Blackberry Wine - Bottle A5, 21st April 2012

Drunk in Spout Cottage, Derbyshire.

We are on holiday and spending a week in the Peak District with Rachel, Duncan, Nick and Nick's cousin Ann. I have brought six bottles of home brew with me, and this was the first - to accompany lamb koftas, rice and spinach. It was, however, not the only bottle of wine consumed and I am struggling to keep this diary in focus.

Shortly after arriving at the cottage (which was an adventure in itself - the narrow winding road approaching it went on beyond the "are you sure this is right?" point) the next door owner came over. I commented after he had gone "He sounds remarkably like Matthew Parris" and discovered he was. Which, as a meeting someone famous story, isn't all that impressive.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Bottle A6, 19th-20th April 2012

I opened this bottle on Thursday night to celebrate being on holiday, rather than finish the indifferent redcurrant wine hanging around in the fridge. In fact, only Claire was on holiday Thursday night, but now we both are and eagerly anticipating a week in the Peak District. Never mind that the forecast is for continual heavy rain.

The wine was as delicious as ever, going well with Thursday night's bangers and mash and overly-butch cabbage, and finished on Friday before tucking into a goats' cheese, basil and caper pizza on a sour-dough base. We do eat well (he said, smugly).

Redcurrant Wine - Bottle A3, 17th-20th April 2012

Redcurrant has the appearance of wine for special occasions. It is dark pink with a more interesting hue than a shop bought rosé. Taste-wise, however, it falls squarely within the 'mid-week' category. And this was the fate of this bottle - opened on a Tuesday and strung out until Friday.

Wednesday's glass was drunk following WYSO, where we have bitten off rather more than we can chew. There are to be two concerts this term with different programmes and both difficult. The first is on 4 June as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Hence, on Wednesday I came home humming the gallop from The William Tell Overture. I can sing it far quicker than I can play it, which is depressing. Trying to tongue two semiquavers, quaver, two semiquavers, quaver repeatedly is exhausting and, at that speed, close to impossible.

Blogging - One Year On

This blog entry is more than a little self-referential, for which I apologise. However, I am about to disappear for a whole week without any new entries at all (though I think there will be two bottles posted before I do - the Redcurrant is currently in the fridge chilling). And my disappearance will coincide with having been keeping this blog for a year. 22nd April 2012 will be my blogaversary (sorry). In that time I have:

Posted 182 posts (if you don't count this), of which:
20 have been 'how to make wine'
2 have been 'random jobs involving wine'
3 (I think) have been nothing to do with drinking or making wine, which means ...
157 have been bottles of wine that I have drunk. Oh dear; but they have all been shared.

Had 8,540 hits counted by Blogger, of which:
283 were on 'Rose Petal Wine - the Making Of ...'
213 were on 'Quince Wine - the Making Of ...'
many, many were spam hits from Russia with website names like spandexpants.com or freemed.ru
an inconsequential few were me

28 Listed Followers, but:
there are 3 regular people whose ISP is in Leeds and I haven't identified who they are
there is a semi-regular follower whose ISP is in Ile-de-France, Paris
there is someone just listed as being in 'Europe' whose ISP is Oracle Svenska ab
I have one visit from 'Home Land Security' in Springfield Illinois (but have yet to receive my extradition papers)
there are several people who check in regularly who I correspond with from time to time

You all know who you are (even if I don't), and I am delighted that you take the time to visit. Thank you to the regulars and the one-offs for showing an interest in my hobby and (rather ordinary) life. This blog is dedicated to all of you.

Crab Apple Wine - Bottle B4, 14th April 2012

I am of the opinion that this year's crab apple wine is too sweet. It is a pudding wine, which is not good when you have 18 (now 17) bottles of it. The apple flavour is pronounced, which is a bonus, and the sharpness offsets its sugar, but on the whole I think I preferred the 2010 vintage. I shall try to remember this for October, when I make it again.

Today's notable activity was a trip to the cinema. I have not been for two years, and the last movie Claire saw was 'The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' in Salt Lake City in (I think) 2005. We went to see 'Pirates - In an Adventure with Scientists', and very silly it was too. Perfect Saturday afternoon viewing, with a villanous Queen Victoria and glorious anachronisms aplenty.

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.

Exotic Tinned Fruit Wine - the Making of ...

The long Easter weekend always feels self-indulgent. It is four solid days of Sunday, where pottering about is as active as it gets. Today, 7th April, I have been out of the house once - to get the Guardian, and that mostly for the Araucaria crossword. Other than that I have been making soup and wine, and listening to the Classic FM 'Top 300 Pieces of Classical Music' countdown. Though I had to turn it off once it reached Walton's Crown Imperial, which must be the most dreadful piece of music ever written.

I decided that I would have another go at Exotic Tinned Fruit wine this month, and make it a double batch. I am a little worried, however, that I do not have quite enough fruit. There are 14 oz mangoes, 9 oz lychees, 8 oz guavas, and 8 oz combined Jack Fruit and Toddy Palm combined (neither of which I have ever even heard of) together with two pints of syrup. Actually that sounds really low on fruit. Too late now.

The tins of fruit with Claire in the background

I had to look up 'Jack Fruit' on Wikipedia, and other than seeing that it exists and is a large, starchy fruit, I am not really any the wiser. I had a small tast of both it and the Toddy Palm (which Claire pointed out looked worryingly like squid rings) and both were pleasant, tasting of generic exotic fruit.

Spot the Squid Rings

All - fruit and syrup - went into the bucket, I mashed it and then added 12 pints of boiling water and 4 1/2 pounds of sugar. This is less than I would usually add for a double batch, but each fruit came in its own syrup and the initial gravity reading of 1.090 is about right. I put in the yeast plus 1 1/2 teaspoons of nutrient, 1 teaspoon of pectolase and 1/2 teaspoon of amylase on Sunday morning after about ninety minutes of washing up. Ninety! Count them. (We had a splendid meal last night and Claire is busily making pork pies as I write.)

I put all this into its two demijohns on 11th April. It is all a fabulous colour on the borderline between yellow and orange. I suspect there will be a large deposit. The amount of water was not quite right - another pint and a half would have been perfect, but I shall fill it up next time I do any wine making stuff.