FRUIT-WINES. 365 



mixture through a hair-sieve into a barrel and add 2 quarts of 

 French brandy. When the " hissing" in the barrel ceases clarify 

 the wine and after a few days draw it oif into bottles securing the 

 corks with wire. Before filling the bottles throw a piece of sugar 

 and J drachm of bicarbonate of soda into each. 



Raspberry-wine. Raspberries have such an agreeable and re- 

 freshing taste and odor that while they are not very sweet and 

 the proportion of acid to sugar is not very favorable they are 

 great favorites. Their aroma passes into the wine and would be 

 even too predominant if for the preparation of wine the juice had 

 not to be strongly diluted with water in order to decrease the 

 acid. 



As in all other fruit, the quality of the raspberry depends on 

 the weather, and when this is favorable during the time of the de- 

 velopment and maturing of the fruit, the latter is sweet and pala- 

 table, but in cold and wet seasons sour and harsh. No other 

 fruit suffers as much from such conditions as the raspberry. 



We have the wild and cultivated raspberry. The wild rasp- 

 berry is smaller than the cultivated but possesses a stronger aroma ; 

 unfortunately it is too frequently infested with the larva of many 

 insects to render it always palatable. The cultivated raspberry 

 is considerably larger, and is less attacked by worms, but pos- 

 sesses less aroma and is frequently even watery. 



To obtain the juice for the preparation of wine the thoroughly 

 ripe raspberries are crushed to a paste in a wooden tub by means 

 of a wooden pestle. To separate the grains the paste is forced 

 through a fine wire sieve, which, in order to protect it from the acid, 

 is best provided with a coat of asphalt or shellac varnish. It is, 

 however, no disadvantage to allow the grains to ferment with the 

 pulp, some tannin being thereby introduced into the wine which 

 under certain circumstances may be even desirable. 



The content of acid in the raspberry varying considerably in 

 different years, a test of the juice in this respect becomes abso- 

 lutely necessary in order to enable one to dilute it in the correct 

 proportion with water. For this purpose press out a small 

 quantity of the crushed raspberries and determine the acid in the 

 manner given on p. 325. The sugar contained in the raspberry 

 need not be taken into consideration, since by dilution it is 



