Cherry Wine - Fourth Bottle (6), 31st March - 1st April 2020

Claire described this Cherry Wine as thin and underwhelming. I suspect that is an improvement on previous bottles. But a Tuesday night bottle is never meant to be one of the good ones. Also, I think that Claire was a little unfair.

There really isn't much to report about either Tuesday or Wednesday. Days are becoming rather samey, to the extent that I have to think carefully about which day it is. Wake at 6, rise fifteen minutes later, cup of tea, long walk, breakfast, work, wash up, open bottle, eat, watch something mindless, go to bed, repeat.

Upper Lake at Roundhay Park - taken on 31 March

Gooseberry Wine 2017 - Final Bottle (5), 26th December 2019

Gooseberry is a fine bottle of wine: as sharp as fruit wine gets with an absolutely distinct gooseberry taste. I decided that I should share my final bottle of this with company. We had a house full of Taylors and all the chaos that implies. It also implies a continual battle with the washing-up, which refused to stay done. So many mugs in such a short space of time!

A photo I took on the same day as this diary entry

Xmas Tutti Fruti - Seventh Bottle (A3), 13th July 2019

Rachael and Myles were in York on Saturday evening and Claire had abandoned me to paint pottery in Northallerton. Rather than spending an evening alone, I went to York (the second time in a week) and took a bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti with me. The wine was good: dry, interesting: and I drank most of it. My favourite part of Saturday night, oddly, was doing the washing up with Rachael helping. It is rare that the two of us are together by ourselves and when we are we generally have intense conversations. Saturday was no exception.

Prune & Parsnip - First Bottle (B2), 27th January 2019

I did not choose this bottle for our evening's drinking. I had chosen a bottle of ancient Rose Petal instead. However, Claire took one sip of that and went to get something better. I would have been happy with my original suggestion, but Claire was right (she so often is) - this was nicer. It is quite a light prune & parsnip - sweet but not overly so and a tasty bottle for a Sunday night. Other than my poor wine selection, I was indulging in "Perfect Husband" behaviour: cooking the Sunday roast with little supervision and doing the washing up as I went. Being a man, I deserve adulation.

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

Ginger Wine - Third Bottle (3), 27th September 2018

It is not often that we open and finish a bottle on a Thursday night. But it is not often that we are less than 48 hours from a transatlantic flight. Also, it has been a busy day full of noise and a bottle of Ginger wine just seemed like the right thing to do. Claire and I have spent much of the evening in the kitchen pottering - Claire cooking, me washing up - and it has been lovely. We are both a little anxious about our upcoming holiday and a bottle of wine helps, particularly when it is as delicious and gingery as this one. Tomorrow I have 16 house completions to do, which in itself is quite daunting.

NB - This will be my last post for over a fortnight. Have a great couple of weeks, and tune in on my return.

Orange Wine - Fifth Bottle (A6), 8th September 2018

Saturday was one of those days taken up by wine making and chores. I put my blackberry into demijohns, racked my rose petal and picked elderberries. When not doing all that I was washing up, shopping for food and cooking fish pie. I fit in an episode of Doctor Who (all are currently on i-player and I am working my way through Matt Smith) and cut my finger badly when slicing a lemon. Plus we had a bottle of orange wine. So a thoroughly unremarkable Saturday and none the worse for it.

Blackcurrant Wine - Eighteenth Bottle (D6), 30th September 2017

This time tomorrow I should be in Corfu, and I have been ridiculously excited about it for a week. I have not been sleeping well. I am 47. Maybe this bottle of blackcurrant wine will help tonight, but I can already feel that buzzy sensation above the stomach and below the heart that anticipation brings. Next, the bottom of my feet will start tingling, the way they do when I am on a high bridge, looking over the edge. I have tried to keep this evening as normal as possible which of course involves a bottle of wine (delicious, by the way) but also a mountain of washing up and an episode of Bake Off cuddled up to Claire on the sofa.

Looking over a bridge (of sorts) in Corfu!

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Eighth Bottle (A3), 29th September 2017

I hadn't meant to open this bottle, but it was clear that once the elderberry was empty something further was required. And we are officially on holiday (Corfu on Sunday!) so there is excuse enough.

