Blackberry - Bottle D4, 12th June 2011

I think this is the best Blackberry I have ever made. Packed with fruit, the right level of sweetness, and the perfect accompaniment to quail. Yes, we had quail tonight - marinated in honey, oil, garlic and salt, and I cooked it. This, along with beet tops, new potatoes and roast asparagus made a Sunday night feast. We followed it up by watching Sabrina on DVD which was joyous. Audrey Hepburn has amazing star quality - fragile, ethereal looks but a glowing charisma. It was a lovely end to a housebound day where it feels like the rain never stopped and I struggled to write even twelve hundred words about Crab Apple wine for October's Home Farmer.

Making Spiced Beetroot Wine ...

Despite starting this on 5th June, this is my November wine. I have decided to dedicate November's article in Home Farmer Magazine to Spiced Beetroot, but as its colour is the most dramatic thing about it I needed to begin this in June so that suitable photos can appear (and I will post some on this blog once they are taken and uploaded!). This will be my first 'cheat' of an article.

The place where I bought the beetroot, Noshis in Harehills, has an interesting approach to pricing. If in doubt, they charge a pound. So on Saturday I bought three oranges that were priced six for a pound, and was charged one quid. I also bought the beetroot, which was unpriced, and again paid a pound. I like this method: "Some fruit? That will be a pound please. Some veg? Call it a pound." Our fruit and veg bills have dropped since Paul's greengrocers closed. I definitely miss him, but also like the ethnic atmosphere of Noshis.

I began the wine on late Sunday afternoon, 6th June, after making my elderflower and racking my dandelion. Keeping the beetroot till last seemed sensible - I did not want its purpleness leaching into my other brews. I chopped 3 lbs of beetroot into chunks after washing, but not peeling, it and I let it come up to the boil in 6 pints of tap water. Whilst it boiled for half an hour I put 3 lbs sugar, 2 pints cold tap water, juice of one lemon, 5 cloves (down one from last time I made this), not quite 2 oz root ginger sliced thinly, half a teaspoon of all-spice and a small amount of grated nutmeg into my bucket. I hope the spice does not impede fermentation. I then poured the boiling liquid over all this and threw out the beetroot, which strikes me as a waste, and stirred until the sugar was dissolved.

I added the yeast and 1 teaspoon of nutrient on Monday late afternoon. The man in the wine shop suggested that a Madeira yeast would be best, but didn't have any, so I used a 'High Alcohol' yeast instead (the label of which is pleasingly purple). I put this into its demijohn on 10th June, after playing quintets in Harrogate. It was a rapid job, and I could have used half a pint less water in my ingredients. The demijohn is now in the bath, wrapped in silver foil, and bubbling away happily to itself.

Orange - Bottle A5, 8th-10th June 2011

Yet again, Orange serves its duty as a decent mid-week bottle of wine. Wednesday and Thursday were 'nightcap' glasses after (respectively) West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and Madeleine's quintet. The former was frustrating: Beethoven's 7th is a long, high blow and my lip hardly survives the first movement. The latter was more satisfying than our first meeting. We worked on Ibert's 'Little White Donkey' (as well as 'Teddy Bear's Picnic') and blended better as a group.

Tonight I came home from yet more quintets - this time in Harrogate - to find the bottle empty. Claire felt she needed two glasses to toast the Feast of St Ithamar. And quite right too.

Elderberry - Bottle C1, 5th-7th June 2011

Claire opened this while I was out in Guiseley playing nonets badly. Ordinarily my Sunday nights are precious, spent at home, and any bottle opened will be emptied by the evening's close. This Sunday, however, saw off less than half the bottle.

We finished it on Tuesday during my only evening in this week - life has suddenly become hectic. I spent this rest time mostly reading through legal documents for Emmaus and researching a birthday present to be given to my parents who are in the process of turning 70. (For the purposes of this blog I can reveal no more as my mother has been known to read it from time to time. Hello Mom!)

At the end of the night Claire produced some pink buns, coloured (apparently) by crushed beetles. Yum. We worked out that it would be very easy to poison me - present me with a tray of freshly baked cupcakes and I will invariably take the largest. I trust that my wife will not make use of this information.

Making Elderflower Wine ...

I began making elderflower wine on 5th June, and that is a good two weeks earlier than previous years. Our hottest ever April and the driest spring for a century will have something to do with the elders' early flowering. Also, I could have left making this wine for a week, but I suspect not much longer.

I headed out to the Harewood Estate at shortly past ten - without Claire this year. She wanted to use her time pottering in the garden. As I was alone, I did not immediately trespass into a farmer's field. Instead I walked along a public bridleway, picking what flowers I could. This was all done to a sound track of birdsong and the distant roar of expensive sports cars at some Sunday rally. Every so often I heard the muffled voice of a tannoy announcer reading out timings.

The elderflowers along the bridleway were sparse. I picked about half that needed for a double batch - but there, tempting me in a field to which there was no right of way, were flowering eldertrees in abundance. Of course I hopped over the fence and filled my plastic bag. And, as last year, no irate farmer chased me away.

Back at home it took me about three hours to strip two pints of flowers and again I was grateful for both Radios 3 and 4. I followed the instructions in my Home Farmer article, so covered the flowers with 5 lbs sugar, 13 pints tap-water and 2 litres of grape juice. I added 2 crushed B1 and Campden tablets, about 1 1/2 teaspoons of tannin (thus emptying the container) and a teaspoon of pectolase. I added the yeast and one teaspoon of nutrient 24 hours later. The flowers will be sieved out and the liquid will go into the demijohns on Saturday - Friday would be ideal, but I am out playing quintets in Harrogate that night.

Gooseberry - Bottle A3, 3rd-5th June 2011

One glass of Elderflower wine was definitely Not Enough for a Friday night - even though that one glass was remarkably full. So I opened this and we drank it (or most of it) to salad-from-the-garden and fried chicken. Our salads have recently involved chive flowers - and these are a revelation. All pepper and onion. Colourful too.

Sunday night's glass was after a day of virtually non-stop winemaking (Elderflower and Spiced Beetroot) broken only by a confusing and massively disappointing episode of Doctor Who. I had my glass before playing nonets by Josef Rheinberger and George Onslow in Guiseley. Considerably more fortification would have been welcome.

Oh, I need to mention that this bottle of Gooseberry was good - better than either the previous two bottles. Perhaps Demijohn A has the edge over Demijohn B.

Elderflower - Bottle B6, 2nd-3rd June 2011

In anticipation of foraging for elderflowers tomorrow, I opened this bottle last night. Claire is on holiday this week and gave a pint of blood for the first time yesterday. Actually, she reckons she gave rather less and was timed out. But as the nurses gave no dire warning about drinking alcohol, I thought it would be safe to open this. I cooked a fish pie to go with it, and very nice it was too.

We have finished the wine this early evening, mostly inspecting our garden. It is currently glorious weather - real 'height of summer' heat - and it is lovely inspecting roses, a glass of elderflower wine in hand, feeling just that little bit unsteady.

PS Hello both Israel and Germany - delighted you are reading my blog!