Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume Ii Part 305

_Deacidification._ See _Detartarization_ (_below_).

_Decanting._ This only refers to small quant.i.ties of wine, ready for consumption. In decanting wine, care must be taken not to shake or disturb the crust when moving it about or drawing the cork, particularly of port wine. Never decant wine without a wine-strainer, with some clean fine cambric in it, to prevent the crust and bits of cork going into the decanter. In decanting port wine, do not drain it too close; as there are generally two thirds of a wine-gla.s.sful of thick dregs in each bottle, which ought to be rejected. In white wine there is not much settling; but it should nevertheless be poured off very slowly, the bottle being raised gradually.

_Decolouring._ The colour of wine is precipitated by age and by exposure to the light. It is also artificially removed by the action of skimmed milk, lime water, milk of lime, and fresh burnt charcoal. Wine merchants avail themselves of this property for the purpose of whitening wines that have acquired a brown colour from the cask, or which are esteemed pale; and also for turning 'p.r.i.c.ked' red or dark-coloured wines into white wines, in which a small degree of acidity is not so much perceived. In this way brown sherry is commonly converted into pale or gold-coloured sherry. For the latter purpose, 2 to 3 pints of skimmed milk are usually sufficient; but to decolour red wine 2 to 3 quarts or more will be required, according to the nature and intensity of the colour, or the shades of paleness desired. Charcoal is seldom used, as it removes the flavour as well as colour, but a little milk of lime may sometimes be advantageously subst.i.tuted for milk, when the wine has much acidity, more particularly for red wines, which may even be rendered quite colourless by it.

_Detartarization._ Rhenish wines, even of the most propitious growths, and in the best condition, besides their tartar, contain a certain quant.i.ty of free tartaric acid, on the presence of which many of their leading properties depend. The excess of tartar is gradually deposited during the first years of the vatting, the sides of the vessels becoming more and more encrusted with it; but, owing to the continual addition of new wine and other causes, the liquid often gains such an excess of free tartaric acid as to acquire the faculty of redissolving the deposited tartar, which thus again disappears after a certain period. The taste and flavour of the wine are thus exalted, but the excess of acid makes the wine less agreeable in use, and probably less wholesome. Amateurs and manufacturers should therefore welcome a means of taking away the free tartaric acid without altering, in any respect, the quality of the wine. This is pure neutral tartrate of potash. When this salt, in concentrated solution, is added to such a fluid as the above, the free acid combines with the neutral salt, and separates from the liquid under the form of the sparingly soluble bitartrate of potash. "If to 100 parts of a wine which contains one part of free tartaric acid we add 1-1/2 part of neutral tartrate of potash, there will separate on repose at 70 to 75 Fahr., 2 parts of crystallised tartar; and the wine will then contain only 1/2 part of tartar dissolved, in which there are only 2 part of the original free acid; 8 part of the original free acid having been withdrawn from the wine." (Liebig's 'Annalen.') This method is particularly applicable to recent must and to wines which do not contain much free acetic acid; but when this last is the case, so much acetate of potash is formed as occasionally to vitiate the taste of the liquor.

_Fining._ Wine is clarified in a similar manner to beer. White wines are usually fined by isingla.s.s, in the proportion of about 1-1/2 oz.

(dissolved in 1-1/2 pint of water, and thinned with some of the wine) to the hogshead. Red wines are generally fined with the whites of eggs, in the proportion of 15 to 20 to the pipe. Sometimes hartshorn shavings, or pale sweet glue, is subst.i.tuted for isingla.s.s.

_Flatness._ This is removed by the addition of a little new brisk wine of the same kind; or by rousing in 2 or 3 lbs. of honey; or by adding 5 or 6 lbs. of bruised sultana raisins, and 3 or 4 quarts of good brandy, per hogshead. By this treatment the wine will usually be recovered in about a fortnight, except in very cold weather. Should it be wanted sooner, a table-spoonful or two of yeast may be added, and the cask removed to a warmer situation.

_Flavouring._ Various ingredients are added to inferior wines, to give them the flavour of others more expensive, and to British wines, to make them resemble those imported. Substances are also added in a similar manner to communicate the aroma of the high-flavoured grape wines. Among the first are bitter almonds, almond cake, or the essential oil of almonds, or, preferably, its alcoholic solution, which are used to impart a 'sherry' or 'nutty' taste to weak-flavoured wines, as poor sherry, white cape, and malt, raisin, parsnip, and other similar British wines; rhatany, kino, oak sawdust and bark, alum, &c., to convey astringency, and--tincture of the seeds of raisins, to impart a 'port wine' flavour.

