Read Ebook: The complete servant Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables by Adams Samuel Servant Adams Sarah

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BRITISH WINES.

The different processes in wine making, range themselves under the following heads:

Gathering the fruit,--picking the fruit,--bruising the fruit,--and vatting the fruit.

Vinous fermentation, flavouring the wine,--drawing the must,--pressing the husks,--casking the must.

Spirituous fermentation, racking the wine,--fuming the wine,--bottling and corking the wine.

APPARATUS FOR WINE MAKING.

Fruit of every description, says Mr. Carnell, in his excellent treatise on wine making, should be gathered in fine weather; those of the berry kind often appear ripe to the eye before they really are so, therefore it is requisite to taste them several times in order to ascertain that they are arrived at the crisis of maturity. If the fruit be not ripe, the wine will be harsh and hard, and unpleasant to the palate, and more so to the stomach; it will also take more spirit and saccharine, and take a longer time to be fit for the table. If the fruit be too ripe, the wine from it will be faint, low, and vapid; it will not be strong and generous; it will also require more trouble, additional spirit, and expense.

Detach the unripe and bad berries: the result when the wine is drank, will be greatly superior in richness. Pick the stalks from grapes, currants, and gooseberries, previously to their being placed in the vat.

The quantity of fruit for making a vintage of domestic wine, is not so large but it may be bruised in a tub, and from thence removed into the vat, or if the quantity be very small, it may be bruised in the vat. While the fruit is picking by one person, another may bruise it, and as it is bruised remove it into the vat. When Malaga or Smyrna raisins are used, they are to be put into the vat with the water, to soak, and the following day taken out and bruised, then returned into the vat again.

The first thing to be done is to place the guard against the tap-hole, to prevent the husks escaping at the time the must or extract is drawn off. When all the fruit is in the vat the water should be added, and the contents stirred with the vat-staff, and left to macerate until the next day, when sugar, tartar, &c. diluted with some of the liquor, is to be put into the vat, and the whole again stirred up. The place where the vat is situated should have a free circulation of air, and a temperature of not less than 58 degrees. If the vinous fermentation do not take place, in a reasonable time, the contents must be often stirred, and the place made warmer.

The time of a vinous fermentation commencing is always uncertain; it depends much on the quality and quantity of the contents of the vat, on its local situation, on the season or weather, and most particularly on the greenness or ripeness of the fruit. To produce a medium vinous fermentation, the vats and contents ought to be placed in a temperature from 60 to 70 degrees. And if this is found not to produce fermentation in a short time, the temperature of the place must be made warmer, and the vat often stirred with the vat-staff.

The commencement of the vinous fermentation may be known by plunging the thermometer into the middle of the vat, for a minute, and when taken out, if a fermentation has commenced, the temperature of the contents will be higher than at the place where the vats are situated. When the vinous fermentation begins, it is very conspicuous, and may be known by its taste, smell, appearance, and effects. The contents will first gently rise, and swell with a slight movement and a little hissing. A considerable motion will take place, and the contents will increase in heat and bulk, while a quantity of air escapes.

It is impossible to lay down an exact time for a vinous fermentation; but for eighteen gallons, two or three days are generally sufficient for white wines; and red wines require a day or two more.

When the must in the vat gives, by tasting, a strong vinous pungency, that is the period to stop the remaining slight fermentation, by drawing off the must, in order to have strong and generous wine.

A cock, or spicket and faucet, is to be put into the tap-hole of the vat, and the must drawn off and put into open vessels, there to remain till the pressing is finished.

As soon as all the must is drawn off from the vat, the husks are to be put into hair-bags, and the mouth of each bag is to be well fastened, then put into the press, and the whole pressed without delay. The must that is pressed out is to be mixed with the must that was drawn off from the vat. Many ways may be contrived for pressing a small vintage, for those persons who cannot afford to purchase a proper wine-press; but several wines do not require pressing; and may be strained through a sweet, clean, canvas bag, made with a pointed end downwards.

Each cask is to be filled, within about an inch of the bung-hole, which should be covered over lightly with a flat piece of wood. The must now is perfectly cool and calm, and will remain in this state until the spirituous fermentation commences.

