Sloe Gin

I was chatting to a friend this morning who told me that he had just used the Wine Society voucher I sent him for Christmas last year (!) to buy a bottle of malt whisky for himself and a bottle of sloe gin for his wife.  It reminded me that I used to love making liqueurs with the berries I found in the hedgerows at the farm many years ago.  When we sold the farm we found, forgotten at the back of a cupboard, some Sloe Gin and some Spiced Blackberry Brandy dated September 1991.  They have both matured magnificently.

P.S.  I also posted a photo from a year ago which you should be able to toggle back to if you are interested.

P.P.S. A possibly interesting and cheerful fact.  Do you know that (certainly in the UK, I'm not sure about other latitudes) the earliest sunset is today?  That's 15.53 where I am.  The sun never sets any earlier than this.  Today isn't the shortest day because the sun continues to rise later in the morning until early January.  "On average" the shortest day is the 21st, but it will stop getting darker earlier from today :-)