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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.