Sec. 26.] 



DOMESTIC ■n'lXES. 



419 



SECTION XXVI.-DGMESTIC WINES, CIDKIl, AND PRESER\'E.S. 



EULES FOB DOMESTIC WINE-MAKERS — HOW TO I'HESERVE CIDEB BWEET I'UE- 



8EKVINO FUUITS FOIt WINTER. 



i^^l^^^T^^^^^OMESTIC "WINE, as usually manufactured, is ra- 

 tlier ii cordial than a wine, and is entirely inferior 

 to good graj>e wine ; but when properly made, it 

 \| ),| will be a very healthful beverage, particularly for 

 siinnner drink, M-hen fully diluted with water. 

 Wc reconnnend to tliose who have the means, 

 to manufacture currant wine; and let it bo pure cur- 

 rant wine, using nothing but currants, water, and 

 sugar, witiiout alcohol. 



There is no great difficulty in making good currant 

 wine. "White sugar only thould be used. The better 

 the quality of the sugar the better the wine will be. 

 The idea that any sort of sugar will do for wine is 

 pretty well exploded. 



It is now also said that white currants make a much 

 nicer wine than the red currants, but that is according to fancy. 



While we admit that the true wine must bo made from the grape, still, 

 for the want of a more appropriate luinie for beverages made from fruits 

 other than the grape, we call them wines. These domestic wines may bo 

 made from the currant, rhubarb, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, and 

 gooseberry, of passalile cpiality. Inferior but drinkable wines may be inado 

 from parsneps and many other roots. 



In the manufacture of all domestic wines, the great mistake is in tho use 

 of sugar of an inferior quality ; double-retined is not sufliciently puro to 

 inanu?acture either of these wines of the best (piality ; treble-retined sugar 

 should be used ; that of inferior kind contains gum, an<l after the fermenta- 

 tion this gum becomes fetid, and its disagrecaWo odor lias to bo overcome at 

 the expense of the odor of the fruit, and tiiereforo it should never be usc-d. 



Brown sugar, no matter of how good a quality, will not make wine, f.)r 

 wlien fermeirted, that portion which is like molasses in flavor, if separate*! 

 from the sugar, as in the process of refining, becomes a rank rum, and not 

 sufliciently delicate as the preserving alcohol of the result. Whm grapes 

 are fermented, the sugar or saeeharino matter is not converted mto rum, but 

 into an undistiiled brandy of an unobjectionable flavor. 



In )naking small-fruit wines, alcohul should never bo added; a Bufticicnt 

 (luantity wifl be produced by the fermentation to preserve the j.roiluct, and 

 any further addition injures tho quality and arrests the fermeutatiou. When 

 alJohol is added, these"wines do not improve at all by age. 



