Dandelion Wine 2016 - Third Bottle (5), 23rd April 2020

I should learn to temper my expectations. Rather than having a bottle of something wonderful, we had a bottle of something drinkable. This dandelion wine tasted heavy: there was too much going on in its flavours. I opened it on Shakespeare's birthday and we tried to watch the National Theatre production of Twelfth Night with Tamsin Grieg (an actress I like very much) as Malvolia. In the end we gave up on it. Possibly we had drunk too much dandelion wine, but the production felt flat and confusing. I went to bed with my intellectual pretentions crushed.

Taken on 23 April - a windmill

in the suburbs of Leeds

Blackcurrant Wine 2018 - Sixth Bottle (B1), 8th March 2019

What a literary weekend we have had: a Poetry Walk in Roundhay Park on Saturday and today an 'Adventure Walk' around Leeds where at points actors would perform monologues to us up close. I found it exciting, surprising, exhilarating. It was all part of Leeds Literature Festival. Afterwards we came home and drank a bottle of Blackcurrant Wine - smooth and delicious but not any of exciting, surprising or exhilarating - to a nut roast and onion gravy.

The Leeds Lending Library

Blackberry Wine 2017 - Fifteenth Bottle (A1), 7th-8th February 2020

Bizarrely, after reading the above two entries, I was a little disappointed with this wine - certainly on the Friday evening. By Saturday I thought it had improved. But I did not get the mouthful of blackberries sometimes experienced. Both nights the wine followed performances of Don Giovanni done by Leeds Youth Opera, where I was playing second bassoon in the pit. It has been an exhausting week but one thoroughly worth doing. There are some talented youngsters in Leeds. It has left me with a head full of music, which is lovely unless I am trying to sleep.

First and Second Bassoon in the Pit

Elderberry Wine 2016 - Tenth Bottle (A5), 4th April 2020

The National Theatre is releasing plays on YouTube whilst the entire country is required to stay indoors. Last night, Claire and I shared a bottle of elderberry wine whilst watching One Man, Two Guv'nors. It was a light-hearted farce; patently silly with some excellent physical humour and just what is required in strange times like these. Great bottle of elderberry too.

I had spent much of the day working in the garden: digging out clay to form a vegetable bed. Gardening is much like bassoon practice: I never want to start, but once I am doing it, I actively enjoy it. I haven't touched my bassoon for nearly two weeks.

Hellebores in our garden

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Eleventh Bottle (B3), 20th May 2018

It has been a lazy, sunny Sunday rounded off by a bottle of Prune & Parsnip wine. Mostly I have spent my time in the garden doing things. One of those things was planting seeds: courgettes, beetroot and runner beans. Having just spent the week playing in the pit orchestra for Into the Woods, I will be disappointed if the beans do not produce a giant beanstalk running up to the sky within 24 hours.

The wine was, as ever, sherry-like and sent me to sleep.

Blackberry Wine - Ninth Bottle (A1), 19th May 2018

A small glass of this wine was my first alcohol for eight days. I don't think I have gone that long without drinking since my 20s. This week I have been playing in the pit orchestra for Into the Woods every evening, which has meant not getting home until shortly before 11. Hence being alcohol free - and I am relieved that I didn't really miss it.

The occasion of my glass from this bottle as a street party where everyone was encouraged to bring food and drink. The road was closed at both ends and the neighbourhood children played in the highway. It was an excellent occasion made all the better by fabulous weather. I pretended the party had nothing to do with Harry & Megan.

Into the Woods as performed by Brass Neck Theatre in Yeadon

Rhubarb Wine 2018 - The Making Of...

I have been later than usual in my May wine-making, but it has been a busy month. The first part was taken up with a glorious holiday in Dorset where we hunted for ammonites, basked in sunshine and walked ten miles a day. As soon as we were back in Leeds I had a week of playing in the pit orchestra for Into the Woods. This was less exhausting than I had anticipated, but I was out of the house from before 8 in the morning to nearly 11 at night, leaving no time for making wine. My plans to make dandelion wine were crushed and I didn't start my rhubarb wine until 20th May, the day that Nick came round with 9 lbs of rhubarb. He will get two bottles of the finished product in payment.

Rhubarb stalks

There were two varieties of rhubarb, one pinker than the other, and Nick provided more of the pink than green for purposes of colour.

After spending the day in the garden (we are having glorious weather) I went into wine-making mode. I washed the rhubarb and sliced the stalks thinly. These all went into my bucket and I measured and poured over 9 lbs of sugar. I boiled 20 pints of water (though that proved to be at least a pint too much) and poured this onto the rhubarb and sugar. (Rhubarb wine is really the easiest wine there is, and I think it is my favourite white.) I stirred it all up and left the mix overnight to cool down.

