them together 2 hours when cold beat them well with a handfull of white Salt and then put them into a clean and sweet Butt beating them with a staff and the wine will be pure and white One pound of the aforementioned gelly of Isinglass takes away the browness of French and Spanish wines mix'd with 2 or 3 gallons of wine accoriding as 't is brown and strong more or less to be used Then overdraw the peice of wine about 8 gallons and use the Rod and then fill the Vessel full and in a day or two 't will fine and be white and mend if qualley The first Buds of Ribes nigra infused in wines especially Rhenish makes it diuretick and more fragrant in Smell and Taste and so doth Clary The inconvenience is that the Wine becomes more heady a Remedy whereof is Elder-flowers added to the Clary which also betters the fragrancy thereof as 't is manifest in Elder-vinegar But these flowers are apt to make the wine Ropy To help brown Malago's and Spanish wines Take powder of Orras-roots and Salt-peter of each 4 ounces the whites of 8 eggs whereto add as much Salt as will make a brine put this mixture into the Wine and mix them with a Staff To meliorate Muddy and Tauny Clarets Take of rain-Rain-water 2 pints the Yelks of 8 Eggs Salt an handfull beat them well let them stand 6 hours before you put them into the Cask then use the Rod and in 3 dayes it will come to it self To amend the Taste and Smell of Malago Take of the best Almonds 4 pounds make therewith and with sufficient quantity of the wine to be cured an Emulsion then take the whites and yelks of 12 Eggs beat them together with Salt an handfull put them into the Pipe using the Rod. To amend the smell and taste of French and Rhenish which are foul Take to an Auln of the Wine of honey one pound of Elder-flowers a handfull Orras powder an ounce one Nutmeg a few Cloves boyle them in sufficient quantity of the wine to be cured to the consumption of half when 't is cold strain and use it with the Rod some add a little Salt If the wine be sweet enough add of spirits of Wine one pound to a hoggshead and give the Cask a strong scent Spirit of Wine makes any wine brisk and fines it without the former mixture A lee of the Ashes of Vine-branches viz. a quart to a Pipe being beaten into the wine cures the ropiness of it and so infallibly doth a Lee of Oaken Ashes For Spanish ropy wine rack it from its Lees into a new scented Cask then take of Alum one pound Orras roots powdered half a pound beat them well into the wine with a staff Some add fine and well-dryed sand put warm to the wine If the wine besides prove brown add 3 pottles of Milk to a Pipe Alias the Spaen cures ropy wine used before it begins to fret Herrings Roes preserve any Stum wines To order Rhenish wines when fretting Commonly in Iune that Wines begin to ferment and grow sick then have a special care not to disturb it either by removing filling the Vessel or giving it Vent only open the Bung which cover with a slate and as often as the slate is foul cleanse it and the bung from their filth and when the fermentation is past which you shall know by applying your Ear to the Vessel then give it rest 10 or 12 dayes that the grosser Lees may settle then rack it into a fresh scented Cask This mixture meliorates vitious wines both in smell and taste especially French Take of the best honey one part of rain-Rain-water two parts and one third of sound old wine of the same kind boyle them on a gentle fire to a third part scumming them often with a clean Scummer to which purpose they have a payle of fair water standing by to rince it in then put this mixture hot into a Vessel of fit capacity and let it stand unbunged till cool Some to better this put in a bag of Spices This mixture called by the Dutch Soet will serve also to fine any Wine new or old 2. 'T will mend the hard taste of wine i. e. putting a gallon thereof to a hogshead and using the Rod and then let it rest 5 or 6 dayes at the least but if mild enough add white mustardseed bruised To mend and preserve the Colour of Clarets Take red Beet-roots q. s. scrape them clean and cut them into small pieces then boyle them in q. s. of the same wine to the consumption of a third part scum it well and when cool decant off what 's clear and use the Rod. Alias Take of the wine and honey of each 2 pounds rain-Rain-water a pottle 12. Beet-roots ripe Mulberries 4 or 5 handfulls boyle them to half and when cool decant c. ut suprà To preserve Claret rack'd from its Lees. Take to a Tierce 10 Eggs make a small hole in the top of the shells then put them into the wine and all will be consumed To prevent souring of French wines Take Grains of Paradise q. s. beat them in a pan and hang them or put them loose into a vessel Some use Lavender tops To help sour French wine Take of the best wheat 4 ounces boyled in fair water till it break and when cold put it into a Vat in a bag and use the Rod. Alias Take 5 or 6 Cinnamon canes bung them up well To help Spanish