} with whites of eggs, flour, and fixed nitre, verjuice, or the juice of green grapes, if they are to be bad; to which add six pounds of the syrup of mustard, all mixed and well beaten together, to refine it down, and it will drink brisk, but is not very pleasant; being here inserted among artificial wines rather for the sake of health than for the delightfulness of its taste. 236. CHEAP AND WHOLESOME CLARet. Take a quart of fine draft Devonshire cider, and an equal quantity of good port. Mix them, and shake them. Bottle then, and let them stand for a month. The best judge will not be able to distinguish them from good Bordeaux. 237. DRY WINE. Those who like a dry wine, should put into the vat, at the commencement of the vinous fermentation, an ounce or two of calcined gypsum, in fine powder.. MANAGEMENT OF BRITISH WINES. 238. To guard against unripe Fruit. If the season proves bad, so that some fruits are not sufficiently ripe, immediately after the vinous fermentation, and the must of such fruit is put into the cask, it is to be rolled two or three times a day, for a week or two. A spirituous fermentation will soon commence, the bung of the cask must then be taken out, and the hole covered with a bit of light wood or canvas, and as any scum arises, it should be taken away. When the scum disappears, fill up the cask, and bung it up. But a vent-hole must be left open for a week. 239. To keep and manage Wines. Wines will diminish, therefore the cask must be kept filled up with some of the same wine, or some other that is as good or better. They must at all times be kept in a cool cellar, if not, they will ferment. If wines are kept in a warm cellar, an acetous fermentation will soon commence, and the result consequently will be vinegar. The more a wine frets and ferments, the more it parts with its strength and goodness: when wines are found to work improperly in the cellar, the vent-peg must be taken out for a week or two. If any wine ferments, after being perfected, draw off a quart and boil it, and pour it hot into the cask, add a pint or a quart of brandy, and bung up a day or two after. Or, draw off the wine, and fumigate the cask, with one ounce of flour of brimstone, and half an ounce of cinnamon, in powder. Mix the two together, and tie them up in a rag. Turn the bung-hole of the cask downwards, place the rag uuder the bung-hole, and set fire to it, so that the gas as cends into the cask. As soon as it is burnt out, fill up the cask with wine, and bung it up tight. 240. To sweeten a foul Cask. Set fire to a pound or more of broken charcoal, put it into the cask and immediately fill up the cask with boiling water. After this, roll the cask once or twice a day for a week; then pour out the charcoal and water, wash out the cask with clean cold water, and expose it to the external air for some days. 241. To improve Poor Wines. Poor wines may be improved by being racked off, and returned into the cask again; and then putting into the wine about a pound of jar or box raisins, bruised, and a quart of brandy. Or, put to the wine two pounds of honey, and a pint or two of brandy. The honey and brandy to be first mixed together. Or, draw off three or four quarts of such wine, and fill the cask up with strong wine. 242. To improve Wine when lowering or decaying. Take one ounce of roche-alum, make it into powder; then draw out four gallons of wine, mix the powder with it, and beat it well for half an hour; then fill up the cask, and when fine (which will be in a week's time or little more) bottle it off. This will make it drink fine and brisk. 243. To restore Flat Wines. Flat wines may be restored by one pound of jar raisins, one pound of honey, and half a pint of spirit of wine, beaten up in a mortar with some of the wine, and then put into the cask. 244. To remove a musty or disagreeable taste in Wines. Put into the cask three or four sticks of charcoal, and bung up the cask tight. In a month after take them out.Or, cut two ripe medlars, put them in a gauze bag, and suspend them from the bung-hole into the wine, and bung up the cask air-tight. A month after take them out, and bung up the cask again.-Or, mix half a pound of bruised mustard-seed, with a pint or more of brandy, and stir it up in the wine; and two days after bung up the cask. 245. Another Method. At the finish of the process, when the brandy or spirit is put to the wine, it is particularly recommended that a quarter of an ounce of crystal camphor, in the lump, be dropped into the bung-hole of each eighteen gallons of wine. 246. Another Method. Oil poured upon wine, or any other liquor, will prevent it from growing musty, or becoming corrupt. 247. To take away the ill scent of Wines. Bake a long roller of dough, stuck well with cloves, and hang it in the cask. 248. To pass White Wine off for Champaign. Rack it often from the lees; and when very brilliant, bottle it off:-this must be done between vintage time and the month of May. It has (says Mr. Carnell) been a most absurd practice with many families to use green gooseberries, in order to imitate Champaign wine; but green fruit is by no means fit or proper for the making of any wine. Nor, indeed, is, it at all necessary in the making an imitation of Champaign. 249. To make Wine sparkle like Champaign. Take great care to rack off the wine well, and in March bottle it as quick as possible. The bottles must be very clean and dry, and the corks of the best sort, made of velvet or white cork. In two months after the wine will be in fine condition to drink. 