Rhubarb pieces - note the difference between pink and green

On Monday morning before work I added the yeast and two teaspoons each of nutrient and pectolase. Apart from the occasional stir, I left this until Friday evening, 25th May. Fortified with a Margherita (delicious) and a glass of zucchini wine (rather less so), I transferred the wine into its three demijohns. The first stage was to remove the majority of the rhubarb with a colander, used as a scoop. I then dipped my jug into the bucket, poured the wine through a nylon sieve and funnel into the demijohns. It was a quicker process than I had expected and the wine is the pastel pink that rhubarb wine should be.

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

Blackcurrant Wine - Tenth Bottle (A2), 19th February 2017

This weekend has involved remarkably little alcohol. Particularly if you discount tonight. On both Friday and Saturday we were at the opera - The Snow Maiden and Hansel & Gretel respectively. The Rimsky Korsakov was fine but the Humperdinck was excellent. This left Sunday to have a bottle of wine plus a couple of gin & tonics, and this blackcurrant wine was delicious. I'm now on the bush tea to sober up a little, before I go to bed.

I have spent the day having an exploratory walk around north Leeds, where Council Estate slots into seven-figure dwellings nearly seemlessly, and finishing Eight Months on Ghazza Street, which was chilling, ambiguous and thoroughly recommended.

Hansel & Gretel, the Opera North way

Strawberry Wine - Fifth Bottle (3),17th-18th June 2016

We had half a bottle of Redcurrant in the fridge but, it being a Friday night, Claire wanted something better. A bottle of Strawberry it was. After a couple of glasses each we decided to revert to the Redcurrant on the basis that our faculties wer diminished.

I had the final glass on Saturday after returning from the Playhouse having seen The Barnbow Canaries, a play by Alice Nutter about women working in a munitions factory during the First World War. It was not as good as her previous plays, but the last scene, where yellow balloons were released as each name of the dead was spoken, was excellent.

Clementine Wine - Second Bottle (1), 14th-19th April 2016

With cries of "That's disgusting" and "Did you make this from a gold-miner's drowned daughter?" Claire decided not to finish her glass. I admit that there is an element of bitterness to the flavour and that it is otherwise dry and unremarkable, but I think she is being a little unfair. I won't make clementine wine again, but in my opinion it is still drinkable. The bottle did stay in the fridge for five days, though. During this period I performed in the Messiah, had a first rehearsal of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony (difficult) and saw Northern Broadsides do The Merry Wives of Windsor. This was fabulous. I haven't laughed so much in the theatre ever. The two wives were particularly good and the physical comedy was superb.

Prune & Parsnip Wine 2015 - Second Bottle (B1), 23rd-25th March 2016

I opened this bottle needing a glass or two of wine. I'm not entirely sure, now, what that need was and worry (slightly) about alcoholism. But a very middle-class version where two glasses on a Wednesday night suffices.

Claire and I had a glass each on Thursday night before going to see Damned United at West Yorkshire Playhouse. This was masculine, sweaty theatre - intense and gripping (once I stopped concentrating on the football elements) with two terrific performances. After the play we sat in the the theatre bar, waiting for my parents to emerge from Great Expectations and had a lovely hour together, chatting.

The last dribble of wine was finished this afternoon as a sherry substitute after a sunny morning in the garden, mostly digging.

Elderflower Wine - Third Bottle (4), 13th-15th January 2016

This term, WYSO is playing music inspired by Shakespeare. On Wednesday night we came home having played Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet Overture and much of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream. All good stuff - and a glass of elderflower wine hit the spot nicely. I'm sure that if Oberon and Titania could choose a wine it would be elderflower.

I finished the bottle on Friday night after we had returned from the Playhouse to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It is a ridiculous musical but was done brilliantly. Once I had turned off my cynicism setting, I sat back and let the fun wash over me.

Blackcurrant Wine - Sixth Bottle (B4), 29th - 31st October 2015

What a lot I managed to fit in whilst this bottle of wine was open. I chose it on Thursday because Katie was here for a WYSO committee meeting, and these are her blackcurrants. She said the wine tasted like that she had made, which is probably a Good Thing. But I opened it to celebrate exchanging contracts for selling 14 Carr Manor Mount - we complete on 11th December. Then on Friday Bridget was here and we had a wonderful evening catching up (it has been two years since I last saw her) and eating curry. I had my final glass on Saturday night after coming back from The Grand, where we saw Kiss Me Kate done by Opera North. It was terrific, and I feel that my Shakespeare has been entirely Brushed Up.

Vanilla Wine - Second Bottle (5), 26th-27th August 2015

It was 'Dessert Week' on The Great British Bake Off, so what better than a bottle of Vanilla Wine? In truth, plenty - almost any other flavour. This wine is drinkable but little more. (Unlike the Tepache which I tried to make from pineapple skins. It tasted of calomine lotion and had the consitency of muccus. It was meant to be light and fizzy.) At least I could detect vanilla this time.

We finished the bottle on our return from the theatre, where we saw The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It was physical theatre, wonderfully staged and brilliantly done.