The spirituous fermentation is essentially necessary to the clarification, goodness, and perfection of the wine. If the vinous fermentation has been well conducted, and the wine cellar be not too cold, a spirituous fermentation will commence in a few days, and abate in six or twelve days, the time depending on circumstances, and on the quality and quantity of the wine. The brandy or spirit assigned should at this time be put to the wine by pouring it in gently without disturbing the wine. The cask now, if not full, must be filled up and bunged with a wooden bung covered with a piece of new canvass larger than the bung. In about a month after the spirit has been added, the cask will again want filling up; this should be done with the overplus of the vintage, if not with some other good wine, and the cask re-bunged very tight. The cask should be pegged once a month or oftener to see if the wine be clear and not thick, and as soon as it is fine and bright, it must be racked off its lees.

One of the best finings is as follows:--Take one pound of fresh marsh-mallow roots, washed clean, and cut into small pieces; macerate them in two quarts of soft water, for twenty-four hours, then gently boil the liquor down to three half pints, strain it, and when cold, mix with it half an ounce of pipe-clay or chalk, in powder, then pour the mucilage into the cask, and stir up the wine so as not to disturb the lees, and leave the vent-peg out for some days after.

Or, take boiled rice, two table-spoonsful, the white of one new egg, and half an ounce of burnt alum, in powder. Mix with a pint or more of the wine, then pour the mucilage into the cask, and stir the wine with a stout stick, but not to agitate the lees.

Or, dissolve, in a gentle heat, half an ounce of isinglass in a pint or more of the wine, then mix with it half an ounce of chalk, in powder; when the two are well incorporated, pour it into the cask, and stir the wine so as not to disturb the lees.

As soon as wines are clear and bright, after being fined down, they ought to be racked into a sweet and clean cask, the cask filled up and bunged tight.

The bottles must be all sound, clean, and dry, with plenty of good sound corks.

Take cold soft water, 10 gallons, red gooseberries, 11 gallons, and ferment. Now mix raw sugar, 16 lbs. beet-root, sliced, 2 lbs. and red tartar, in fine powder, 3 ounces. Afterwards put in sassafras chips, 1 lb. and brandy, 1 gallon, or less.

This will make 18 gallons.

When the weather is dry, gather gooseberries about the time they are half ripe; pick them clean, put the quantity of a peck into a convenient vessel, and bruise them with a piece of wood, taking as much care as possible to keep the seeds whole. Now, having put the pulp into a canvass-bag, press out all the juice; and to every gallon of the gooseberries add about three pounds of fine loaf-sugar: mix the whole together by stirring it with a stick, and as soon as the sugar is quite dissolved, pour it into a convenient cask, which will hold it exactly. If the quantity be about eight or nine gallons, let it stand a fortnight; if twenty gallons, forty days, and so on in proportion; taking care the place you set it in be cool. After standing the proper time, draw it off from the lees, and put it into another clean vessel of equal size, or into the same, after pouring the lees out, and making it clean; let a cask of ten or twelve gallons stand for about three months, and twenty gallons for five months, after which it will be fit for bottling off.

Take cold soft water, 3 gallons, red gooseberries, 1 1/2 gallons, white gooseberries, 2 gallons. Ferment. Now mix raw sugar, 5 lbs. honey, 1 1/2 lbs. tartar, in fine powder, 1 oz. Afterwards put in bitter almonds, two ounces, sweet-briar, one small handful, and brandy one gallon, or less.

This will make six gallons.

Take cold soft water, 4 1/2 gallons, white gooseberries, 5 gallons. Ferment. Now mix refined sugar, 6 pounds, honey, 4 pounds, white tartar, in fine powder, 1 oz. Put in orange and lemon peel, one ounce dry, or two ounces fresh; and add white brandy 1/2 a gallon.

This will make nine gallons.

To each Scotch pint of full ripe gooseberries, mashed, add one Scotch pint of water, milk-warm, in which has been dissolved 1 lb. of single refined sugar: stir the whole well, and cover up the tub with a blanket, to preserve the heat generated by the fermentation of the ingredients: let them remain in this vessel three days, stirring them twice or three times a day: strain off the liquor through a sieve, afterwards through a coarse linen cloth; put it into the casks it will ferment without yeast. Let the cask be kept full with some of the liquor reserved for the purpose. It will ferment for ten days, sometimes for three weeks: when ceased, and only a hissing noise remains, draw off two or three bottles, according to the strength you wish it to have, from every 20 pint cask, and fill up the cask with brandy or whiskey; but brandy is preferable. To make it very good, and that it may keep well, add as much sherry, together with a 1/4 oz. of isinglass dissolved in water to make it quite liquid; stir the whole well. Bung the cask up, and surround the bung with clay; the closer it is bunged the better; a fortnight after, if it be clear at the top, taste it; if not sweet enough, add more sugar; 22 lbs. is the just quantity in all for 20 pints of wine; leave the wine six months in the cask; but after being quite fine, the sooner it is bottled, the more it will sparkle and resemble champaigne. The process should be carried on in a place where the heat is between 48? and 56? Fahrenheit.--N. B. Currant wine may be made in the same manner.

