I don’t drink much, but I used to make wine. My favourite was a sparkling plum wine. I didn’t know what I was doing so I used a yeast that makes lots of gas and fizz. The wine was brewed in demi-johns, then I put it into old beer bottles with ceramic and rubber stoppers. When we opened the bottles it was a deep orange red and had a real sparkle.

Sadly I couldn’t remember what yeast I had used and I never got the same result. I also found that I was allergic to the sulphur dioxide that is used to sterilise the equipment, so I would start sneezing uncontrollably.

I then went on to brewing beer for a few years. That was fun and less difficult but in the end I sold all my demi-johns.

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