Elderberry - Bottle B1, 20th September 2011

I opened this bottle in St Albans whilst staying with Lou and her family. This is the first time I have met my first cousins once removed - Adam and Daniel - and they are already ten and seven.

Mike had asked me to bring a bottle of elderberry, and I think both he and Lou enjoyed it. Adam had a (very) small glass, claimed he liked it, but then tipped the majority into my glass. Daniel had one sip and pulled a face.

It was a lovely evening, full of family gossip and news. We got through too much wine for a Tuesday night, but Claire and I are on holiday - and neither of us had a hangover for the following day's Eurostar trip to Brussels.

Prune & Parsnip - Bottle 6, 18th-19th September 2011

Walking long distances was a feature of this bottle. On Sunday we walked 10-and-a-half miles up Pen-y-Ghent, and on Monday it was 12 miles to the Norber Boulders and back. Both walks started from the cottage we were hiring in Horton in Ribblesdale, and both had their own pleasures. Sunday's walk was in rather better weather with good views - but had considerably more 'up' and wetter feet. The final stretch was along a river path, but it was not clear where the river bank ended. Monday's feature was over-riding drizzle but was peppered with limestone pavement and lush green lanes.

The bottle was our last of rather too many on Sunday night (12 miles feeling delicate is not great) so we brought the remainder home and each had a glass to the final episode of a massively silly season of Torchwood.

Strawberry - Bottle 5, 17th September 2011

This bottle helped complete an excellent day, despite initial misgivings.

We are staying in Horton in Ribblesdale and had planned to spend all daylight hours walking long distances. However, the morning was brought to us by Persistent Heavy Rain. I would have stayed in all day reading, but Rachel suggested the waterfall walk from Ingleton. It was a superb idea. The extraordinary rain means extraordinary waterfalls. Water exploded down them, churning and boiling with raw power in the pools below. And the noise was huge - a great and continual roar of industry. In contrast, the weather brightened and much of the walk was through woods in dappled, damp sunlight.

The strawberry wine was our first of many bottles of the evening, before any hint of food, and was - as always - delicious.

Elderberry - Bottle B2, 16th September 2011

[Quick aside - I have been away for a week, so have been tardy in posting my bottles on here.]

I brought this bottle to Horton in Ribblesdale, where we are staying in a holiday cottage for a long weekend with Rachel, Duncan and Nick.

The drive from Leeds took longer than expected and the final stretch from Settle seemed impossibly long. The road bent and dipped and climbed and, in the dark, this was less than fun. Hence opening a bottle as soon as we arrived was the first priority.

We mostly drank the wine whilst unpacking. Between us, we have brought enough food for a medieval castle to withstand a month-long siege. Happily, this includes alcohol, and tonight we polished off three bottles.

This batch of elderberry is promising. It is a little young and there is the unsurprising faint taste of metal. I think the others liked it more than I, but it is definitely drinkable.

Elderflower - Bottle A6, 15th September 2011

This bottle has been brought to you by 'Dissolute Thursdays'. But, in fact, drinking half a bottle tonight felt appropriate. I did not get home from work until quarter to nine - though waiting for the world's slowest bus contributed to the late hour. It has been several years since I worked an 11-and-a-half hour day and I can't recommend it. By the end my typing was inaccurate and my interpretation of lease clauses questionable. It was, therefore, delightful to be handed a cool glass of elderflower wine within minutes of stepping through the front door. Actually, the back door. We only ever use the back door.

Only one more day of work to go, though, and then we are on holiday with all sorts of exciting things planned.

Crab Apple - Bottle A2, 11th September 2011

What an exhausting, yet fabulous day it has been. Today was the Tannhauser 'Open Rehearsal' - the end event of the Northern Wagner Orchestra weekend. So we had a huge orchestra, a full choir, a raft of professional soloists and, best of all, a set of off-stage horns. I want a set of off-stage horns as a permanent attachment: every time I did something or had a good idea, they could play a suitable fanfare in an adjoining room. It would be fabulous.

We drank this bottle shorlty after coming home and to a meal of salmon steaks, parsley sauce and large numbers of vegetables from the garden. It was followed by possibly the best Doctor Who of Matt Smith's reign that I have seen: 'The Girl Who Waited'. Imaginative, simple on the surface, but with complex issues and plenty of emotion. Excellent.

Elderberry Wine - The Making Of ...

Things do not bode well for this wine. And I am cross. Only 12 bottles-worth! For years I have been making triple batches of elderberry wine, yet this year it is only a double. It would not even have been that had Claire not convinced me that 5 lbs 6 oz of fruit was only a little way from the 6 lbs that I really needed, and that freezing what I had picked would be inconvenient. She pacified me with cake, but I am still cross. I predict a thin, sub-standard twelve bottles of elderberry wine. But we shall see.

Anyway, Autumn has come early this year - the trees were starting to colour in mid-August and all fruit is early. As I am Doing Stuff for the next few weeks without a break, today - Monday, 5th September - was the only convenient time to begin this wine. I might struggle for elderberries if I had left it another fortnight.

I drove to Hetchel Woods and decided to do the three-and-a-bit mile walk associated with this wine rather than go straight for the elder trees. It was, after all, a sunny Autumn day. Or it was for about the first twenty minutes of the walk. I watched the light dim rapidly as heavy rain clouds accumulated. I then stood under a tree for ten minutes, pretending that this gave me adequate shelter as water cascaded around me. I should have known then that not all was going to plan for this wine.

When I got to my usual field, the rain had stopped but my feet and legs were wet. There were plenty of elderberries and, according to past instructions, I picked a plastic bag and a half's worth, knowing that this would be nine pounds of fruit, and wandered back to the car - ignoring several opportunities to pick more.

Back home I started stripping the berries from their stalks and became monumentally bored in the process. Radio 4 helped a little. Weighing the elderberries was depressing. I didn't even pick enough for a double batch. Not really. Bah! So I have mashed what I did pick with greater ferocity than usual, on the basis that this may release more juice, and I have covered the resultant pulp with 12 pints of boiling water.

I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase the next morning. I was going to strain the elderberries and add the sugar on Thursday night, but I came back from Madeleine's at 10. The process would have taken an hour and a half, so I thought "Sod it" and just added 5 ½ lbs sugar, leaving in the elderberries. I doubt it will make much difference.

I sieved this into demijohns on Monday morning, 12th September - which took less time than anticipated. I had to top each demijohn up with about half a pint of water. It is a fabulous dark purple colour, so at least something has gone right.