740. Simple Receipt for Making Grape Wine

740.      Simple Receipt for Making Grape Wine. Put 20 pounds of ripe, fresh-picked, and well selected grapes into a stone jar, and pour on them 6 quarts boiling water; when the water has cooled enough, squeeze the grapes well with the hand; cover the jar with a cloth, and let it stand for 3 days; then press out the juice, and add 10 pounds crushed sugar. After it has stood for a week, scum, strain, and bottle it, corking loosely. When the fermentation is complete, strain it again and bottle it, corking tightly. Lay the bottles on their side in a cool place.

741. Fine Grape Wine

741.    Fine Grape Wine. In order to make good wine it is necessary to have a good cellar, clean casks, press, etc. First of all, have your grapes well ripened; gather them in dry weather, and pick out carefully all the unripe berries, and all the dried and damaged ones ; then mash them ; or, if you have a proper mill for the purpose, grind them. Be careful not to set the mill so close as to mash the seed, for they will give a bad taste to the wine. If you wish to have wine of a rose color, let the grapes remain in a large tub a few hours before pressing. The longer time you leave the grapes before pressing, after they are mashed, the more color the wine will have. For pressing the grapes, any press will answer, provided it is kept clean and sweet. After you have collected the must in a clean tub from the press, transfer it into a cask in the cellar. Fill the cask within 10 inches of the bung; then place one end of a syphon, made for that purpose, in the bung, and fix it air-tight; the other end must be submerged fully 4 inches in a bucket of cold water. The gas thus passes off from the cask, but the air is prevented from coming in contact with the wine, which would destroy that fine grape flavor which makes Catawba wine so celebrated. When properly made, the must will undergo fermentation. When it has fermented, which will be in 15 days, fill the cask with the same kind of wine and bung it loosely for 1 week; then make it tight. Nothing more is needed till it is clear, which, if all is right, will be in the January or February following. Then, if perfectly clear, rack it off into another clean cask, and bung it up tightly until wanted. If the wine remains in the cask till about November, it will improve by racking it again. Be sure to have sweet, clean casks. Do not burn too much brimstone in the cask, (see No. 766 (To Arrest Fermentation)); much wine is injured by excessive use of brimstone - a mistake generally made by new beginners. Different qualities of wine can be made with the same grape by separating the different runs of the same pressing. The first run is the finest to make use of the first season; but it will not keep long without losing its fine qualities. To make good sound wine, that will improve by age, the plan is to mix all up together. The very last run will make it rough, but it will have better body and better flavor when 2 or 3 years old, and will improve for a number of years. The first run will not be good after 2 or 3 years.