Rhubarb Wine 2014 - The Making Of ...

Until now, Rhubarb has always been my May wine. The winter this year, though, was incredibly mild. We had no snow and only a couple of frosts. Therefore everything is early and I find myself making Rhubarb Wine in April. Late April, admittedly, but April nevertheless.

On Saturday, 26th April, Claire and I visited Julia's allotment to pick parsley, dig up parsnips, plant garlic and collect rhubarb. This was all on instruction from Julia, who is finding it frustrating in the extreme that she is too ill to do any of this herself. She hopes that the current invalidity is temporary, and we must hope along with her.

I plucked rhubarb while Claire planted garlic, and got a couple of butch green stalks before changing tactics and going for the pinker stuff. At home I weighed what I had collected - four and a half pounds - and got the remaining pound-and-a-half from our garden. Our rhubarb is doing remarkably well. It must be all the horse poo that Claire put on it in March.

I chopped the rhubarb into small pieces and put it in the bucket. In a change to previous years (only because I did not read the instructions carefully) I added 6 lbs sugar immediately - rather than 24 hours later - and covered it with fourteen and a half pints of boiling water. I can't imagine the early addition of sugar will make any difference. The yeast and teaspoon-and-a-half of nutrient went in on Sunday morning.

On Thursday 1st May (a day on which I moved offices from central Leeds to Horsforth, thus cutting my commuting time from 52 minutes walking to 15 minutes driving) I put all the liquid into its two demijohns, sieving out and discarding the rhubarb. This took me less time than I had feared - about 30 minutes. As usual, the colour is a pleasing pastel pink.

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

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.

Christmas Tutti Fruti - Fifth Bottle (A1), 27th-28th April 2014

I have just returned from a tedious Airedale rehearsal to find this bottle empty. That there was less than a glass left in it before I went excuses this somewhat. We drank most the bottle on Sunday. I needed the wine as a de-grumping agent. It was my turn to cook, and I got flustered making a pork, cashew nut and lime stir-fry. I like my cooking slow, where I feel in control, rather than having several things to do at once and all of them to be done quickly. Still, it all worked, was delicious and the wine returned me to my human setting. It is an adequate bottle but a little bit thin.

Exotic Tinned Fruit Wine - Tenth Bottle (B3), 26th-27th April 2014

I had expected this bottle to be nasty, but we had yet to have a bottle of it in April so I put it in the fridge for Saturday night. In fact it was rather better than expected - entirely drinkable with no distinguishing features. We drank it to a mushroom and gnocchi bake followed by a rhubarb trifle with lots of Croft Original Sherry. Claire's grandmother would have approved.

Rhubarb was a feature of the day - I started making 2014's Rhubarb Wine, which means there is a large bucket in the middle of the kitchen creating a tripping hazard.

Blackberry Wine - Fourteenth Bottle (B1), 25th April 2014

Blackberry wine is always a Good Bottle, but this wine has been fabulous. The taste is pure bramble. Whenever anyone asks what is my favourite wine, I tell them that it is blackberry, and this bottle justifies it. There should be some special occasion, but in fact it is a very ordinary Friday night. I have spent much of it chatting companionably with Claire - and that is always lovely. Friday evenings are a time to reflect on the week gone by and to wash it away with the blur that is summoned by a bottle of wine. But now I am at the 'go to bed' or 'be sociable' cusp, and I think 'sleep' is taking the upper hand.

Crab Apple Wine - Sixteenth Bottle (B3), 22nd - 25th April 2014

There is very little to say about this bottle of wine, and I shall try to say it in approximately 250 words.

I was out on Tuesday night, mostly playing Haydn, when it was opened, and then Claire was out on Wednesday night playing through her Grade 8 pieces. We were both out on Thursday - me at a WYSO committee meeting (where I seem to have taken on more duties. Damn and, indeed, Blast), Claire at a string quartet. And we have both been in tonight. Somewhere within all this we have managed to finish a bottle of crab apple, and it has been as unremarkable yet tasty as ever. A dependable bottle of wine that could be compared to a magnolia paint.

Peapod Wine - Final Bottle (5), 21st-22nd April 2014

I was prepared to pour this bottle down the sink. It has been nine months since we last had any and I remember that bottle being nasty. I put a bottle of crab apple in the fridge by way of back up. It is with genuine delight, therefore, that I can report this wine has improved massively with age. Should I ever make peapod wine again, which, frankly, is unlikely, storing it for nearly three years is the way forward. It was still a little sweet but had a hint of German Rheisling (he said, pretentiously).

We drank most the bottle on Easter Monday - which really is the scrapings of the Easter barrel. A glass was left in the bottle for Claire whilst I was out playing quintets in Ilkley. She finished it before I set off and opened the crab apple.