A Friday night bottle. It being Bonfire Night, we spent our evening indoors reassuring the cat that all these loud bangs and fizzes did not ...| bensadventuresinwinemaking.blogspot.com
This could be the best rhubarb wine that I have made. It is light, refreshing and has a pleasant fruity taste. Its colour is the palest of pinks and it is absolutely clear. Unusually, it is rather better than the Rhubarb, elderflower and mint that I bottled today as well.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
When I bottled this, I noted that Prune & Parsnip 2021 was a poor vintage. It is pleasing, therefore, that the wine seems to have aged well. This bottle was entirely like Prune & Parsnips that I have known. Possibly it is lighter in colour, but I cannot detect a difference in taste. As always, it has the essence of a semi-sweet sherry.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
There is a reason that the last time I performed with Alan and Audrey at Leeds Music Club I came away swearing "Never again". I was reminded of that reason on Saturday night where, against my better judgment, I performed with Alan and Audrey at Leeds Music Club. Never again. We were playing humorous and relatively straightforward arrangements of The Nutcracker. Within three bars of starting, Audrey was lost and playing notes from several bars ahead. Alan and I ploughed on as best we could unt...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
I opened this bottle of ginger wine very quickly after rejecting a bottle of Apple & Strawberry as being simply unpleasant. This wine, though, is excellent. Perhaps it is just that little bit sweet, but the ginger flavour fights through that. It would be a fabulous base for a whisky mac.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Angie & Phil had an impromptu wine, cheese and games evening so we grabbed Blockus and this bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti and walked the 200 metres to their house. It was a wonderful, drunken evening and the first time in an age that we stayed up past midnight. I am really quite poor at Blockus - and it is a vicious game with tactics I have yet to grasp. The wine went down nicely, with Phil and Angie having the lion's share. We (Claire and I) took the opportunity to drink more real wine than was...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
I took this bottle to York with me, where we had a lovely weekend with my parents. Mom cooked 'Biochemist's Lamb' and we spent the evening drinking and chatting. Pop had several helpings from this bottle so I think he enjoyed it. Rightly so! It is a light, fruity red with a touch of fizz.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
This is a light red wine with a warmth to the back of the throat as it slips down. There is no dominant fruit, although the wine is distinctly fruity. It is not as good as 2019's vintage but it is close (and close in taste too). Maybe maturation time is required.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
This wine is very much a dessert* wine. It has a fruity sweetness to it that would make it a poor one to go with many meals but which could be shared afterwards by a roaring fire. Perhaps the flavour is a little 'one note' but it is not a bad wine by any means. Claire described it as "Better than expected"^. We drank most of this on Thursday, which was an unremarkable day: working at home, followed by blue cheese & spinach quiche (I should have taken a photo - it looked fantastic) and a joyou...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Not a bad bottle of wine at all. Perhaps more crab apple than strawberry, but lovely and light. We drank the whole lot on a Wednesday evening, mostly because I was making pancakes. That may appear to be a non-sequitur but making pancakes always puts me in a bad mood. They take longer than they should, rarely reach the edge of the pan and flipping them can go badly wrong. Still, the resulting 'Pancakes Stuffed with Ham and Mushroom in a White Sauce Topped with Parmesan' (snappy title) was abso...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
I left this bottle in the fridge for the combined Taylors to enjoy whilst I was out playing trios with Pat and Peter, but with strict instructions that there should be a glass for me to enjoy on my return. Happily those instructions were obeyed and I had my ration before bed. Susanna said how much she liked this wine, with its elements of Croft Original. I don't pick those up, but it certainly has a fruity rich taste. I returned from Pat & Peter's via Sainsbury's with four bottles of real win...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Not a terrible wine by any means. I'm not sure it tastes of much, though, other than an overly dry white wine. 'Sharp' will be an adjective that I shall overuse on this page. It is not as dry as the Quince I made about a decade ago, but it is approaching that. Claire suggested adding a sugar syrup and that worked, though did not make the wine any more interesting.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
The second I walked through the door, Claire handed me a glass of blackberry wine. It was quarter past seven and it had been a long, intense day at work. I have much of the coming week on holiday - mostly to avoid losing days from my annual allowance - and so I wanted to leave the office having done everything required. When I turned off my computer there was not a single email in my in-box, which is an unusual state of affairs. The blackberry wine was hugely welcome and this is a fine vintag...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