Among the substances employed to communicate the bouquet of the finer wines, may be mentioned--orris root, eau de fleurs d'oranges, neroli, essence de pet.i.t grain, ambergris, vanilla, violet petals, essence of cedrat, sweet briar, clary, and elder flowers, quinces, cherry-laurel water, &c. By the skilful, though fraudulent use of the above flavouring substances and perfumes, the experienced wine-brewer manages to produce, in the dark cellars of London, from white cape, currant, gooseberry, raisin, rhubarb, parsnip, and malt wine, very excellent imitations of foreign wine, and which pa.s.s current among the majority of English wine-drinkers as the choicest productions of the grape, "genuine as imported."--A grain or two of ambergris, well rubbed down with sugar and added to a hogshead of claret, gives it a flavour and bouquet much esteemed by some connoisseurs.

_Fretting-in._ See _Sweating-in_ (_below_).

_Improving._ This is the cant term of the wine trade, under which all the adulteration and 'doctoring' of wine is carried on. A poor sherry is improved by the addition of a little almond flavour, honey, and spirit; a port deficient in body and astringency, by the addition of some red tartar (dissolved in boiling water), some rhatany, kino, or catechu, and a little honey or foots, and brandy. See _Mixing_ (_below_).

_Insensible Fermentation._ See _Maturation_ (_below_).

_Insipidity._ See _Flatness_ (_above_).

_Maturation._ The natural maturation or 'ripening' of wine and beer by age depends upon the slow conversion of the sugar which escaped decomposition in the 'gyle tun,' or fermenting vessel, into alcohol. This conversion proceeds most perfectly in vessels which entirely exclude the air, as in the case of wine in bottles; as when air is present, and the temperature sufficiently high, it is accompanied by slow acetification. This is the case of wine in casks, the porosity of the wood allowing the very gradual permeation of the air. Hence the superiority of bottled wine over draught wine, or that which has matured in wood. Good wine, or well-fermented beer, is vastly improved by age when properly preserved; but inferior liquor, or even superior liquor, when preserved in improper vessels or situations, becomes acidulous, from the conversion of its alcohol into vinegar. Tartness or acidity is consequently very generally, though wrongly, regarded by the ignorant as a sign of age in liquor. The peculiar change by which fermented liquors become mature or ripe by age is termed the 'insensible fermentation.' It is the alcoholic fermentation impeded by the presence of the already formed spirit in the liquor, and by the lowness of the temperature. See _Ripening_ (_below_).

_Mixing._ Few wines are sold without admixture. It is found that the intoxicating properties of wine are increased by mixing them with other wines of a different age and growth. In many cases the flavour is at the same time improved. Thus, a thin port is improved by the addition of a similar wine having a full body, or by a little Malaga, Teneriffe, or rich sherry; and an inferior old sherry may be improved by admixture with a little full-bodied wine of the last vintage. In this consists the great art of 'cellar management,' and to such an extent is this carried, both abroad and in England, that it may be confidently a.s.serted that few wines ever reach the consumer in an unmixed or natural state.

_Mustiness._ This may generally be removed by violently agitating the wine for some time with a little of the sweetest olive oil or almond oil. The cause of the bad taste is the presence of an essential oil, which the fixed oil seizes on, and rises with to the surface, when it may be skimmed off; or the liquor under it may be drawn off. A little coa.r.s.ely powdered fresh-burnt charcoal, or even some slices of bread toasted black, will frequently have a like effect. A little bruised mustard seed is also occasionally used for the same purpose.

_Perfuming._ This is chiefly performed on British wines for family use.

For its application to foreign wine, see Flavouring (_above_). Wines may be perfumed by the simple addition of any odorous substances previously well mixed with a little of the wine, or dissolved in a few fluid ounces of rectified spirit.

_Racking._ This should be performed in cool weather, and preferably early in the spring. A clean syphon, well managed, answers better for this purpose than a c.o.c.k or faucet. The bottoms, or foul portion, may be strained through a wine-bag, and added to some other inferior wine.

_Ripening._ To promote the maturation or ripening of wine, various plans are adopted by the growers and dealers. One of the safest ways of hastening this, especially for strong wines, is not to rack them until they have stood 15 or 18 months upon the lees; or, whether 'crude' or 'racked,' keeping them at a temperature ranging between 50 and 60 Fahr., in a cellar free from draughts and not too dry. Another method is to remove the corks or bungs, and to subst.i.tute bladder tied or fastened air-tight over the openings. Bottled wine, treated in this way, ripens very quickly in a temperate situation. Some dealers add a little dilute sulphuric acid to the coa.r.s.er wines for the same purpose; but a small quant.i.ty of concentrated acetic acid or tartaric acid would be preferable, since these acids are found in all wines. 4 or 5 drops of the former, added to a bottle of some kinds of new wine, immediately give it the appearance of being 2 or 3 years old.

