Xmas Tutti Fruti 2020 - Third Bottle (B5), 5th February 2022

Angie & Phil had an impromptu wine, cheese and games evening so we grabbed Blockus and this bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti and walked the 200 metres to their house. It was a wonderful, drunken evening and the first time in an age that we stayed up past midnight. I am really quite poor at Blockus - and it is a vicious game with tactics I have yet to grasp. The wine went down nicely, with Phil and Angie having the lion's share. We (Claire and I) took the opportunity to drink more real wine than was sensible.

Taken on 30th Jan - I haven't any more recent!

Crab Apple Wine 2020 - Second Bottle (5), 23rd September 2021

I left this bottle in the fridge for the combined Taylors to enjoy whilst I was out playing trios with Pat and Peter, but with strict instructions that there should be a glass for me to enjoy on my return. Happily those instructions were obeyed and I had my ration before bed. Susanna said how much she liked this wine, with its elements of Croft Original. I don't pick those up, but it certainly has a fruity rich taste. I returned from Pat & Peter's via Sainsbury's with four bottles of real wine - we can't just drink my stuff whilst we have guests!

Taken on 24 September - a Japanese Garden in Horsforth

Apple & Strawberry Wine 2019 - Second Bottle (2), 11th August 2021

This apple and strawberry was far better than I had remembered. Whilst it tasted neither of apple nor strawberry, there was a faint scent of the latter if you gave it a good sniff. If anything, it was like a real white wine.

This was the last bottle of my wine drunk in the Brecon Beacons, and earlier in the day Rachael, Myles and I had been to the Cantref Adventure Farm, which Myles absolutely loved. One of the most joyous things about the week in Wales was being an uncle, doing fun things with Myles that he is likely to  remember into adulthood.

My lovely sister, Rachael

Rhubarb Wine 2017 - Final Bottle (C5), 28th February 2021

Sunday felt like the second day of Spring. There were blue skies all day and it could have been late April. It was a perfect day to walk 13 miles, taking in Newlay Bridge, the Leeds-Liverpool canal and Kirkstall Abbey. The population of Leeds was out, enjoying the release that good weather brings.

Once home I made a chocolate cake and we spent the evening eating fish pie and watching The Crown. A bottle of rhubarb wine figured, and during this Claire floated the idea of maybe drinking real wine more often than we do might be nice.

Kirkstall Abbey behind a carpet of crocuses.

Blackberry Wine 2018 - Eighth Bottle (A2), 11th July 2020

I had enough wine to stun a horse on Saturday. Going for lunch with Rodney will do that. Though restaurants are newly open again, we went for the less risky option and ate fish and chips round his house - with the condiments mostly being red wine. It was a lovely, drunken afternoon, but not one to do on a regular basis.

In the evening I opened this bottle (for Claire's sake, you understand) but still had a glass and a half myself. We watched Singin' in the Rain as a Snarkalong Film Club. It remains my favourite ever movie.

Taken on 11 July - some allotments

Rhubarb, Elderflower & Mint Wine 2020 - The Making Of...

It is with this wine that I say Adieu to my forties. They have mostly been very kind to me. At their start I was just finishing off my MA in Medieval Studies and now at their close I am in a job that I enjoy and I feel settled in my life. The decade has seen two redundancies, a published book, moving house, a dear friend dead, two new cats, a strange and frightening world order, two nephews and the current pandemic. Put like that, my forties sound far more traumatic than they, in fact, were. They have certainly not been uneventful. What better way to mark their close than (or, alternatively, as I had a free Saturday, how else should I spend it except by) making Rhubarb, Elderflower and Mint wine?

Our rhubarb is very much past its best, so I sent a message to Liz to find out if she had any spare. Happily she had plenty and brought round 2 lbs. I managed to get a further pound from our plants to obtain the 3 lbs required for the recipe.

About half the elderflowers came from the elder tree growing in the Synagogue hanging over our back fence; the rest came from trees on Bentcliffe Drive and the elder in Allerton Grange Field. Stripping these to get a pint of flowers was always going to be the dullest part of making this wine, but was enlivened by listening to Mark Steel's in Town on BBC Sounds.

Over the past few years my 'handful of mint' used in this wine has been getting larger and Claire thinks that this is to the wine's detriment. Therefore this year I have only picked a small handful - and mostly spearmint (rejecting those leaves with cuckoo spit on them).

I chopped the rhubarb into thin pieces and put this, the elderflowers and the chopped mint into my bucket with 3 lbs of sugar. I poured over 6½ pints of boiling water and left this overnight. On Sunday morning, 14th June (my 50th birthday), I put in a teaspoon of yeast, nutrient and pectolase.

I meant to put all this into its demijohn on Friday night, but instead had a Zoom meeting with Rachel and Duncan, where we drank a gin and tonic and then a bottle of (real) red wine. Doing anything productive after that was not going to happen. Instead, the wine went into its demijohn on Saturday morning, 20th June. It is a light pink and fermenting as it should.

