Just opened a bottle of two year old homemade Blackcurrant wine...it'd be good to declare it delicious and pour out a bigger glass...but it's horrid.
It certainly smells lovely...has the proper sort of aroma of compost heap and sweaty sock...just tastes horrible. And there's a dozen bottles of it...
There's Red Currant wine as well...had a sip of that and I believe it might be even worse than the Blackcurrant...
One year I made one of those concoctions where you stuff stoned fruit into a jar and top it up with Brandy...Teresa picked out all the Apricots and the Cherries then promptly fell asleep at the table before the pudding...
Another year we found a heap of Wheat by the side of the road...brought some home and made Wheat wine that was actually very drinkable...and terribly potent. It had to be rationed out in tiny liqueur glasses otherwise visitors were flat on their backs giggling... waving their feet in the air and talking rubbish.
All the staid maiden Aunts had slipped off this mortal coil by then...pity really...all manner of family secrets may have come to light, had we given them a small dainty glass of the infamous Wheat wine...
My Granny made wine...Blackberry, which was a rich dark red, that she gave us when we had a sniffly cold...heated with a red-hot poker held in the fire and sweetened with honey...Cousin Ginny developed such a taste for Granny's wine she used to make a big performance of coughing and blowing her nose...until Granny cottoned on and said she'd have to go home early if she was going to be ill.
And she made Dandelion and Burdock...we had a glass of that with our supper...made the boiled fatty Mutton stew much easier to swallow. Granny had Jack Russell dogs who were as broad as they were long...they must have put on pounds in weight when we all stayed on holidays, from the scraps we fed them under the table...you had to be quick though in case Granny saw you.
Grandpa would just wink at whichever one of us was the guilty party...
We were never actually hungry, in spite of giving most of our suppers to the dogs...Granny was a great believer in midnight feasts...she'd make up jam sandwiches and slices of fruit cake...little windfall apples, sweet and crisp... and a jug of either Lemonade or Dandelion and Burdock...
Ooo...Ginger beer...isn't that the one you have to pass the 'mother' on to someone else to keep it going? I've made that and it worked...better than the wine.
If people have signed the Pledge here, they wear a little pin on their clothes...lol
My Nan used to tell me a tale about her teetotal Methodist Mother. She made various wines in the belief (?) that they were non alcoholic because they were home made. Her best was parsnip wine which 'tasted like champagne' ( though how a very poor family in the back streets of Wednesbury knew what champagne tasted like I have no idea)
One day the Methodist Minister came to call. Down went great Granny to the cellar and brought up a bottle of the best parsnip. When my Great Grandad came home from the steel works he found Granny and the Minister comotose over each side of the table.
Anybody got a bottle?
in reply to
Loved this story...maybe they'd had Champagne at a wedding...or a sparkling wine...!
Vashti, you had me smiling before I finished your first paragraph <3
I've just made a batch of hot & spicy red onion chutney because when we went camping to Mablethorpe we went on a nature walk & there was a quaint cottage with a stall outside ...at first I thought there was was wine & got very excited but it was bottles of vinegar however I bought the chutney & put my money in the honesty box. It was lovely so I looked up a recipe on internet & made 4 jars.....2 weeks to go to see what it's like!.
I was also inundated with tomatoes from customers & friends & made a spicy tomato chutney, I was in two minds to add more chilli but stuck to the one as the recipe suggested. I had a tiny taste when I was jarring it and it's well hot!
Now you have me interested in wine making lol,
Thank you for sharing Love your posts xxx
Hi I had a spell of making wine 30 years ago. I used to take it to gartherings of friends and a lot of them praised it. It didn't last long anyway and I never took any home.
In London I worked as a receptionist in an Acupuncture Clinic in the West End. One customer used to bring me the odd bottle of home made wine. I don't know what he put in it coz it tasted like sherry and was pretty strong Lovely.. x
I lived with my grandmother when I was little. One day I was clearing the pantry out and found an old bottle of whisky i poured it down the sink as i thought it would have gone off. Ah the innocence of youth lol
Loved reading your post, I wonder what you could do to improve the taste.My first husband was always making wine and beer and once he made onion wine , it was fowl and so was his guts, I had to leave all of the windows open uck!😁
I've wanted to make elderberry champagne but am always afraid I might be picking the wrong thing! Unfortunately I missed the sloes this year, though do usually make both sloe gin and sloe vodka - I shall be regretting that at Christmas!
Love the post. My father used to make wine, very potent stuff, I remember picking dandelions when we were young, they made our hands black! All the wine was kept in a large trunk by the side of his bed. Happy memories xx
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however I bought the chutney & put my money in the honesty box. It was lovely so I looked up a recipe on internet & made 4 jars.....2 weeks to go to see what it's like!. 
Love your posts xxx
