Have your oak storage barrels for the wine ready, 
washed out clean and sulphured and placed on their side 
with the bunghole up and on a rack of heavy timbers 
about 24 inches above the floor level. Say a maximum 
of four 50-gallon barrels, so as to come within the law. 
To sulphur the barrels, buy 10c worth of sulphur wick 
at a drug store. Fasten a piece 3 or 4 inches long on a 
wire, ignite and place in bunghole of each barrel. Remove 
after 20 to 30 minutes. The fumes of the burning sulphur 
sterilize the barrel. 
Insert large funnel in bunghole with a strainer thai 
will keep out the seeds in the funnel; press and draw off 
the juice and fill barrels full. You should have a few 
extra gallons of juice to refill the barrels each day as 
long as they work violently and run over. When they 
quiet down to the “tame fermentation,” insert the bungs 
lightly, so that the air is kept out but the carbon dioxide 
gas, a by-product of fermentation, can escape. Leave the 
barrels undisturbed for two or three months, at least until 
the tame fermentation has ceased, then rack off the wine 
with a rubber hose, clean out the storage barrels, wash 
clean and resulphur and replace wine in storage barrels. 
Wine can be racked into fermenting vat temporarily. 
Wine mixed with muck can be allowed to settle, cleaned 
up and racked into storage barrels. If siphoned off care- 
fully, one racking should be enough; if not, rack again. 
Allow four or five days to pass, then taste. 
Never put wine into a barrel without sulphuring the 
barrel. Resulphur the barrels each time you rack off. 
To keep unused barrels and fermentation yats from falling 
to pieces, fill with water and add a handful of hydrated 
(air-slacked) lime, which will keep them sweet. Avoid 
old sour barrels. Dry wine should be stored in a cool 
cellar, especially in the hot valleys, such as the San 
Joaquin Valley. The higher the alcoholic content, the 
better the wine will keep. Zinfandel should be good 
enough to use within three months after making, but, 
remember, it gets better with age. 