The wine and Kato

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

Apple & Strawberry Wine 2016 - Fifth Bottle (2), 29th November 2019

Having half a turkey remaining after Thanksgiving meant that Thanksgiving II was required. Andrew and Sooz were staying and this provided an excuse to invite Jayne. I decided to open Apple & Strawberry on the basis that it is one of my best. Sooz preferred the dregs of Clove & Ginger to this, but then she preferred this to the bottle of real wine that Jayne provided.

Thanksgiving II was more of a traditional Sunday Roast than the original had been - and none the worse for that.

Horns of Plenty - nothing to do with this post

but taken on the same day.

Apple & Strawberry Wine - Sixth Bottle (1), 26th October 2019

It is unlikely that I could get any more middle class. Last night I went to a Yotam Ottolenghi themed dinner party.

Liz cooked up a feast where every dish came for her Ottolenghi cook book: so we had dishes of butter beans blitzed with roasted red peppers and cumin, chicken cooked with green olives & figs and many more besides. All utterly delicious and I ate far too much - having seconds of most things including the pudding. This meant I slept badly.

I took my last bottle of Apple & Strawberry Wine as it is one of my best. Shockingly, it went unopened and we had to make do with rather expensive wine made from grapes, including a Greek white, a Chilean red and something sparkling from Swillington.

Blackcurrant Wine - Third Bottle (A3), 6th October 2019

It is nice to be home. We returned from a week's holiday in Croatia on Saturday evening, so Sunday was our first day back in Leeds and familiar territory. It was a good holiday and whilst England was wet and windy, we had plenty of sunshine throughout the week. Best moment? Possibly eating grilled sardines in a concrete bunker and drinking copious amounts of red wine.

Back at home my first bottle was blackcurrant - always a popular choice - to go with turkey meatballs followed by Tootsie on DVD: one of my favourite films.

Muscat of Alexandria - The Making Of...

When I was in America last year, I received a Facebook message from Nick's brother-in-law, who I had met in May. Would I be interested in sharing his bumper harvest of grapes? I replied that I would be more than interested. Could I collect them in 48 hours? Being in San Francisco, about to travel to Nebraska, presented a problem. I suggested that he give a bag or two to Nick, who could store them in his freezer until my return. This was somewhat presumptuous, but no-one raised any complaints, so that is what was done. And there the grapes remained. Every now and again I would say "I must collect those grapes" but nothing was organised until last week.

On Tuesday, 8th January, Nick took the grapes into work and I collected Claire and them that evening. I had not realised quite how many there would be. It was an entirely full freezer-box. Claire and I spent that evening stripping frozen grapes from their stalks. It was finger-numbing work and in total there were 20 lbs and 10 oz. These went into my large bucket and I left them 24 hours to defrost.

The uncrushed grapes

On Wednesday I took a potato masher to the grapes and spent about 20 minutes crushing them. The bucket was too narrow and my feet are too disgusting to do it in the traditional manner. It is clear why wine is made from grapes - they produce so much liquid and do not require any water.

The more disgusting of my disgusting feet

For the first time in many years I regretted not having a hydrometer as I did not know if any sugar would be required. All I could do was take a sip and guess. I added a pound. Having consulted my wine making books, I though it wise to add 2 crushed Camden tablets to stop any natural yeast fermenting,

The crushed grapes

The next evening - so 10th January - I added a teaspoon each of yeast, nutrient and pectolase. I left the wine until 16th January before removing the grape skins and putting the wine into its demijohns. That huge number of grapes resulted in only a demijohn and a quarter, which is less than I would have guessed. I will give away 4 bottles of this: one to Nick and three to Rick. I will not, however, make any promises about its taste.

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

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Seventh Bottle (B6), 2nd December 2018

I needed Sunday. Whilst the previous week at work had been a busy one, Saturday was manic. It was the WYSO concert (Siegfried Idyll, Mendelssohn's Piano Concert No. 1 and Beethoven 6) and when I wasn't playing, I was organising things (keys, gifts for the soloist, rearranging the church, tea and coffee). The concert went brilliantly and we drank a bottle of real wine to celebrate. Consequently, Sunday was quiet and restful. I finished by book (The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner - excellent), did crosswords and ordered roses for the garden. Oh, and drank a bottle of Christmas Tutti Fruti, which is one of my better batches - as fruity as the name implies.

Xmas Tutti Fruti 2015 - Tenth Bottle (B5), 7th-8th April 2018

On Saturday night, I allowed myself only a sip of wine. This was because on Saturday afternoon I allowed myself a whole bottle. The bottle was an Italian red and the sip was Tutti Fruti. The bottle was better. I had been out for lunch with Rodney, and that always involves too much to drink.

We finished the Tutti Fruti on Sunday after a whole day of learning how to make lithographic prints using tin foil and coca cola. I hadn't been to an art lesson since I was 14 and it was surprisingly enjoyable. Claire concentrated on blood cells for her design, whereas my most successful involved rhubarb wine.