250. To clear foul or ropy Wines. the white of an egg, and one pint of spring water. Beat the whole up in a mortar, and pour it into the wine; after which, roll the cask ten minutes; and then place it on the stand, leaving the bung out for a few days. As soon as the wine is fine, rack it off. Or, take 1 oz. of ground rice, oz. of burnt alum, and oz. of bay-salt. Beat the whole up in a mortar, with a pint or more of the wine, pour it into the cask, and roll it ten minutes. The cask must not be bunged up for a few days. As soon as Such wine becomes fine, rack it off. Or, bring the cask of wine out of the cellar, and place it' in a shady situation to receive the circulation of the air; and take out the bung. In three weeks or a month, rack it off into a sweet cask, which fill up, and put into the wine an ounce of cinnamon, in the stick; and bung it up tight. 251. Another Method. Tap the cask, and put a piece of coarse cloth upon that end of the cock which goes to the inside of the cask; then rack it into a dry cask to thirty gallons of wine, and put in five ounces of powdered alum. Roll and shake them well together, and it will fine down, and prove a very clear and pleasant wine. 252. To correct green or harsh Wines. Take 1 oz. of salt, an oz. of calcined gypsum, in powder, and 1 pint of skimmed milk. Mix those up with a little of the wine, and then pour the mixture into the cask; put in a few lavender leaves, stir the wine with a stick, so as not to disturb the lees, and bung it up. 253. To correct sharp, tart, acid Wines. Mix one ounce of calcined gypsum, in powder, and two pounds of honey, in one quart of brandy; pour the mixture into the wine, and stir it so as not to disturb the lees; fill up the cask, and the following day bung it up :-rack this wine as soon as fine. Or, mix half an ounce of the salt of tartar, half an ounce of calcined gypsum, in powder, with a pint of the wine; pour it into the cask, and put an ounce of cinnamon in the stick; stir the wine without disturbing the lees, fill up the cask, and the day following bung it up. Or, boil 3 ounces of rice; when cold put it into a gauzebag, and immerge it into the wine; put into the wine also a few sticks of cinnamon, and bung up the cask. In about a month after, take the rice out. 254. To restore sour Wines. Take calcined gypsum, in powder, 1 oz. cream of tartar, in powder, 2 oz. Mix them in a pint or more of brandy; pour it into the cask; put in, also, a few sticks of cinnamon, and then stir the wine without disturbing the lees. Bung up the cask the next day. 255. Another Method. Boil a gallon of wine, with some beaten oyster-shells and crabs' claws burnt into powder, an ounce of each to every ten gallons of wine; then strain out the liquor through a sieve, and when cold, put it into wine of the same sort, and it will give it a pleasant lively taste. A lump of unslacked lime put into the cask will also keep wine from turning sour. 256. To fine or clarify Wines. Boil a pint of skimmed milk; when cold mix with it an ounce of chalk, in fine powder, pour it into the cask, and roll it ten minutes. The following day bung up the wine, and rack it off as soon as fine. 257. Or, take 14 oz. of gum-arabic, in fine powder, and 1 oz. of chalk, in powder. Mix those up with a pint more of wine, pour the mixture into the cask, roll it ten minutes, and then fill it up. Bung it up the next day, and rack off the wine as soon as fine. Or, take the yolk and white of an egg, oz. of chalk, in powder, and oz. of burnt alum, in powder. Beat those up in a mortar with a pint of spring water, and pour the mixture into the wine, roll the cask; then fill it up, and bung it up the next day.-Rack off the wine as soon as fine. 258. To sweeten Wines. In 30 gallons of wine infuse a handful of the flowers of clary; then add a pound of mustard seed, dry ground, put it into a bag, and sink it to the bottom of the cask. 259. To stop the Fermentation of Wine. It is in the first place necessary to consider whether the existing state of fermentation be the original or secondary stage of that process which comes on after the former has ceased for several days, and is indeed the commencement of acetous fermentation. That of the former kind rarely proceeds beyond what is necessary for the perfect decomposition of the saccharine and other parts of the vegetable substances necessary for the production of spirit, unless the liquor be kept too warm, or is too weak, and left exposed to the air after the vinous fermentation is completed. The means to correct these circumstances are sufficiently obvious. The heat for spirituous fermentation should not be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit; when it is much above that point, the liquor passes rapidly through the stage of vinous fermentation, and the acetous immediately commences. When too long-continued fermentation arises from the liquor having been kept in a warm situation, it will be soon checked by bunging, after being removed into a cold place; the addition of a small proportion of spirits of wine or brandy, previously to closing it up, is also proper. A degree of cold, approaching to the freezing point, will check fermentation of whatever kind. Fermentation of this kind cannot be stopped by any chemical agent, except such as would destroy the qualities of the liquor intended to be produced. The secondary stage of fermentation, or the commencement of the acetous, may be stopped by removing the liquor to a cool sitnation; correcting the acid already formed; and if the liquor contain but little spirit, the addition of a proper proportion of brandy is requisite. The operation of racking is also necessary to preserve liquor in a vinous state, and to render it clear. This process should be performed in a cool place. 260. To restore pricked British Wines. Rack the wines down to the lees into another cask, where the lees of good wines are fresh. then put a pint of strong |