sour wines First rack the wine into a clean Cask and fill it up with two or three Gallons of water and add thereto of burnt Chalk 4 ounces and after 3 or 4 dayes it must be rackt and filled up again with rain water if the first time doth not do it Some use Loam or Plastering If these Ingredients make the Wine bitter correct the fault with Nutmegs and Cloves To help stinking wines Take Ginger half an ounce Zedoary 2 drachms powder and boyle them in a pottle of good wine which put scalding hot into the Vat bung it up and let it lye the species of Diambrae and Diamoscu Dulc do the same and so Nutmegs and Cloves which also give a kind of Raziness To help Wine that hath an ill savour from the Lees. First rack it into a clean Cask and if Red or Claret give him a fresh Lee of the same kind Then take of Cloves Ginger and Cinnamon 2 ounces Orras-root 4 ounces powder them grosly hang them in a bag and taste the wine once in 3 dayes and when 't is amended take out the bagg Some do it thus Take of Cloves half a pound Mastick Ginger Cubebs of each 2 ounces Spica nardi 3 drachms Orras root half a pound make thereof a fine powder which put loose into the Vat and use the Rod then make a good fire before it Firing of Wines in Germany is thus performed they have in some Vaults 3 or 4 Stoves which they heat very
divide into Four Parts to which as to Generals or Heads all considerables thereunto belonging seem naturally to referr themselves Of these The First is the Natural Purification or Clarification of Wines whereby of themselves they pass from the state of Crudity and turbulency to that of Maturity by degrees growing clear fine and portable The Second the unseasonable Workings Frettings and other Sicknesses to which from either internal or external Accidents they are afterward subject The Third their state of Declination or decay wherein they degenerate from their goodness and pleasantness becoming pall'd or turning into Vinegar The last the several Artifices used to them in each of these States or conditions In the FIRST of these Heads viz. the Natural Clarification of new Wines two things occurr not unworthy consideration the Manner how and the Cause by which the same is effected As for the Manner give 〈◊〉 leave to observe that Winâ—â— while yet in the Must is usually put into open vessels the abundance and force of the Spirits i. e. the more subtle and actiâ—â— parts therein contained beinâ— then so great as not to endâ—â— imprisonment in close ones 〈◊〉 which time it appears troubleâ— thick and feculent all parts oâ— Elements of it being violentlâ— commoved and agitated so thâ—â— the whole mass of liquor seenâ— to boyl like water in a Cauldroâ— over the fire This tumult beâ—ing in â—ome degree composed and the Gas Sylvestre as Helinâ—â— barbarously calls it or wilder Spirit sufficiently evaporated they then pour the Must into close vessels there to be farther defecated by continuance of the same motion of Fermentation reserving the Froth or Flower of it and putting the same into small â—asks hooped with iron lest otherwise the force of it might break them This Flower thus â—â—parated is what they name STUM either by transposition of the letters into the word â—ust or from the word Stum which in High-Dutch signifies Mute because this liquor forsooth is hindred from that Maâ—urity by which it should speak â—s goodness and wholesomness This done they leave the rest of â—he Wine to finish its Fermentation during which it is probable that the spiritual parts impell and diffuse the grosser and feculent up and down in a confused and tumultuous manner untill all being disposed into their proper regions the liquor beomes more pure in substance more transparent to the eye more piquant and gustful to the Palate more agreeable to the Stomach more nutritive to the Body The Impurities thus separated from the Liquor are upon Chymical examinations found to consist of Salt Sulphur each oâ— which is impregnate with somâ— Spirits and much Earth Which being now dissociated from thâ— purer Spirits either mutually cohaere coagulate and affix themselves to the sides of the Vessel in form of a stony Crust which is called Tartar and Argol or sink to the bottom in a muddy substance like the Grounds of Ale or Beer which is called the Lees of Wine And this in short I conceive to be the process of Nature in the Clarification of all Wines by an orderly Fermentation As for the Principal Agent or Efficient Cause of this operation I perswade my self You will easily admit it to be no other but the Spirit of the Wine it self Which according to the Mobility of its nature seeking after liberty restlesly moving every way in the mass of liquor thereby dissolves that common tye of mixture whereby all the Heterogeneous parts thereof were combined and blended together and having gotten it self free at length abandons them to the tendency of their gravity and other proprieties Which they soon obeying each kind consorts with their