At the beginning of last year I noticed errant raspberry runners coming up on my plot, from my neighbours’. He’s a nice man and was very apologetic about it, even offering to come round and dig out the offending tryffids. But I told him not to worry, I am a Yorkshireman after all and the thought of free raspberries would adequately compensate for having my space invaded.
So I let them do their thing, and come the following autumn had a decent crop of large fruit positively dripping from the canes. The only thing is, there wasn’t much taste to them, so much so that even the birds left them alone !
I’ve grown a summer fruiting variety before that had a wonderful taste and made delicious jam, so I was disappointed with these. But what to do with them ? Jam was a possibility, but to be honest we’ve made it in the past and in reality used very little, so I thought I would give wine a go even though I’m a beer man myself.
It wasn’t hard to make, a little faffy maybe (is that a word ?), and it definitely looked the business in the demijohn as it settled out to leave a crystal clear ruby-ish red liquid.
Yesterday was the day that Mrs N’s protestations about having demijohns as kitchen window ornaments, finally peaked, and so I bottled the wine.
Obviously we had a little taster, and I could definitely detect a cheeky nose of raspberry as the glass approached my lips. Unfortunately the taste was another matter, and as much as I'd like to wax lyrical about it having a fruity body, it didn’t, and I found it a little insipid.
It’s saving grace however was its appearance, and if I were to be awarded a mark for artistic merit in a wine making competition, and receive anything less than a 9.5, I would blow the judges un grand framboise as I made my indignant exit.
