66 ON THE ART OF MAKING WIN!. 



which consist in the management formerly descri- 

 bed, this property always results from the use of 

 unripe fruit, and is readily produced by mixing 

 unripe grapes with the ripe ones. The case is the 

 same with the gooseberry. The fault of this wine, 

 however, if it be considered as an imitation of 

 Champagne, is a bad flavour, which is almost inva- 

 riably communicated by the fruit, and that in pro- 

 portion to its ripeness. To avoid this evil, so ge- 

 nerally injurious to the brisk gooseberry wines, the 

 fruit can scarcely be taken in a state too crude, as 

 at this period the flavouring substance has not been 

 developed. At the same time the expressed juice 

 alone should be used, care being taken to exclude 

 the skins from the fermentation, as being the part 

 in which the flavour principally resides. With- 

 these precautions, the noxious flavour may gene- 

 rally be prevented. It is true, that the produce 

 is then without flavour, or nearly so, but this is by 

 much the most tolerable fault in domestic wines, 

 whose leading defect is almost invariably a dis- 

 agreeable taste. Various proportions of fruit and 

 sugar are used by different persons ; but the most 

 common consist of three pounds sugar and four of 

 fruit, to eight pounds of water. Here the propor- 

 tion of fruit is too small compared to that of the 

 sugar, and the fermentation is consequently in ge- 

 neral so imperfect, as to leave the wine disagree- 

 ably sweet. At the same time, the proportion of 

 sugar is such, as to render the wine stronger than 