Rachael, Paul and Myles were here to help us share the wine (well, not Myles - he's four) and of the three bottles, this was Rachael's least favourite - too sherry-like. We discussed the Hardy method of washing up and how Rachael and I are both excellent at balancing clean dishes to dry. I wonder if Chris and Keith at both similarly good.

Blackcurrant Wine - Seventeenth Bottle (B2), 20th August 2017

It has been one of those domestic days. I have cooked one lentil curry, baked two loaves of bread, washed up at least four times and started my nectarine wine. Consequently I am now ready for bed and just that little bit drunk. I blame the blackcurrant wine combined with the not-having-eaten-very-much.

Blackcurrant Wine and Blackcurrant & Gooseberry Wine - The Making Of...

Blackcurrants & honeysuckle & rocket

This year has been less prolific in terms of blackcurrants than last. The fruit has also been later and I wonder if the two are connected. My (undoubtedly false) memories of last year reveal handfuls of blackcurrants being plucked from our bushes daily from July to August. This summer has required more work, with half a pound being collected once every four or five days. In total our bushes have produced 5 lbs and 7 oz and that is not enough for a double batch.

Our blackcurrant bushes

Blackcurrants & Hydrangea

Claire suggested bulking out the fruit with our gooseberries, so that is what I have done. The gooseberries have also been a little disappointing. I got excited in April, seeing how many flowers we had and how unaffected by sawfly our goosberries were. But I think in total I harvested fewer than 2 lbs. Nevermind - next year should be better.

So, what I have done is make one demijohn of pure blackcurrant wine, for which I needed 3 lbs of blackcurrants, and one demijohn of blackcurrant & gooseberry wine, which has 2 lbs blackcurrants and 1 lb gooseberries (a mix of green and red). The method has been the same in each case.

The mix of blackcurrants and gooseberries

On Sunday, 14th August, I defrosted the fruit and put each batch in a different bucket. I mashed these with a potato masher, until the fruit had become a pulpy paste. For each, I dissolved 3 lbs of sugar in 5½ pints of water. I brought this to the boil and poured it over the fruit. For the pure blackcurrant, this water was exactly right. The other could have had about a quarter of a pint more.

The fruit in each bucket before mashing

Next morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon of nutrient and pectolase to each bucket.

I should have put both wines into their demijohns on Friday night, but it was Book Group (Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - excellent). Instead, I did this on Saturday morning in between last night's washing-up and having breakfast. Making wine in one's pyjamas suggests a dissolute lifestyle.

If you want to see how the blackcurrant and gooseberry came out, click here.

Rose Petal Wine 2016 - The Making Of... (Blog Post 1,000)

When moving house we had to leave our favourite rose behind. It was a white rose, climbing around the car port and prolific in its blooms. That it was a wedding present made abandoning it more poignant. We did, however, take a red rose with us that had been at 14 Carr Manor Mount when we arrived there in 1998 and which had only put out the occasional flower. This rose is far happier where we are now and I have been out with scissors and a plastic bag every time its petals start to droop.

Mom has also been busy collecting roses from her garden - three varieties, all old and all on the pink/red spectrum. This wine will betray its Yorkshire roots by not having a single white rose to its name.

I was in York on Sunday, 17th July, and collected the last of the saved roses from the freezer. Back home in Leeds, after making bread, having an afternoon nap and tackling the washing up mountain, I measured the rose-petals. I stopped measuring at 12 pints - enough for a triple batch. The remainder are saved for Christmas Tutti Fruti. I poured the petals into my bucket - and at this stage this is the prettiest of wines.

Having failed to find any white grape juice this year, I put in 1-and-a-half lbs of minced sultanas and the juice of three oranges (which is very nearly an opera by Prokofiev). I added 7 lbs 12 oz of sugar (the same as last year - which has produced a wonderful wine). I covered this with 23 pints of boiling water, making the entire house smell of roses.

Next morning, Monday 18th July, I added the yeast, a teaspoon of pectolase and two teaspoons each of nutrient and tannin. I stirred this twice daily until Friday, 22nd July, when I put the wine into its three demijohns. As ever, I used a collander to scoop out most the rose petals, though after the first two collander loads, the 'jug and sieve' method was better. It was a quick job, probably taking about half an hour, and the wine is now bubbling away in all its dark orangy-pinkness.

