Country winemaking has always followed the year — elderflower in May, blackberries in September, sloes once the frost has been at them. Pick a month and see what is ready.
Seasons are for Ireland and the UK. Elsewhere, shift them by a month or two — or tick “the whole year” and browse everything.
Aug–Oct · 4.5 L
Free fruit and a forgiving process. The pectic-enzyme step is the difference between a clear wine and a permanently hazy one.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Jun–Sep · 4.5 L
A delicate summer melon; pectic enzyme, and lemon to rescue a very low-acid fruit.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Aug–Oct · 4.5 L
A sweeter companion to the dry hedgerow blackberry; the stabilise-then-sweeten rule for the many who prefer a sweet wine.
Teaches Back sweetening and sorbate
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Sep–Nov · 4.5 L
Teaches that colour is an ingredient you can win or lose — gentle heat, cool ageing — and how ginger and acid rescue an earthy vegetable wine.
Teaches Colour extraction
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
The hedgerow's most natural blend; apple's acid balancing blackberry's fruit.
Teaches Blending for balance
Foraged ingredient — read the note
September · 4.5 L
Another bitter-fruit-must-cook-and-blend lesson; rowan tamed by crab apple.
Teaches Cooking and blending a bitter fruit
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
Restraint with a sharp, tannic fruit — a little carries a lot — and the patience that tannin needs.
Teaches Dilution of strong fruit
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
Two lessons at once: why some fruit must be cooked (safety) and what tannin does (structure and the need for age).
Teaches Boiled must and tannin
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Aug–Sep · 4.5 L
The stone-fruit handling lesson on a sweeter green gage — flesh off the stone, stones out whole.
Teaches Stone fruit handling
Jun–Sep · 4.5 L
A garden-flower wine; delicate infusion, and separating petals from a bitter green centre.
Teaches Delicate infusion
Aug–Sep · 4.5 L
A thrift wine from a garden glut; a bland base carried entirely by ginger, raisins and citrus.
Teaches Making wine from a byproduct
Jun–Sep · 4.5 L
Another green-leaf wine; the lesson is restraint, since too much mint turns it medicinal.
Teaches A green leaf wine
Aug–Sep · 4.5 L
A late-summer garden tree; restraint with an intense, staining fruit.
Teaches Dilution of strong fruit
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
A pair with the cider recipe that teaches a real bit of chemistry — why perry is naturally sweet — by tasting it.
Teaches Perry and sorbitol
Aug–Sep · 4.5 L
Teaches safe handling of stone fruit — the amygdalin rule stated plainly — and the small art of blending sharp damson with softer plum.
Teaches Stone fruit handling
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
Teaches that some drinks are juice, not must — and that the fruit does the work. A gateway to perry and to real cidermaking.
Teaches Pressed juice
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
The capstone of the collection — everything about colour, tannin, acid and body, brought together as a deliberate blend.
Teaches Blending for balance
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Aug–Oct · 4.5 L
Builds on the plain mead: same nutrient discipline, plus the balancing act of honey against fruit.
Teaches Blending honey and fruit
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
Combines the cider and mead lessons: honey's hunger for nutrient, and balancing it against apple.
Teaches Blending honey and fruit
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
The dessert extreme of the elderberry lesson: high sugar, high tannin, and real patience.
Teaches Astringency and long age
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Sep–Nov · 4.5 L
The companion to parsnip, taken further: a root wine whose whole character is maturation. Teaches patience as the active ingredient.
Teaches Patience a long matured root
Sep–Oct · 4.5 L
Introduces bought oak (chips) as a deliberate, tasted-as-you-go ingredient — distinct from oak-leaf tannin.
Teaches Oak chip ageing
Foraged ingredient — read the note
September · 4.5 L
Teaches two things at once: why a bitter fruit must be cooked (safety and palatability) and how blending rescues a fruit too harsh to stand alone.
Teaches Cooking and blending a bitter fruit
Foraged ingredient — read the note
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Year-round and cheap; the gentlest possible introduction to blending two things for balance.
Teaches Blending for balance
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Thrift and availability — a whole wine from a jar of jam, and a lesson in pectin from a very pectic base.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A stone-free carton apricot; pectic enzyme on a pectin-rich juice, no stone handling needed.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Cheap all year, and it teaches the one check that keeps bottles from exploding — the stable-gravity test — instead of guessing from the airlock.
Teaches Knowing when it is finished
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A pantry wine any month; body and depth from dried fruit, like the raisin and wheat wines.
Teaches Grain wine and time
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Another pantry wine for the thin winter months; body from dried fruit.
Teaches Grain wine and time
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Another winter cupboard wine; the same body-from-dried-fruit lesson with a mellower fruit.
Teaches Grain wine and time
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A pantry wine for January; body from dried fruit, reward from patience.
Teaches Grain wine and time
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Two ingredients, no preparation, and it teaches the single skill that most improves a beginner's results: waking the yeast up before you pitch it.