_Ropiness, viscidity; Graisse._ This arises from the wine containing too little tannin or astringent matter to precipitate the gluten, alb.u.men, or other azotised substance, occasioning the malady. Such wine cannot be clarified in the ordinary way, because it is incapable of causing the coagulation or precipitation of the finings. The remedy is to supply the principle in which it is deficient. M. Francois, of Nantes, prescribes the bruised berries of the mountain ash (1 lb. to the barrel)__ for this purpose. A little catechu, kino, or, better still, rhatany, or the bruised footstalks of the grape, may also be conveniently and advantageously used in the same way. For pale white wines, which are the ones chiefly attacked by the malady, nothing equals a little pure tannin or tannic acid dissolved in proof spirit. See VISCOUS FERMENTATION, MALT LIQUORS, &c.

_Roughening._ See Flavouring (_above_).

_Second fermentation; La-pousse._ Inordinate fermentation, either primary or secondary, in wine or any other fermented liquor, may be readily checked by sulphuration, or by the addition of mustard seed or sulphite of lime. 1 oz. of brimstone, 3/4 to 1 lb. of bruised mustard seed, and about 4 to 8 oz. of sulphite of lime, are fully sufficient for a hogshead. This substance seldom fails of arresting the fermentation.--In addition to the above remedies, a little sulphuric acid is sometimes employed, and the use of black oxide of manganese, or chlorate of potash, has been proposed on theoretical grounds.

_Souring._ This is either occasioned by the wine having been imperfectly fermented, or from its having been kept in too warm a cellar, where it has been exposed to draughts of air or to continual vibrations, occasioned by the pa.s.sage of loaded vehicles through the adjoining thoroughfare. The remedy commonly recommended in books for this purpose is to saturate the acid with chalk, milk of lime, or calcined oyster sh.e.l.ls; but such additions, made in sufficient quant.i.ty to effect this object, destroy the character of the wine, and render it sickly and vapid. The best and only safe remedy is a little neutral tartrate of potash, cautiously added; or it may be mixed with a considerable portion of full-bodied new wine of its cla.s.s, adding at the same time a little brandy, and in two or three weeks fining it down, when it should be either at once put into bottles, or consumed as soon as possible. See Deacetification and Detartarisation.

(_above_).

_Sparkling, creaming, and briskness._ These properties are conveyed to wine by racking it into closed vessels before the fermentation is complete, and while there still remains a considerable portion of undecomposed sugar. Wine of this description, which has lost its briskness, may be restored by adding to each bottle a few grains of white lump sugar or sugar candy. This is the way in which champagne is treated in France. The bottles are afterwards inverted, by which means any sediment that forms falls into the necks, when the corks are partially withdrawn, and the sediment is immediately expelled by the elastic force of the compressed carbonic acid. If the wine remains muddy, a little solution of sugar and finings are added, and the bottles are again placed in a vertical position, and, after two or three months, the sediment is discharged, as before.

_Sweating-in._ The technical terms 'sweating-in' and 'fretting in' are applied to the partial production of a second fermentation, for the purpose of mellowing down the flavour of foreign ingredients (chiefly brandy), added to wine. For this purpose 4 or 5 lbs. of sugar or honey, with a little crude tartar (dissolved), are commonly added per hogshead; and when the wine is wanted in haste, a spoonful or two of yeast, or a few bruised vine leaves, are also mixed in, the cask being placed in a moderately warm situation until the new fermentation is established, when it is removed to the wine cellar, and, after a few days, 'fined down.'

_Taste of Cask._ The remedies for this malady are the same as those for mustiness.

? For further information connected with the nature and management of wines, and other fermented liquors, see BREWING, FERMENTATION, MALT LIQUORS, PORTER, SUGAR, SYRUP, VINOUS FERMENTATION, VISCOUS F., WORT, YEAST, &c., and _below_.

=Wine, British.= The various processes in British wine-making depend upon the same principles, and resemble those employed for foreign wine.

