Orange Wine 2013 - The Making Of ...

Street oranges

March is forever the month in which I make orange wine, so I spent much of February keeping my eyes open to source the raw ingredients. Last week I had a rare trip to the dentist, prompted by a throbbing gum around my remaining wisdom tooth, and on the walk home I noticed boxes of oranges outside a shop looking ripe and healthy and pleasing. On Saturday I returned to the shop and asked how much they were. Hearing "Twelve for a pound", my inner Yorkshire miser did pirouettes of joy. In fact, when I inspected them closely, I saw that they were: a) small; and b) a bit manky. However, with careful selection I managed to choose 24 oranges which passed muster.

Horse poo for the garden

I started the wine on Sunday, 3rd March, which was a day full of tasks. I had to write myself a list and tick them off as I went. So Claire and I went to the tip, bought a compost bin (that just cried out for a Dalek photo opportunity, which I indulged - complete with sink plunger, egg whisk and sieve on the head; for that photo click here), and went to the local stables to collect horse poo for the garden.

Back at home I thinly peeled twelve of the oranges, doing my best to avoid the pith, put the peel in our large stainless steel pan, and covered this with four pints of boiling water. Next I squeezed all the oranges, putting their juice and whatever fleshy parts that came loose into the bucket. I added seven pints of cold water, five and a half pounds of sugar, the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase and gave it all a lengthy stir. This all sounds simple enough, but the whole process (including breaks to avoid stiff shoulders) took over three hours.

Orange peel in the pan, awaiting water.

On Monday morning I poured the water that had covered the peel into the bucket, discarding the peel. I transferred all the liquid into its demijohns on Friday night, 8th March. This was a quick process, which is a good job seeing as I did not start until after ten. I am currently struggling to keep my eyes open. There was not quite enough water added this year, and this must be down to the diminutiveness of the oranges. I think at least another pint would have been right. The yellow colour is not as vibrant as in past years.

Orange wine, which could be yellower

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

Elderberry - Bottle A6, 30th October - 1st November 2011

There is currently no law about the amount one may drink before playing the bassoon. This is a Good Thing. On Sunday night I was playing nonets in Guiseley, but was driven by Madeleine, so I took the opportunity to have a glass and a half with our meal of lamb & chick pea stew. This left enough in the bottle for the wine to act as a prop for a photo that may appear in next Wednesday's Yorkshire Post. I was being interviewed as publicity for the Book, and the photographer had me kneeling in front of the table, gazing adoringly at a glass of wine. Which sounds like an ordinary Saturday night in. As it was not yet eleven in the morning, I poured the glass back into the bottle. One has standards, after all. I did, however, press a thimblefull of wine on both the reporter and the photographer, and they declared it 'tasty'.

My final glass was after orchestra on Monday, where we rehearsed Bill Kinghorn's violin concerto with the soloist. It has difficult 5/8 and 7/8 rhythyms which mostly I just guess. Claire finished the bottle while I was in Ilkley.

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I must put in a quick word for Jack Keller and his wine blog. He was kind enough to advertise my blog, and since then, the number of visitors to this blog has pretty much tripled. So, thank you Jack. You are a gent. And you have a blog that is interesting, useful and fun.

Redcurrant - Bottle B6, 12th & 13th May 2011

This wine really is not very good. Though the initial taste is pleasant, it degrades quickly into mustiness. Still, it is a pretty colour. In fact, a glass of this acted as a 'stunt double' for strawberry wine. I needed to send photographs to Home Farmer Magazine for my July article, which is all about wine from strawberries. This bottle was conveniently open, so Claire poured a glass, put it into our wild strawberry patch and took a photo. The readers will never know.

Thursday night's glass (and a half) was after playing trios with Pat and Peter, which were mostly okay, and tonight's has been after a rehearsal with the Harrogate Quintet, which was good. We are practising for a concert to be put on by the Killinghall Flower Society to be held in the parish church. I suggested we play arrangements of 'In an English Country Garden', 'Tiptoe through the Tulips' and 'Lily the Pink' but this was given short shrift.