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Raisin Wine
March is the best time for making raisin wine. Take eight pounds of fine Smyrna raisins for every gallon of water that is to be used. Pick the large stalks only from the raisins. Put them into a perfectly sound sweet tub, pour the water over them, and press them well down. Cover the tub, and stir the mixture every day for four weeks. Strain the liquor, and squeeze the raisins as dry as possible. Put the wine into a cask, cover up the bung-hole to keep out the dust, and when the hissing sound ceases, bung the hole closely, and leave the wine untouched for twelve months. Draw it off into a clean cask, and filter the dregs carefully through three or four folds of muslin. Bung it up again, and bottle it at the end of three years. If preferred, the wine may be bottled at the end of a twelve-month, but it will be much improved by keeping. Those who prefer having a little brandy in the wine may put a bottle or more into the cask with the liquor. Good vinegar may be made from raisins which have been used for wine.
A country wine of the old sort: no added sugar, no added yeast, and no thermometer anywhere in sight. Most of what needs translating here is vessel and timing rather than ingredient.
- The hinge: do not bung earlyThe instruction to leave the bung-hole merely covered until "the hissing sound ceases" is the whole safety margin of the recipe. Sealing a cask or bottle while fermentation is still producing carbon dioxide builds pressure that will force the bung or burst glass. A modern fermentation lock does the same job more reliably.
- Smyrna raisinsRaisins shipped through Smyrna (Izmir); the seedless sultana type is the closest modern equivalent. Any good unsulphured seedless raisin will serve, though coated or treated supermarket raisins are best avoided as the coating can hinder fermentation.
- Proportions and strengthEight pounds of raisins to the gallon is a very rich must, with roughly the sugar of a dessert wine. Expect something sweet and heavy rather than a table wine.
- YieldOne gallon of water plus eight pounds of raisins gives roughly a gallon of finished wine once the pulp is pressed and the lees are left behind.
- "A perfectly sound sweet tub"Sweet here means clean and free of any sour or musty smell, i.e. not previously soured by vinegar bacteria. A food-grade plastic fermenting bucket with a lid is the modern equivalent, and everything that touches the must should be sanitised.
- Wild fermentationThe recipe relies on yeast present on the fruit and in the air. Dried raisins carry very little live yeast, so a batch may sit inert for days or go mouldy. A packet of wine yeast removes the gamble; if the surface grows fuzz rather than foam, discard the batch.
- Why MarchThe recipe gives no reason for the season. For a modern ferment, aim for 18-21C and out of direct light.
- The brandy"a bottle or more" to the cask is fortification, adding strength and some keeping quality. In a one-gallon batch a full bottle is far too much; scale it down or leave it out.
- Racking and the long waitDrawing off into a clean cask is racking. Wine left long on heavy lees can pick up bitter, yeasty flavours. Filtering the dregs through muslin recovers the last of the liquid but also lets in air, so top the vessel up.
Raisin wine belongs to the long English tradition of domestic "made wines" — cowslip, elderberry, parsnip, ginger — brewed at home because imported grape wine was dear and duty-heavy, and because a household with fruit and a tub could produce something sweet and strong for very little. Dried grapes had an advantage over garden produce: imported raisins were available in British grocers' shops year round, so the wine did not depend on a harvest, and raisin wine was reputed to serve as a cheap stand-in for sherry or Madeira. The closing note about making vinegar from the spent raisins is characteristic of the period's economy: the same fruit yielded a drink and then a preservative.