Brief Update on December's Wines.

I've got a few "new" recipes to add, and i'll get around to that soon, but first a brief update on the wines i made in december 2013. Most of them were quickies, so me and mrs critterwines have been enjoying them for some months.

Cranberry & Blueberry: bit of an old faithful of a wine, and again turned out predictably delicious and easy drinking. No wonder i keep making it, and no wonder mrs CW keeps asking for it.

Passion Fruit: I hadn't tried this before, but wish i had. Its definitely our favourite quickie of the brews i'll be mentioning in this entry. Of all my brews only elderflower is more delicious. This is a quickie wine you must try. Stick to the recipe and method, don't be tempted to make it stronger by using more sugar. make sure that half your juice is grape juice (red or white, your choice).

Cherry: Hadn't tried this one before either. It's as good quality as the blueberry & cranberry tho doesn't have the crisp edge that probably comes from the cranberries. Still, i'll make it again i'm sure.

Sorrel: Another one i hadn't tried before and will repeat. It's very good. The wine is a little more grown up then either the cherry or the cranberry & blueberry. a little extra astringency is what i think does it. But it's pretty similar to both of them otherwise. I'm tempted to play with this a little more, make it a tonic kind of wine cos sorrel has health benefits. so i'm thinking ginger would probably go well with it for example.

Lemon Balm: I used the quickie base for this wine and the results are fine but not what i expected. The flavour of the lemon balm didn't really come out. My guess is that picking it in winter was bound to have this result. Regardless i have a very pleasant white table wine. When i bottled the second gallon i stuck a sprig of lemon balm in each bottle. It helped to infuse some flavour after a few days, and the bottles look beautiful. However the flavour was still delicate. When i bottle the last gallon i'll try 2 or 3 sprigs per bottle. ... and look out for ladybird grubs on the leaves, found one in an empty bottle! There's worse ways to go i guess.

Really you can't go wrong picking any of these brews. so pick which one floats your boat going on intuition and/or what you like the sound of and/or your own tastes, favourites etc. If you're really stuck, spoiled for choice perhaps, then go for the passion fruit. Or go with your budget, what juices are available and in your price range.