After opening this on Saturday we decided that we wanted something rather better, drank a bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti, and then returned to this bottle for extra room-spinniness. It isn't a terrible bottle of wine, but there is a hint of the bitter. There was a glass each remaining for Sunday - a day which I mostly spent in the kitchen making Delia's ragu (superb!) and a Rhubarb & Custard cake (rather less so). On the whole a quiet and gentle weekend.
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| Rhubarb & Custard Cake in the making |
Baked fish requires a citrus wine, and ginger very nearly fulfills that role. The wine was perhaps a little robust, but there was no struggle involved in finishing it. Nor in finishing the current book: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. I picked this up from one of the Little Free Libraries dotted around Leeds, expecting it to be trashy, badly written yet fun. It only matched the last of those - perhaps not Great Literature but extremely engaging and written with knowing humour. It was not what I expected - more Romance Structure and less Murder Mystery than anticipated.
A Saturday bottle of wine. The day had been lovely. I spent most of the morning making an asparagus and emmental quiche - which was a Triumph (he said, modestly). Then Richard & Linda came round for lunch, during which the Triumph was eaten with relish. We stayed outside enjoying a British summer's day and it was great to be entertaining again. Late afternoon I played Mom at Scrabble (always a weekly highlight) and in the evening we drank blackcurrant wine (another Triumph) whilst being disappointed with Gross Pointe Blank - far duller than I remember it being in 1997.
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| The Triumph |
We are having a proper June. May was exceptionally wet, but this month has been glorious: hot and sunny. Our garden is looking wonderful, and we drank some of this bottle outside parading the grounds. The rest was drunk to an Indian Takeout and an episode of ER. Perhaps not the most exciting of Fridays, but precisely what I wanted. The orange wine matched that description too.
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| Our garden in the evening sun |
When choosing a wine on Wednesday, I noticed this one had its cork part of the way out. It was stored on its side, so emergency action was required. There was a small 'pop' as I opened it, but the wine did not explode out of the bottle. Its taste was excellent, though, and it took all self control not to finish it then and there. Claire had the rest on Thursday - the Feast of St Ithamar - whilst I was at Pat & Peter's for the first time in 16 months to play trios. It was so good to be there again and, against all expectations, it was musically satisfying too.
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| The Feast of St Ithamar |
The week has been a veritable social whirl: to York on Tuesday for Mom's 80th, Book Group on Friday (albeit virtual) and then a proper dinner party at Angie & Phil's on Saturday. Yes, we spent most of it outside, but that was because it was a lovely summer's evening rather than a Government Edict for the Protection of Society. It was a marvelous evening and felt so normal. Life will return to much as it used to be and we are on the first steps of that.
I took this wine at Liz's request and it is an excellent bottle. So much so that I may make a double batch this year.
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| Angie's recipe for Rhubarb & Custard Cake |
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| Elderflowers overhanging our fence |
We have had an absolutely splendid June. After the sodden May, it has been wonderful to bask in warmth and sunlight. The garden is looking terrific this year and everything seems to be thriving. Particularly the rhubarb. We have been having stewed rhubarb with our morning porridge every day for weeks and I have been trying every rhubarb cake recipe that I find (tomorrow is Rhubarb & Custard). Last month was rhubarb wine and of course this month it is Elderflower, Rhubarb & Mint. I had planned on a double batch but Claire, in her campaign to drink shop-bought wine made from grapes more frequently, requested that I stick to a single batch. And because I love her, I have.
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| Some of the Rhubarb |
I started the wine on Sunday 13th June. Pulling up 3 lbs of rhubarb was no effort - some of that in the back garden has been starved of sunlight by other, taller, plants and so has the deep pinkness of forced rhubarb. I picked my elderflowers from the tree overhanging our fence from the synagogue. The mint came from our herb patch and, as last year, I have used only a small handful of spearmint.
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| A small handful of spearmint |
Stripping elderflowers, as always, was the tedious part. I sat outside and turned my thumb pollen-yellow in the process. My haul only produced ¾ pint of elderflowers, but I was sufficiently bored by this time not to collect more to make it into a full pint.
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| Yellow thumb and finger |
I sliced the rhubarb thinly and put this, the elderflowers and the chopped mint into my bucket. I poured over 6½ pints of boiling water and added 2 lbs 14 oz sugar. The following morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase.
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| The main ingredients |
The wine got a vigorous stir each day until Friday 18th June, when I put the wine into the its demijohn. I spent some of this process worrying that Claire might have been abducted or dead - she had sent me a message at 5:45 saying that she was setting off and had not returned an hour and a half later. Happily, she had only got chatting to a colleague after sending a message so it was perhaps a little premature to be planning her funeral. Phew! Anyway, the wine is the same pastel pink as pure rhubarb and is now by the bath bubbling away.
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| The finished product |