On the dankest of Saturdays I have been out in the rain thrice. The first two were to buy provisions for the coming week. The last was to check if the local garage was selling petrol. We are in the midst of a fuel shortage because (thanks to Brexit - the gift that keeps on giving) there are not enough lorry drivers. And as soon as the Government says "Please don't panic buy", everyone does. There have been queues of traffic at any open garage for the last week. On Saturday evening I joined th...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Blackberry Wine feels like a proper Sunday night bottle. One that you can relax into like a favourite sofa. It had been a gentle weekend full of entirely pleasurable nothing much. On Sunday that involved walking the suburbs of North Leeds in search of elderberries and making both bread and a ginger & marmalade cake (note to self: the marmalade was a flavour too far). Then in the evening we had a Padian chicken curry, drank this wine and watched The Crown. The curry involved me sucking on a ch...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Claire had this bottle whilst I was in the Brecon Beacons with Rachael & Myles. She says that she has written it up in her diary and hopes that this is Good Enough. It isn't really, but it is also clear that she won't write it up in this one. I think she had a reasonable week whilst I was away - plenty of Midsomer Murders and RuPaul's Drag Race I understand| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
We have an infestation of Taylors. Bob, Judith and Susanna are staying for several days - and that is a thoroughly good thing. I was dashing out playing trios with Pat & Peter so really only had time to open this bottle, have a small glass and leave the Taylors to it. Reports of the wine were positive, and it was the first of two drunk on a Thursday evening. I am so pleased that our house is open to guests again.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Claire fancied a red on Friday night and neither of us felt the inclination to cook, so a bottle of Damson wine and a take-out curry it was. The wine was not as good as I had remembered: too dry and slightly thin, but certainly drinkable. Claire enjoyed it, saying that it had hints of real wine.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
It is good to be home! The last two weeks have been excellent: a superb week at Rydal followed by another one in the Brecon Beacons, but returning to the Usual is, in some ways, a relief. A quiet night in with Claire, who did not come to Wales, curled up on the sofa watching a movie with the Snarkalong Film Club was absolutely the right thing to do. This time it was Relative Values: a comedy of manners with a terrific cast, led by Julie Andrews. Nothing demanding or noisy at all.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
I was on hairdressing duties on Tuesday evening. We are shortly to go to Rydal (!) and Claire wanted to re-blue her mohican. The bottle of blackcurrant was opened before the process began. What could possibly go wrong? My task was to paint bleach into the back of Claire's head and then later in the evening (and further down the bottle) to shave the sides of her scalp, leaving a wide blue stripe of hair in the centre. It all looks quite alarming, but in a thoroughly good way. The wine was also...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
The Internet is a marvelous thing. It allows one to order Dim Sum to arrive through the post, complete with cardboard double-decker steamer and dipping sauces. This was Rachel's idea and we had a Zoom Dinner Party with her and Duncan, during which I opened this Blackcurrant & Raspberry Wine. Whilst a white wine might have been preferable, I had nothing chilled. The Dim Sum was fantastic - and my favourite was the pork bun. It all made for an entertaining evening.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Liz & David hosted an evening of pure jollity on Saturday. Phil, Angie, Claire and I all gathered there to eat Take-Out pizza and make merry. It has been a little while since I had such unadulterated fun and there was much laughter. Also much wine, of which this bottle of gooseberry was one. It really is a good wine, with a sweetened gooseberry taste. The postscript to this evening, though, is that on Wednesday Liz sent round a message to say that she has Covid. I hope to remain unaffected.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Sunday night was our monthly Zoom Dinner Party with Rachel & Duncan, and that required a bottle of something decent. The menu was Prawn Curry and a dhal (dahl?), meaning the wine needed to be a sharp white. This describes gooseberry perfectly and neither the bottle nor the food disappointed. Again we had a lovely, boozy evening and once the Zoom call had ended Claire and I cut ourselves a slice of Gugelhupf (bless you!) I had made earlier in the day and watched The Crown.| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
Instructions for a beetroot & goats cheese risotto directed me to use 150 ml of dry white wine. Having nothing real in the house, I thought that gooseberry would work so opened this bottle. My supposition proved correct: the risotto was excellent and it is a good one to have in my repertoire. The wine wasn't bad either, though not as dry as I had remembered. It was improved by chilling. There was a glass left for Thursday - a day in which a dental hygienist looked at my teeth after four years...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
I took this bottle to an impromptu barbecue at David and Liz's on Sunday evening, knowing this to be one of Liz's favourites. It was the last of three bottles drunk, which is perhaps too much between four (particularly as Claire had only a sip of this one), but when it is a bank holiday the next day, who's counting? This strawberry vintage is excellent and Liz and David both thought it akin to a proper rosé. It was a lovely way end a day that had been full of chores (one of which was making ...| Ben's Adventures in Wine Making