The FRUIT should be preferably gathered in fine weather, and not until mature, as evinced by its flavour; for if it be employed whilst unripe, the resulting wine will be harsh, disagreeable, and unwholesome, and a larger quant.i.ty of sugar and spirit will be required to render it palatable. The common practice of employing unripe gooseberries for the manufacture of British champagne arises from a total ignorance of the scientific principles of wine-making. On the other hand, if ordinary British fruit be employed in too ripe a state, the wine is apt to be inferior, and deficient in the flavour of the fruit.

The FRUIT, being gathered, at once undergoes the operation of picking or garbling, for the purpose of removing the stalks and unripe or damaged portions. It is next placed in a tub, and is well bruised, to facilitate the solvent action of the water. Raisins are commonly permitted to soak about 24 hours previously to bruising them, but they may be advantageously bruised or minced in the dry state. The bruised fruit is then put into a vat or vessel with a guard placed over the tap-hole, to keep back the husks and seeds of the fruit when the must, juice, or extract is drawn off. The water is now added, and the whole is allowed to macerate for 30 to 40 hours, more or less, during which time the magma is frequently roused up with a suitable wooden stirrer. The liquid portion is next drawn off, and the residuary pulp is placed in hair bags, and undergoes the operation of pressing, to expel the fluid which it contains. The sugar, tartar (in very fine powder or in solution), &c., are now added to the mixed liquors, and the whole is well stirred or 'rummaged' up for some time. The temperature being suitable, the vinous fermentation soon commences, when the liquor is frequently skimmed (if necessary), and well 'roused' up, and, after 3 or 4 days of this treatment, it is run into casks, which should be quite filled, and left purging at the bung-hole. In about a week the flavouring ingredients, in the state of coa.r.s.e powder, are commonly added, and well stirred in; and in about another week, depending upon the state of the fermentation, and the attenuation of the must, the brandy or spirit is added, and the cask is filled up, and bunged down close. In four or five weeks more the cask is again filled up, and, after some weeks, (the longer the better), it is 'pegged' or 'spiled,' to ascertain if it be fine or transparent; if so, it undergoes the operation of racking; but if, on the contrary, it still continues muddy, it must be either again bunged up, and allowed to repose for a few weeks longer, or it must pa.s.s through the process of fining. Its future treatment is similar to that already noticed under FOREIGN WINE. (See _above_.)

The must of many of the strong-flavoured fruits, as black currants, mulberries, &c., is improved by being boiled before being made into wine.

The flavour and bouquet of the more delicate fruits are either greatly diminished or utterly dissipated by boiling.

_General Formulae_ for the _Preparation_ of BRITISH WINES:

1. From ripe saccharine fruits. Take of the ripe fruit, 4 to 6 lbs.; clear soft water, 1 gall.; sugar, 3 to 5 lbs.; cream of tartar (dissolved in boiling water), 1-1/4 oz.; brandy, 2 to 3% flavouring, as required. If the full proportions of fruit and sugar are used, the product will be good without the brandy, but better with it. 1-1/2 lb. of raisins may be subst.i.tuted for each pound of sugar.

In the above way are made the following wines:--Gooseberry wine ('British champagne');--currant wine (red, white, or black);--mixed fruit wine (currants and gooseberries, or black, red, and white currants, ripe black-heart cherries, and raspberries, equal part), a good family wine;--cherry wine;--colepress's wine (from apples and mulberries, equal part); elder wine;--strawberry wine;--raspberry wine;--mulberry wine (when flavoured, makes 'British port');--whortleberry wine (bilberry wine), makes a good fact.i.tious 'port';--blackberry wine;--damson wine (makes good fact.i.tious 'port');--morella wine;--apricot wine;--apple wine;--grape wine, &c.

2. From dry saccharine fruit (as raisins). Take of the dried fruit, 4-1/2 to 7-1/2 lbs.; clear soft water, 1 gall.; cream of tartar (dissolved), 1 oz.; brandy, 1-1/2 to 4%. Should the dried fruit employed be at all deficient in saccharine matter, 2 to 3 lbs. of it may be omitted, and half that quant.i.ty of sugar, or two thirds of raisins added. In the above way are made--date wine,--fig wine,--raisin wine, &c.

3. From ACIDULOUS, ASTRINGENT, or SCARCELY RIPE FRUITS, or those which are deficient in saccharine matter. Take of the picked fruit, 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 lbs.; sugar, 3-1/2 to 5-1/2 lbs.; cream of tartar (dissolved), 1/2 oz.; water, 1 gall.; brandy, 2 to 6%.

In the above way are made--gooseberry wine ('British champagne');--bullace wine (which makes an excellent 'fact.i.tious port');--damson wine, &c.

