those who were there. Between about 2:30 and 3 the entire shop was packed. Which I think counts as a success.

Me signing, with a glass of Hedgerow to hand

Hedgerow - Bottle 1, 3rd September 2011

Sloe is the dominant fruit. Claire disagrees and argues that it is gooseberry. Whichever, this is a pleasing mixed fruit wine - rather better than Christmas Tutti Fruti 2009. It is also fizzy and I am surprised at the lack of exploding bottles. Actually, scratch that. It has been the coldest summer for two decades, so the lack of popping corks is to be expected.

This bottle has been a reward for a busier Saturday than usual. I had to draw up a list of Jobs To Be Done, and have yet to reach its end. The remainder will wait till tomorrow. But I have cooked and shopped and washed up and picked fruit and made wine and practised the bassoon and washed up again. In fact, that doesn't sound onerous, but it has taken all day. Tomorrow, though, will not be a day of rest. It is the first rehearsal for Tannhauser.

Other Wine Jobs over the last 10 days or so ...

5th June 2011 - I racked my Dandelion wine. It had cleared entirely and was a pleasing yellow. I racked it far earlier than I normally would have done, but I have begun to suspect that the musty taste in my homebrew is caused by leaving it too long on its sediment. The taste was more promising than any but my first Dandelion. I added three-quarters of a pint of water and 4 oz sugar.

10th June 2011 - I bottled my Hedgerow wine, on the Feast of St Ithamar after 11 p.m. . The evening was spent in Harrogate playing quintets in anticipation of Saturday's concert in Killinghall, hence the late hour. The wine's taste is rather good. Lots of currant, quite dry and with a bit of body to it. I think it needs time to age.

11th June 2011 - I bottled my Sloe wine. It is still clear, and an attractive light red. The two sips I got (rather than my usual full glass because of the drive to Killinghall that followed) were dry and thin. So, disappointing without being nasty.