like and betaking themselves to their several places or regions leave the liquor to the possession and government of its noblest principle the spirit For this spirit as it is the life of the Wine so doubtless it is also the cause of iâ— Purity and Vigour in which the perfection of that life seems to consist ¶ From the natural Fermentation of Wines we pass to the Accidental from their state of Soundness to that of their Sickness which is our SECOND General Head We have the testimony of daily Experience that many times even good and generous Wines are invaded by unnatural and sickly commotions or to speak in the dialect of Wine-coopers Workings during which they are turbulent in motion thick of consistence unsavory in taste unwholsome in use and after which they undergoe sundry Alterations to the worse The Causes hereof may be either Internal or External Among the Internal I should assign the chief place to the excessive quantity of Tartar or of Lees which containeth much of Salt and Sulphur as hath already been hinted continually send forth into the liquor abundance of quick and active particles that like Stum or other adventitious Ferment put it into a fresh tumult or confusion Which if not in time allayed the wine either grows Rank oâ— Pricking or else turns Sour by reason that the Sulphur being overmuch exalted over the rest of the Elements or ingredients predominates over the pure Spirits and infects the whole mass of liquor with Sharpness oâ— Acidity or else it comes to pass that the Spirits being spent and flown away in the commotion and the Salt dissolv'd and set afloat obtains the mastery over the other similar parts and introduceth Rankness or Ropiness Yea though these Commotions chance to be suppressed before the Wine is thereby much depraved yet do they alwayes â—eave such evil impressions as more or less alienate the Wine â—rom the goodness of its former â—tate in colour consistence and â—aste For hereby all Wines acâ—uire a deeper tincture i. e. à â—hicker body or consistence Sacks and White-Wines changing â—rom a clear White to a cloudy Yellow and Claret losing its â—right red for a duskish Orange-â—olour and sometimes for a Tawny In like manner they degenerate also in Taste and affect the palate with foulness roughness and raucidity very unpleasant Among the External are commonly reckoned the too frequent or violent motion of Wines after their settlement in their vessels immoderate Heat Thunder or the report of Canons and the admixture of any exotick body which will not symbolize or agree and incorporate with them especially the flesh of Vipers Which I have frequently observed to induce a very great Acidity upon even the sweetest and fullest-bodied Malago and Canary Wines Yet under favour I should think all these forein Accidents to be rather Occasions than Causes of the evil Events that follow upon them because these Events seem to arise immediately and principally from the commotion and diffusion of the Sulphureous or Saline impurities formerly separated from the liquor and kept in due subjection by the genuine and benign Spirits But this is no place nor is it my inclination to insist upon nicety of Terms which might indeed start matter of subtle speculations but can afford little or nothing of profit to our present Enquiry Which
nothing is more commonly either done or known For their conversion of White into Rhenish they have several artifices to effect it among which this is most usual They take a hogshead of Rochel or Cogniak or Nants White wine rack it into a fresh Cask strongly scented then give the white Parell put into it 8 or 10 gallons of clarified Hony or 40 pounds of cours Sugar and beating it well leave it to clarifie To give this mixture the delicate Flavour they sometimes add a Decoction of Clary seeds or Gallitricum of which Druggs there is an incredible quantity used yearly at Dort where now is the Staple of Rhenish wines And this is that Drink wherewith our English Ladies are so much delighted under the specious name of Rhenish in the Must. The manner of making adulterate Bastard is this Recipe Four gallons of White wine three gallons of old Canary five pounds of Bastard Syrup beat them well together put them into a clean Rundlet well scented and give them time to fine Sack is made of Rhenish either by strong Decoctions of Malago Raisins or by a Syrupe of Sack Sugar and Spices Muskadel is sophisticated with the Laggs of Sack or Malmsey thus They dissolve in a convenient quantity of rose-Rose-water of Musk 2 ounces of Calamus Aromaticus powder'd 1 ounce of Coriander seed beaten half an ounce and while this infusion is yet warm they put it into a Rundlet of old Sack or Malmsey and this they call a Flavour for Muskadel Many other wayes there are of Adulterating Wines daily practised even in this our otherwise well govern'd City but in respect they all tend to the above-mentioned Alterations and are less General therefore I pass them over in silence ¶ Nor have I at present any thing more to add to this Essay toward a History of Wines but my humble request to Your Lordship and the honour'd Fellows of this ROYAL SOCIETY that You would be pleas'd to pardon the many defects of it and that if the Enquiries therein made come short of your expectation You would suspend Your Curiosity untill my Copartner in this Province the Learned Dr. Merret shall have brought in his Observations concerning the same subject For I doubt not but the fulness of his Papers will supply the emptiness of mine ¶ THE END SOME OBSERVATIONS Concerning the ORDERING OF WINES By Dr. Merret THe Mysterie of Wines consists in the making and meliorating of Natural Wines Melioration is either of sound or vitious Wines Sound Wines are bettered 1. By preserving 2. Timely fining 3. by mending Colour Smell or Taste To preserve Wines care must be taken that after the Pressing they may ferment well for without good Fermentation they become qually i. e. cloudy thick and dusky and will never fine of themselves as other Wines do and when they are fined by Art they must be speedily spent or else they will become qually again and then by no Art recoverable The Principal Impediments of the Fermentation of Wines after pressing the Grapes are either their Unripeness when gathered or the mixture of Rain water with them as in wet Vintages or else through the addition of Water to rich Grapes The Spaniards use Giesso to help the Fermentation of their Canary Wines To preserve Spanish Wines and chiefly Canary and thereof principally that which is Razie which will not keep so long they make a Layer of Grapes and Giesso whereby it acquires a better durance and taste and a whiter Colour most pleasing to the English Razie wine is so called because it comes from Rhenish-wine slips sometimes renewed The Grape of this Wine is fleshy yielding but a little juice French and Rhenish wines are chiefly and commonly preserved by the Match thus used at Dort in Holland Take Brimstone 20 or 30 pounds rack into it melted Spices as Cloves Cinnamon Mace Ginger and Coriander-seeds and some to save charges use the reliques of the Hippocras bag and having mixed these well with the Brimstone they draw through this Mixture long square narrow pieces of Canvas which pieces thus drawn through the said mixture they light and put into the Vessel at the Bung-hole and presently stop it close Great care is to be had in proportioning the Brimstone to the quantity and quality of the wine for too much makes it rough this smoaking keeps the wine long white and good and gives it a pleasant taste There 's another way for French and Rhenish wines viz. Firing it 't is done in a stove or else a good fire made round about the Vessel which will gape wide yet the wine runs not out 't will boyle and afterwards may soon be rack'd Secondly For timely fining of wines All Wines in the Must are more opacous and cloudy Good wine soon fines and the gross Lees settle quickly and also the flying Lee in time When the grosser Lees are setled they draw off the Wine called Racking The usual times for Racking are Midsommer and Alhallontide The practice of the Dutch and English to rid the wine of the flying Lees speedily and serves most for French and Spanish wine is thus performed Take of Isinglass half a pound stop it in half a pint of the hardest French wine that can be got so that the wine may fully cover it Let them then stand 24 hours then pull and beat the Isinglass to pieces and add more wine and 4 times a day squeez it to a gelly and as it thickens add more wine When 't is fully and perfectly gellyed Take a Pint or Quart to a Hogshead and so proportionably then overdraw 3 or 4 Gallons of that wine you intend to fine which mix well with the said quantity of gelly then put this mixture to the piece of wine and beat it with a staffe and fill it top-full Note that French-wines must be bunged up very close but not the Spanish and that Isinglass raiseth the Lees to the top of strong wines but in weaker precipitateth it to the bottom They mend the Colour of sound Clarets by adding thereto Red-wine Tent or Alicant or by an infusion of Turnsole made in 2 or 3 Gallons of wine and then putting it into the Vessel to be then being well stopt rowled for a quarter of an hour This infusion is sometimes twice or thrice repeated according as more Colour is to be added to the wine some 3 hours infusion of the Turnsole is sufficient but then it must be rubbed and wringed What Turnsole is see the Notes on the Art of Glass Claret over-red is amended with the Addition of White-wines White wines coming over sound but brown thus remedied Take of Alablaster-powder over-draw the Hogshead 3 or 4 Gallons then put this powder into the Bung and stir and beat it with a staff and fill it top-full The more the wine is stirred the finer it will come upon the Lee that is the finer it will be To colour Sack white Take of white Starch 2 pounds of Milk 2 Gallons boyle