4. From FOOTSTALKS, LEAVES, CUTTINGS, &c. By infusing them in water, in the proportion of 3 to 6 lbs. to the gall., or q. s. to give a proper flavour, or to form a good saccharine liquor; and adding 2-1/2 to 4 lbs.

of sugar to each gall. of the strained liquor, 1-1/2 lb. of raisins may be subst.i.tuted for each lb. of sugar.

In the above way are made--grape wine (from the pressed cake of grapes);--English grape wine;--rhubarb wine ('Bath champagne,' 'patent c,'), from garden rhubarb;--celery wine, &c.

5. From SACCHARINE ROOTS and STEMS OF PLANTS. Take of the bruised, rasped, or sliced vegetable, 4 to 6 lbs.; boiling water, 1 gall.; infuse until cold, press out the liquor, and to each gall. add of sugar 3 to 4 lbs.; cream of tartar, 1 oz.; brandy, 2 to 5%. For some roots and stems the water must not be very hot, as they are thus rendered troublesome to press.

In the above way are made--beet-root wine ('British Roussillon');--parsnip wine ('British malmsey');--turnip w., &c.

6. From FLOWERS, SPICES, AROMATICS, &c. These are prepared by simply infusing a sufficient quant.i.ty of the bruised ingredient for a few days in any simple wine (as that from sugar, honey, raisins, &c.) after the active fermentation is complete, or, at all events, a few weeks before racking them.

In the above way are made--clary wine ('muscadel'), from flowers, 1 quart to the gall.;--cowslip wine (flowers, 2 quarts to the gall.);--elder-flower wine ('Frontignac'), flowers of white-berried elder, 3/4 pint, and lemon juice, 3 fl. oz., to the gall.;--ginger wine (1-1/4 oz. of ginger to the gall.);--orange wine (1 dozen sliced oranges per gall.);--lemon wine (juice of 12 and rinds of 6 lemons to the gall.);--spruce wine (1/4 oz. of essence of spruce per gall.);--juniper wine (berries, 3/4 pint per gall.);--peach wine (4 or 5 sliced, and the stones broken, to the gall.);--apricot wine (as peach wine, or with more fruit);--quince wine (12 to the gall.); rose clove gillyflower, carnation, lavender, violet, primrose, and other flower wines (distilled water, 1-1/2 pint, or flowers, 1 pint to the gall.);--balm wine (balm tops, 4 oz. per gall.) &c.

7. From SACCHARINE JUICES, or INFUSIONS, or from fermented liquors. Take of the juice or liquor, 1 gall.; honey or sugar, 2 to 3 lbs. (or raisins, 3 to 5 lbs.); cream of tartar, 1-1/4 oz.; brandy, 2 to 4%.

In this way are made--English grape wine;--mixed fruit wine--pine-apple wine;--cider wine;--elder wine;--birch wine (from the sap, at the end of February or beginning of March); sycamore wine (from the sap);--malt wine ('English Madeira'), from strong wort;--and the wines of any of the saccharine juices of ripe fruit.

8. From SIMPLE SACCHARINE MATTER. Take of sugar, 3 to 4, lbs.; cream of tartar, 1/2 oz.; water, 1 gall.; honey, 1 lb.; brandy, 2 to 4%. A handful of grape leaves or cuttings, bruised, or a pint of good malt wort, or mild ale, may be subst.i.tuted for the honey. Chiefly used as the basis for other wines, as it has little flavour of its own; but makes a good 'British champagne.'

_Obs._ In all the preceding formulae lump sugar is intended when the wines are required very pale, and good Muscovado sugar when this is not the case. Some of the preceding wines are vastly improved by subst.i.tuting good cider, perry, or pale ale or malt wort, for the whole or a portion of the water. Good porter may also be advantageously used in this way for some of the deep-coloured red wines. When expense is no object, and very strong wines are wanted, the expressed juices of the ripe fruits, with the addition of 3 or 4 lbs. of sugar per gall., may be subst.i.tuted for the fruit in substance, and the water.

Examples of BRITISH IMITATIONS OF FOREIGN WINES:

AMERICAN HONEY WINE. From good honey, 21 lbs.; cider, 12 galls.; ferment, then add, of rum, 5 pints; brandy, 2 quarts; red or white tartar (dissolved), 6 oz.; bitter almonds and cloves, of each, bruised, 1/4 oz.; powdered capsic.u.m, 3 dr. This is also called 'mead wine.' With the addition of 3 oz. of unbleached Jamaica ginger (finely grated), it forms the best American ginger wine.