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Wine, Raisin

Procure fresh Smyrna or Malaga raisins; pick out the stalks and all defective fruit; chop twenty-eight pounds of these into small bits, and pour upon them three gallons of tolerably hot water, and let them stand to soak for twelve hours. Put the whole into a hair-cloth or clean canvas bag, and with a sufficiently powerful press squeeze out the juice. Put two gallons more of hot water on the marc of raisins; let this remain also twelve hours, and press out as before. Mix the two liquids together; but the skins are not to be used. Add to the juice thus obtained three pounds of white sugar, and put the whole into a proper vessel to ferment. Some add an ounce or two of crude tartar, but no yeast, as the raisins contain of themselves sufficient fermenting principle. This liquor will ferment, and the vessel should be covered with a blanket. When the first fermentation is over, the wine is to be transferred or racked into a clean cask, and suffered to undergo the slow fermentation; it is next to be kept bunged up for three months, and then racked into another cask. In about twelve months it will be fit to bottle. Some add brandy after the first fermentation; but this is not necessary. A still richer wine may be made by increasing the quantity of fruit and leaving out the sugar.