Take gooseberries before they are ripe, crush them with a mallet in a wooden bowl, and to every gallon of fruit put a gallon of water; let it stand two days, stirring it well; squeeze the mixture with the hands through a hop-sieve; then measure the liquor, and to every gallon put 3 1/2 lbs. of loaf sugar; mix it well in the tub, and let it stand one day; put a bottle of the best brandy into the cask; which leave open five or six weeks, taking off the scum as it rises; then make it up, and let it stand one year in the barrel before it is bottled.

The proportion of brandy to be used for this liquor, is one pint to 7 gallons.

Take cold soft water, 6 gallons, gooseberries, 4 do. currants, 4 do. Ferment. Mix, raw sugar, 12 lbs. honey, 3 lbs. and tartar, in fine powder, 1 1/2 oz. bitter almonds, 1 1/2 oz. Put in brandy 6 pints, or more.

This will make 12 gallons.

Take cold soft water, 5 1/2 gallons, gooseberries and currants, 4 gallons. Ferment. Then add raw sugar, 12 1/2 lbs. tartar, in fine powder, 1 oz. ginger, in powder, 3 ounces, sweet marjoram, 1/2 a handful, British spirits, 1 quart.

This will make 9 gallons.

Take cold soft water, 11 gallons, red currants, 8 gallons, raspberries, 1 quart. Ferment. Mix, raw sugar, 20 lbs. beet-root, sliced, 2 lbs. and red tartar, in fine powder, 3 ounces. Put in 1 nutmeg, in fine powder; add brandy, 1 gallon.

This will make 18 gallons.

Boil four gallons of spring water, and stir into it 1 lb. of honey; when thoroughly dissolved, take it off the fire; then stir it well in order to raise the scum, which take clean off, and cool the liquor.

When thus prepared, press out the same quantity of the juice of red currants moderately ripe, which being well strained, mix well with the water and honey, then put them into a cask, or a large earthen vessel, and let them stand to ferment for 24 hours; then to every gallon add 2 lbs. of fine sugar, stir them well to raise the scum, and when well settled, take it off, and add 1/2 oz. of cream of tartar, with the whites of two or three eggs, to refine it. When the wine is well settled and clear, draw it off into a small vessel, or bottle it up, keeping it in a cool place.

Of white currants, a wine after the same manner may be made, that will equal in strength and pleasantness many sorts of white wine; but as for the black, or Dutch currants, they are seldom used, except for the preparation of medicinal wines.

Gather the currants in dry weather, put them into a pan and bruise them with a wooden pestle; let them stand about 20 hours, after which strain through a sieve; add 3 lbs. of fine powdered sugar to each four quarts of the liquor, and after shaking it well, fill the vessel and put a quart of good brandy to every 7 gallons. In 4 weeks, if it does not prove quite clear, draw it off into another vessel, and let it stand, previously to bottling it off, about ten days.

Take cold soft water, 12 gallons, white currants, 4 do. red currants, 3 do. Ferment. Mix, raw sugar, 25 lbs. white tartar, in fine powder, 3 oz. Put in sweet-briar leaves, 1 handful, lavender leaves, 1 do. then add spirits, 2 quarts or more.

This will make 18 gallons.

Take of cold soft water, 9 gallons, red currants, 10 do. Ferment. Mix, raw sugar, 1O lbs. beet-root, sliced, 2 lbs. red tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz. Put in bitter almonds, 1 oz. ginger, in powder, 2 oz. then add brandy, 1 quart.

This will make 18 gallons.

Take of cold soft water, 11 gallons, red currants, 8 do. Ferment. Mix, raw sugar, 12 lbs. red tartar, in fine powder, 2 oz. Put in coriander seed, bruised, 2 oz. then add British spirit, 2 quarts.

This will make 18 gallons.

Take of cold soft water, 11 gallons, fruit 8 do. Ferment. Mix, treacle, 14 or 16 lbs. tartar, in powder, 1 oz. Put in ginger, in powder, 4 oz. sweet herbs, 2 handsful: then add spirits, 1 or 2 quarts.

This will make 18 gallons.

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