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be bottled in March. This wine will usually be brisk, but
circumstances will occasionally cause it to be sweet and
still, and sometimes dry. If sweet, it may be re-made the
following season, by adding to it juice from fresh fruit,
according to the degree of sweetness, and fermenting and
treating it as before. But if it be dry, briskness can never
be restored, and it must be treated as a dry wine, by draw
ing it off into a cask previously fumigated with sulphur
and fining and bottling it in the usual manner. Such dry
wines sometimes taste disagreeably in the first and second
year, but improve much with age. If the whole marc or
husks, etc., is allowed to remain in the juice during the
first fermentation, the process will be more rapid, and
the wine stronger and less sweet; but it will have more
flavor. If the wine is desired to be very sweet as well as
brisk, 40 pounds of sugar may be used; less sweet and
less strong, 25 pounds; it will be brisk, but not so strong,
and ought to be used within a year.
264. TO FINE WINE DIFFICULT TO CLARIFY,
OR THICK IN CONSEQUENCE OF AN IM
PERFECT FERMENTATION
To clarify 60 gallons, take i ounce of the species of
Dock or Rumex plant, called Patience root, which boil
in I quart water. When cold, filter, and add i ounce com
mon salt, then i glass sheep's blood. Beat all the ingre
dients well together with a broom until the mixture foams
up well, then add it gradually to the wine, stirring con
tinually while pouring it in, and for 15 minutes after
wards. In a few days the wine will be clear.