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

Forgive me for a bit of self-indulgence, but this blog is now 1,000 posts old. The very first post is about making dandelion wine, and can be found here. That was back on 21 April 2011. Since then, I have done a 'wine making' post 94 times, and either made or drunk 50 flavours. My most popular post is 'Blackberry Wine 2013 - the Making Of' and the most frequently drunk bottle is a tie between 'Crab Apple' and 'Blackberry' (99 entries each, of which some will be about making the stuff). Thank you for stopping by - and Bottoms Up!

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Tenth Bottle (B4), 24th-27th April 2016

It is never a wise idea to open a third bottle on a Sunday night. Or, not when there are only four people in the house. But that is what I did because, essentially, I am a show-off. Lambert and Christy were here and I wanted something to go with dessert. Prune & Parsnip is a good choice - sweet with a suggestion of fortification. Sensibly we only had a small(ish) glass each.

Claire and I finished the bottle on Wednesday evening when we were both back late from work and WYSO had been cancelled. In typical living-on-the-edge fashion, I spent my evening watching a tribute to Victoria Wood and doing the washing up.

Orange Wine - Eleventh Bottle (B5), 19th February 2016

It feels like I have spent the entire evening washing up. Claire has been cooking frantically, in preparation for tomorrow night's Turkish Extravaganza (vegetarian). Consequently I have been creating order out of chaos in the kitchen.

The orange wine was opened for a fish pie. I had suggested something real, but Claire fancied something with a citrus kick, and this wine has that aplenty.

Other than the vast amounts of washing dishes, the other notable (read "dull") thing about today was that I walked to work for the first time since moving. Six miles in one hour twenty five minutes. Surprisingly, it was a delight.

Rhubarb Wine - Sixth Bottle (A3), 1st December 2015

So, tonight is our last night at 14 Carr Manor Mount. We have lived here since April 1998 and it is therefore (just) the house at which I have lived the longest. I was going to open a real bottle of red, but Claire argued convincingly that a bottle made from garden ingredients would be more appropriate. And it is a good bottle - resembling real white.

The evening has been oddly normal, despite being surrounded by boxes and empty book cases. I have played on the computer, cleared up cat sick and am about to do the dishes. That is the way it should be.

Thank you House. You have been fantastic.

Rhubarb & Elderflower Wine - Fifth Bottle (3), 13th September 2015

We wanted something specifically associated with this house to drink in celebration, for today someone has put in an offer to buy it. This means that we no longer have to keep it spotless at all times, make sure the washing up is done and put away, and we can move the cat food back to where it needs to be. So today has been a Good Day. Exhausting too, what with the gardening, wine-making, bread-making and our final tidying session.

The wine was really good, with hints of spice (which is unexplained). We both drank too much, though, because we still had a bottle of rose petal to finish.

Orange Wine - Sixth Bottle (B1), 11th September 2015

The courgettes have finally started doing their thing. Usually courgette week is the beginning of August. It is only now that we need to keep an eye on them to prevent a marrow invasion. Claire used a couple to make a Thai curry with sticky rice, and it was delicious. Orange wine was the correct bottle to drink. We needed something unsubtle to work with the Thai flavours, and orange has a powerful citrus kick to make its presence known.

The rest of the evening was mostly taken up with wine making and staying on top of the washing up.

Strawberry Wine 2015 - The Making Of ...

 What a strange time the first weekend in July turned out to be. We collected the keys to our new house on Saturday morning, 4th July and first inhabited the place where we are likely to spend the rest of our lives. The place is a wreck - not structurally, but there is a daunting amount to do before we can live there. Its back garden, though, is nearly a blank canvas and we spent much of the afternoon weeding and digging a small corner. There are problems with light, however, mostly caused by a mature sycamore outside our boundary. Claire came away near tears and with a severe case of Buyer's Remorse. Time will tell, and two days later, she is feeling far more positive.

One good thing is that the garden has strawberries. We picked the ripest one and it now forms part of this wine.

