Is This Bottle Corked__ The Secret Life of Wine - Kathleen Burk [13]
In this Manner you must let it take its first Ferment, for 4 or 5 Days it will work furiously; when the Ferment abates, which you will know by its making less Noise, make a spile-hole within six Inches of the Bottom, and twice a Day draw some in a Glass. When it looks as clear as Rock-water, draw it off into a clean, rather than new Cask, proportioning it to the Contents of the Hogshead or Wine Vat; that is, if the Hogshead holds twenty Bushels of Grapes, Stems and all, the Cask must at least, hold 20 Gallons, for they will yield a Gallon per Bushel. Your Juice or Must thus drawn from the Vat, proceed to the second Ferment.
You must reserve in Jugs or Bottles, 1 Gallon or 5 Quarts of the Must to every 20 Gallons you have to work; which you will use according to the following Directions.
Place your Cask, which must be Chock full, with the Bung up, and open twice every Day, Morning and Night; feed your Cask with the reserved Must; two Spoonfuls at a time will suffice, clearing the Bung after you feed it, with your Finger or a Spoon, of the Grape-Stones and other Filth which the Ferment will throw up; you must continue feeding it thus until Christmas, when you may bung it up, and it will be fit for Use or to be rack’d into clean Casks or Bottles, by February.
N.B. Gather the Grapes after the Dew is off, and in all dry Seasons. Let not the Children come at the Must, it will scour them severely. If you make Wine for Sale, or to go beyond the Sea, one quarter Part must be distill’d, and the Brandy put into the three Quarters remaining. One Bushel of Grapes, heap Measure, as you gather them from the Vine, will make at least a Gallon of Wine, if good, five Quarts.
These Directions are not design’d for those who are skill’d in making Wine, but for those who have hitherto had no Acquaintance with that Art.
Franklin’s claim that it would not be inferior to “that which passeth for French Claret” can be taken as hype, as an indirect comment on the state of the claret that reached American shores, or as a safe claim by Franklin in that few readers could have made the comparison.
What was George Washington’s favorite wine?
THE LOVER of wine in colonial America did not have an easy time of it. France was the hereditary enemy, and Great Britain strove to prevent the import of French wine into the colonies—if available, it had probably been smuggled, and was appropriately costly. Furthermore, even ships carrying wine from European countries friendly to Britain, such as Portugal, had to call into a British harbor to pay tax on it.
George Washington liked wine. Indeed, he tried to grow his own wine grapes at his plantation, Mount Vernon, but the results were discouraging. Native American grapes, which grew in abundance, made distinctly bad wines, while imported vine-stock, which made excellent wines, lacked immunity to the native diseases and insects which attacked their leaves and roots. Wine, therefore, had to come from abroad. Washington was a great enthusiast for the one decent wine that was tax-free and thus did not have to be smuggled in, which was madeira. This, in fact, was the only wine widely drunk in the American colonies. Indeed, by the eighteenth century, America was the primary market for madeira, taking