Crab Apple Wine - First Bottle (B4), 3rd-4th August 2015

I carried this bottle in a suitcase all the way to Pembrokeshire. It neither smashed nor exploded and I was able to share it with Sue (my lovely, lovely host) immediately before a dress rehearsal for The Tempest. This meant that I was somewhat tipsy for my walk down the steep hill into St Dogmaels village and for the play, but I did not blow into my bassoon at inappropriate moments.

The play (like the wine) was well done - I particularly liked the four Ariels and the Ferdinand & Miranda scenes played for laughs.

Elderflower Wine - First Bottle (2), 11th-13th June 2015

Elderflower is a reliable white wine with little variance between years. It has a semi-sweet floral taste: distinctive and summery. Mid-June is the perfect season to open a bottle.

I spent most of Thursday evening reading Jaws while drinking this in preparation for the Book Group party. It is old fashioned with pedestrian prose, but good fun all the same. People getting bit in half - what's not to like?

We finished the bottle after returning from the theatre: The Rise and Fall of  Little Voice. This was mostly bleak and gritty with a fabulous musical sequence and some excellent, powerful acting from the three leads.

Little Voice Poster

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

Ginger Wine - Fourth Bottle (6), 29th-30th October 2014

Whilst definitely gingery, this wine has something about it that is cloying. It is drinkable, certainly, but not one of my best. What I have discovered, however, is that it is improved substantially by even a drop of cheap whisky. That adds a sharpness and definition that is otherwise missing.

On Thursday Claire demanded a glass as soon as she walked through the door. Her day had involved lots of brain power and she needed something restorative. We then went to the theatre to see Northern Broadside's production of She Stoops to Conquer, which was excellent. Broad comedy with superb physical humour, and just gorgeous to look at.

On my return I drained the bottle - adding just a dash of Sainsbury's Own Bland Basics Whisky.

Rhubarb Wine - Sixth Bottle (B3), 18th-19th October 2013

I had misremembered this to be a disappointing batch of rhubarb wine. This bottle, however, was everything rhubarb wine should be: dry, fizzy, pleasing and ever so slightly pink.

I opened it after coming home from the theatre feeling emotionally drained. We had been to see My Generation by Alice Nutter, which was superb. It followed a Leeds family over four decades, exploring their internal politics through external ones. I had to make an effort not to sob audibly during the performance - but there were moments of hilarity too.

Then, I finished the bottle on Saturday after returning from the theatre again, this time open mouthed in horror at Sweeney Todd. It too was excellent and both plays remind me how important live theatre is, and how I do not got enough.

Kiwi Fruit Wine - The Making Of ...

Spring may finally have sprung, though it has taken until 6th April to do so. The sky is blue, there is virtually no snow remaining and our rhubarb plants are raising their first exploratory tendrils. I should really be outside digging, but I need to get April's wine started today.

I went into our usual fruit and veg shop fully intending to come out with three tins of exotic fruit, but my eye was caught by the kiwi fruit, being sold at five for a pound. This is a whole kiwi fruit per pound cheaper than normal and I do love a bargain. Also, joy of joys, I get to tick off the letter K from my alphabet of wine. So all portents for this flavour are hopeful. (Though Claire thinks it will  be bland.)

I do not have a recipe for kiwi fruit wine, so I decided that twenty kiwi fruit would probably be about right - which is four pounds in weight (and, coincidentally, price). I have not googled the recipe in case I find out I need double that. I peeled them, though did not worry overly about leaving some skin on. This was tedious and sticky, and it is easier to peel them whole rather than in halves.

I chopped each fruit into eight and put them all in the bucket. They got a good mash and I added three pounds of sugar. I boiled seven pints of water and poured this over. The process made me irritable - which I worked out was because I got too hot and Stan, who does not like any food I currently serve (except creme caramel), whined incessantly. I locked him in the front room with some Sainsbury's Own Brand.

On my return from the theatre - Rutherford & Son, performed by Northern Broadsides (shouty, intense, good) - the wine's temperature had dropped to 29 degrees, so I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient, pectolase and tannin.

I strained the liquid into its demijohn on Wednesday evening, 10th April. I was close with my estimate of water required - there is probably about half a pint too much. As was entirely predictable, the wine has turned from green to its usual cloudy-piss yellow.

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

Hawthorn Blossom Wine - Bottle 1, 11th April 2012

Today we celebrate Cornelia Gruntfuttock's birthday. Cornelia is Claire's alter-ego on Facebook, and her chosen birthday is 11th April. This is as good a reason as any to have a whole bottle of wine on a work-night. Actually, Claire has taken this week as holiday, so only I have to trundle into work tomorrow.

We drank most of the bottle enjoying each other's company on a rare night in together, eating aubergines stuffed with bulghar wheat, feta and pistachios, and discussing last night's performance of Love's Labour's Lost at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (which was truly excellent). I then ruined the bonhomie by racking my celery wine and presenting Claire with a first sip. She thinks it my Worst Ever, which makes this Hawthorn - which she described earlier as 'Drinkable cleaning fluid' - stunningly good in comparison.

In fact, the Hawthorn is okay. Floral and herby. But this last bottle will probably be the last ever.