The bulk of the strawberry picking happened on Sunday, 5th July at Wharfedale Grange (where prices have gone up again). Claire came with me because she needed to stay busy. We were directed to the nearest field and the strawberries were plentiful. Picking the 4 lbs needed for this wine took little time, and we came away before the heavens opened with nearly 6 lbs fruit.

Back at home I gathered tiny wild strawberries fom our garden in the rain, hulled those we had got from Wharfedale Grange and put them all in the bucket, taking a potato masher to them. I added 3 lbs sugar and 4 pints of boiling water.

One strawberry from the new house, and tiny strawberries from our garden

This evening, Monday 6th July, I separated the liquid from the pulp, putting the liquid in a demijohn and the pulp in a pan, and covered the pulp with 2 pints of cold water. This sat for the time it took me to eat and do the dishes (which was ages). I then put all liquid back into the freshly sterilised bucket, threw out the pulp and added the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient, pectolase and tannin.

I put the wine into its demijohn on Saturday morning, 11th July. I don't remember a strawberry wine as deep a ruby colour as this one.

Redcurrant Wine - Sixth Bottle (A3), 18th-19th April 2015

I see that I complained of mustiness for the previous bottle of redcurrant. This one was fine, with no hint of moth or dead mouse. It has a sharp sweetness that I like. I opened it after a particularly good Music Club in which Glenys sang in Danish and Pat & Peter's clarinet quartet played brilliantly. But having slept badly on Friday night, Claire and I only had half the bottle between us.

We finished it tonight after a busy day in which I made bread, went to the tip, washed up twice, started my mango wine, brooded about the carpet man, shopped at Sainsburys, cooked two meals for the week ahead, moved furniture, did some bassoon practice and kept Claire supplied with hot drinks.

Prune & Parsnip Wine - Fourth Bottle (B6), 30th April - 1st May 2014

Claire is not going to play in WYSO for much of this term because she is concentrating on her Grade 8. Therefore, whilst I was out on Wednesday, Claire opened this bottle and I had a glass and a half on my return. It passed the time while I washed up and chatted.

We finished the bottle on Thursday and we are now on holiday, about to spend a week in the Lake District with Rachel, Duncan, Nick & Ann. This is likely to be an alcoholic seven days with a bit of walking thrown in. Fingers crossed that the weather improves.

Blackberry Wine - Third Bottle (C1), 20th October 2013

This is a fabulous bottle of wine - full of pure blackberry flavour and with the added benefit of fizz. It is certainly alcoholic - I have a numb face and am finding it hard to concentrate. The bush tea in front of me is helping.

We drank the wine to a beef, black bean and ale casserole assembled by Claire this morning. I spent the day on my feet in the kitchen making wine, washing up and cooking. Sitting down was a welcome relief. And now I can barely keep my eyes open. Happy Sunday.

Now - I have been asked to provide recipes when mentioning food (hello Jaye). This is a little difficult most the time, because Claire is the one who does the exciting, delicious cooking whereas my own efforts are often little more than functional. However, an approximate recipe for the casserole above is as follows (serves four - or in our case two twice):

Ingredients
Three slices of braising steak
A medium or large onion
400g tin or box of cooked black beans
500 ml of beer
A dollop of a sharp jelly - Claire used redcurrant, but crab apple or similar should do
A clove of garlic (I think)
A bay leaf (probably)
Salt and pepper to taste
If you want, stick in some quartered mushrooms or slices of leek, though I don't think Claire did.

Method
Chop the steak into medium sized cubes (an inch or so dimension) and fry over a high heat for not very long at all, so that the sides are sealed and browned
Slice the onion and fry it with crushed garlic - using the juices from the meat and possibly a little oil.
Put it all in a casserole dish with the beans
Pour over the ale
If you need more liquid to just cover the ingredients, put in some water.
If you are using vegetables/mushrooms bung them in too
Add the salt and pepper (err on the side of caution - and add more later if you need to)
Add the bay leaf
Put in an oven at gas mark 3 and cook for a couple of hours
Inspect and taste - it may be too bitter. If so, add enough jelly until it tastes right.
Put it in the oven again - you are unlikely to over cook it.
Eat.