Teaches Pitching yeast
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The easiest possible perry; the sorbitol lesson (natural sweetness a dry ferment can't remove) on carton juice.
Teaches Perry and sorbitol
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Rounds out the core skills with the last step — bottling done properly (finished, clear, no splashing, labelled) — on a fruit you can buy in any season.
Teaches Bottling
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A year-round frozen fruit; pectic-enzyme again, and lemon to fix a low-acid berry.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Year-round frozen fruit; teaches the pectic-enzyme step and why a low-acid fruit needs lemon.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A year-round warmer that carries the stabilise-then-sweeten lesson on an ingredient people love sweet.
Teaches Sweetening your wine safely
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A winter citrus; the airlock/headspace habit with a bitter fruit that rewards a light hand.
Teaches The airlock and headspace
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The easiest mead — low strength, ready soon — but the same don't-boil and staggered-nutrient discipline.
Teaches Mead nutrient and patience
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A year-round supermarket fruit; another turn at the pectic-enzyme lesson.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Cheap and year-round; reinforces the airlock and headspace habit on a bright citrus wine.
Teaches The airlock and headspace
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A pre-made hedgerow blend from the freezer aisle; balance handed to you, any month.
Teaches Blending for balance
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Available any time, cheap, and it demystifies the airlock — the piece of kit beginners find most mysterious — plus the headspace habit that prevents a foaming-over mess.
Teaches The airlock and headspace
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A winter citrus beginner; the airlock/headspace habit, and zest without the bitter pith.
Teaches The airlock and headspace
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
An intense tropical aromatic; a little of it against a mild base — the same restraint as quince.
Teaches A little of an intense aromatic
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The carton shortcut again, this time peach — stone-free, so no amygdalin handling.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Year-round; restraint with an intense, tannic juice.
Teaches Dilution of strong fruit
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Stoned dried fruit (no kernels), so it teaches restraint with a strong fruit and no stone hazard.
Teaches Dilution of strong fruit
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Teaches the one genuinely risky beginner technique — priming for sparkle — with the pressure-bottle and measured-sugar rules front and centre.
Teaches Priming a sparkling wine
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A gently spiced apple wine for winter; balancing spice against fruit, added early and lightly.
Teaches Blending for balance
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Balancing spice against a soft pear base, added early and lightly — the whisper-not-shout lesson.
Teaches Blending for balance
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The last beginner skill and the most requested — a sweet finish done safely. Teaches the stabilise-THEN-sweeten rule on a cheap, year-round base, so nobody learns it the hard way with a burst bottle.
Teaches Sweetening your wine safely
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The stabilise-then-sweeten rule again, on the easiest possible red base.
Teaches Sweetening your wine safely
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A year-round pantry wine; tannin from a leaf (tea), like oak-leaf but from the caddy.
Teaches Tannin from leaf
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Teaches the most important handling skill after sanitising — racking off the lees — on an ingredient anyone can buy in January.
Teaches Racking off the lees
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A pectin-rich tinned tropical fruit; pectic enzyme is the difference between bright and hazy.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A fragrant tinned fruit; reinforces the two-matching-readings test for a finished wine.
Teaches Knowing when it is finished
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A year-round shelf fruit that brightens a winter month; the pectic-enzyme lesson again.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Uses tinned fruit (no stones present), so it teaches racking with no kernel hazard at all.
Teaches Racking off the lees
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Year-round shelf fruit; another clean run at the pectic-enzyme lesson.
Teaches Using pectic enzyme
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A pre-blended tropical carton — the balance handed to you — drunk young for the aroma.
Teaches Blending for balance
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A companion first wine in white; year-round, nothing to forage, forgiving.
Teaches Sanitising properly
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Year-round; teaches rehydrating and pitching yeast on a reliable base.
Teaches Pitching yeast
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The gentlest possible start: no fruit to prepare, available any time of year, hard to get wrong. It exists to teach the one habit that makes every other recipe work — clean equipment.
Teaches Sanitising properly
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A green-leaf wine from the herb bed; extraction by a short simmer, acid supplied by citrus.
Teaches A green leaf wine
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The deliberate exception to don't-boil-honey — caramelising it for toffee notes, with the real burn risk named.
Teaches Mead nutrient and patience
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A spiced variation on the mead lesson — same nutrient discipline, plus judging spice by taste.
Teaches Mead nutrient and patience
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Honey balanced with grape — the melomel idea applied to grapes; grape supplies the acid and body honey lacks.
Teaches Blending honey and fruit
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
A strong sweet dessert mead — the nutrient discipline pushed hard, plus a high-alcohol yeast and long age.
Teaches Mead nutrient and patience
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
The oldest fermented drink there is, and a real test of nutrient management and patience. Not boiling the honey, and staggering the feed, are the two things that separate a good mead from a harsh one.
Teaches Mead nutrient and patience
Jan–Dec · 4.5 L
Teaches that body and richness can come from grain and dried fruit, and that some wines are made by the calendar of patience, not the season.
Teaches Grain wine and time