444 GOOSEBERRY WINES. 



Reference, then, is requested to the article grape, for 

 general management. 



GOOSEBERRY WINE. I have remarked that, in most 

 of our fruit improvements, size has been the favourite 

 object, in preference to richness and fineness of 

 flavour ; this appears particularly in the gooseberry. 

 A few years since we made two firkins of wine from 

 the common red gooseberry, equal quantities of juice 

 and water. Sugar 2|lbs. and a half-pint of brandy 

 per gallon. Quantity of gooseberries used, ac- 

 cidentally omitted, which, however, varies with the 

 season, the fruit in a droughty season being compara- 

 tively deficient. The wine kept well and proved a 

 most pleasant, refreshing, and enlivening summer 

 beverage. Care had been taken to watch the precise 

 period of ripeness in the fruit, since, in a very short 

 time, even a few hours, that superiority is lost and 

 also to remove the stalks, arid take out all unripe or 

 unsound berries. We added the brandy, in the first 

 instance, in the bottle, a deviation from the common 

 practice. 



"WlNE FROM IMMATURE, OR UNRIPE GOOSE- 

 BERRIES. General process, as has been stated, the 

 same as for the grape, but a larger quantity of sugar 

 is required, to the amount, on the whole, of nearly 

 31bs. per gallon. It may be bottled either in Novem- 

 ber, or remain in cask to the following March. As 

 in the grape, the murk or husks of the gooseberry 

 may be fermented with the juice, probably, to the 

 improvement of the body, and flavour of the wine. 

 This wine has been honoured with the sounding title 