My lithograph

The image I worked from (but in mirror image)

Rhubarb Wine - Twelfth Bottle (C2), 17th-21st February 2018

On Saturday night, as Oscar season approaches, Claire and I watched La La Land, the movie which nearly won last year. It was alright, but both of us were surprised about its adulation. It is no Singin' in the Rain or Cabaret (neither of which won the Oscar either). What impressed me most were the long takes and the not quite Hollywood ending (but with a nod to Casablanca).

Accompanying this was a bottle of Rhubarb Wine, which is always a winner. We stretched the bottle from Saturday to Wednesday, which is unheard of. I had one glass on Sunday after a glass of real red, and the contrast made me realise quite how sweet my homemade wines are.

Crab Apple Wine - 23rd Bottle (C3), 3rd February 2018

I nearly took this bottle with me to Book Group, but decided that a Rioja would be more acceptable. This was the correct decision, I think. There isn't anything wrong with this crab apple, but presenting it at Book Group at someone else's house would be a little weird. Instead, we drank it on Saturday after a day of doing not much at all - mostly lying on the chaise-longue reading The Wimbledon Poisoner (not a book I would recommend, but rather lighter than East West Street). Claire cooked a fabulous fish stew and we watched Lewis whilst finishing the bottle. Lewis was well plotted and entertaining; the bottle was a bog-standard crab apple.

Gooseberry Wine 2012 - Final Bottle (6), 24th -25th December 2017

Leaving this bottle nearly four years since the last one has changed its flavour, but only marginally for the better. It now has the taste of an aged country wine - so broadly sherry like - though there is a hint of its original sharpness. Far from undrinkable, but not your actual Nice.

I opened this after the annual Christmas Eve Bentcliffe Drive Party, but as that involved several glasses of real wine (made from grapes!), we did not finish the bottle. That task was saved for Christmas Day, during present opening. Sooz, Bob and Judith were here, meaning that it was the usual present lucky-dip. My best one was a tea-towel with the Periodic Table printed on it. There wasn't a worst, but the most ephemeral was a bag of Pork Scratchings.

Blackberry Wine - Second Bottle (A2), 21st October 2017

In past years blackberry wine has won the Wine Party. This year it has come in the bottom half: seventh of twelve with an average score of 3.21. A poor show. Rachel and I conjectured about what might be different - possibly the sweetness of berries picked.

Three of my guests - Phil, Matthew and Anthony - described this as tasting like real wine, with only Anthony thinking this was a Good Thing. It was a glorious party, though - mostly taking place in the dining room and kitchen. Despite the fire and moody lighting, our front room was ignored.

Fig Wine - First Bottle (3), 16th September 2017

Perhaps not quite as good as my previous batches of Fig Wine. But it is still a great bottle. The aroma and taste are distinctly figgy and my one complaint is that a certain depth is absent.

We drank it with Rachel and Duncan in Cambridge, having travelled down for Emily and Marco's wedding the following day. The evening started with rhubarb gin, before moving through a Prosecco and a Riesling before ending up with Fig Wine. As the wine flowed, so did the conversation and good humour and it was just a pleasant evening spent with close friends. Hard to be beaten.

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

Crab Apple Wine - Nineteenth Bottle (D3), 16th July 2017

Drinking the entire bottle tonight may have been a mistake. I have work tomorrow and we started this evening with two glasses of real wine at David and Liz's. Because real wine is a rarity, I now find it surprising when the last glass of wine from a bottle is as clear as the first. The suspicion that drinking the whole bottle was an error was exacerbated by our lateness of eating. Our meal was not ready until 9:15. Whilst alcohol has plenty of calories, a bottle of wine on an empty stomach does not make one full, only pissed*. Still, it was a good wine - full of crisp apple flavour - and is not as if I am flat-out at work.

*This has a different meaning in the UK (drunk) to the USA (angry), and I know quite a lot of my readers are from the USA. I don't get angry when drunk - I'm a genial inebriate.

Crab Apple & Strawberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (1), 23rd July 2016

This was our third bottle of the evening, and between the four of us that is one too many. In our defence, the first was a German white, which had a lower-than-average alcohol content and was too sweet. Also, we retained a veneer of respectability by waiting until we ate before opening this wine. As penance, I have not opened a bottle tonight (Sunday), so moderation rules supreme.

The wine was as good as ever - Rachel picked up a floral taste - and we had a hearty Czech cabbage stew to go with it (and that is nicer than it sounds).

Crab Apple Wine - Second Bottle (E2), 6th July 2016

We are on a week's holiday, and that means a whole bottle of wine on a Wednesday night. I chose crab apple wine for no particular reason other than it is a while since we last had one, and very nice it was too. Not as good, however, as the wine drunk on Tuesday. We stayed at the Yorke Arms in Ramsgill, which has a Michelin Star, and had a five course tasting menu. With each course came a glass of recommended wine, chosen for the food in front of us. The whole experience was amazing and an extremely rare treat. My favourite course was langoustine in cucumber froth, but that's like saying I prefer rubies to opals.