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-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-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
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
Zimar in Antr. Magic Medic. T. 1. lib. 7. pag. 510. that some Merchants put into every Pipe of their Greek Wine a Gill or thereabouts of the Chymical Oyl of Sulphur in order to the longer preservation of it clear and sound Which though I easily believâ— because the Acid spirit of Sulphâ—â— is known to resist putrefaction iâ— liquors yet I should decline the use of Wines so preserved unless in time of Pestilential infection remembring that old distich Qui bibit ingrato foedatum Sulphure Bacchum Praeparet ad diri se Phlegetontis aquam But of all wayes of hastening â—he Clarification and Ripening of new Wine none seems to me â—o be either more easie or more â—nnoxious than that borrowed from one of the Ancients by the Lord Chancellor Bacon and mentioned in his Sylva Sylvarum cenâ—ur 7. Experim 679. which is by putting the wine into vessels well â—topped and letting it down into â—he Sea Hence I am apt to derive the use of that antique Epither given to wine thus ripened Vinum Thalassites But how shall we reconcile this Experiment to that common practice of both the Ancients and Moderns of keeping Wine in the Must a whole Year about only by sinking the Cask for 30. or 40. dayes in a well or deep river That the use hereof is very Ancient is manifest from that discourse of Plutarch quaestion natur 27. about the efficacy of Cold upon Must whereof he gives thiâ— reason that Cold not suffering the Must to ferment by suppressing the activity of the Spirit therein contain'd conserveth thâ— sweetness thereof a long timâ— Which is not improbable because Experience teacheth that such who make their Vintage in a rainy season cannot get their Must to ferment well in a Vault unless they cause great fires to be made neer the Casks the rain mixed with the Must together with the ambient cold impeding the motion of Fermentation which ariseth chiefly from Heat That the same is frequent at this day also may be collected from what Noble Mr. Boyl hath been pleased to observe in his incomparable History of Cold on the relation of a French man viz. that the way to keep wine long in the Must in which state the sweetness makes many to desire it is to tunn it up immediately from the Press and before it begins to work to let down the Vessels closely and firmly stopped into a Well or deep River there to remain for 6. or 8. weeks During which time the liquor will be so confirmed in its state of Crudity as to retain the same together with its sweetness for many months after without any sensible Fermentation But as I said how can these two so different Effects the Clarification of new Wine and the conservation of Wine in the Must be derived from one and the same Cause the Cold of the Water without much difficulty as I conjecture For it seems not unreasonable that the same Cold which hinders Must from fermenting should yet accelerate and promote the Clarification of Wine after fermentation in the first by giving checque to the spirit before it begins to move and act upon the crude mass of liquor so that it cannot in a long time after recover strength enough to work in the Latter by keeping in the pure and genuine spirit otherwise apt to exhale and rendring the flying lee more prone to subside and so making the wine much sooner clear fine and potable And thus much concerning the Helps of New wine ¶ For the Praeternatural or sickly commotions incident to wines after their first Clarification and tending to their impoverishment or decay the general and principal Remedy is Racking i. e. drawing them from their Lees into fresh vessels Which yet being sometimes insufficient to preserve them Vintners find it necessary to pour into them a large quantity of new Milk as well to blunt the sharpness of the Sulphureous parts now set afloat and exalted as to precipitate them and other impurities to the bottom by adhesion But taught by experience that by this means the Genuine Spirits of the Wine also are much flatted and impaired for the Lee though it makes the liquor turbid doth yet keep the wine in heart and conduce to itâ— duration therefore lest such wines should pall and dye upon their hands as of necessity they must they draw them forth foâ— sale as fast as they can vent them For the same disease they have divers other Remedies particularly accommodated to the nature of the Wine that needs them to instance in a few For Spanish Wines disturbed by a Flying Lee they have this receipt Make a Parell give me leave to use their Phrase of the Whites of Eggs bay Salt Milk and conduit Water beat them well together in a convenient Vessel then pour them into the Pipe of wine having first drawn out a gallon or two to make room and blow off the froth very clean Hereby the tumult will in 2. or 3. dayes be recomposed the liquor refined and the Wine drink pleasantly but will not continue to do so long and therefore they counsel to rack it from the Milky bottom after a weeks settlement lest otherwise it should drink foul and change colour And this If Your Sacks or Canary Wines chance to boyl over draw off 4. or 5. Gallons then putting into the Wine 2. Gallons of Milk from which the Cream hath been skimm'd beat them till they be throughly commix'd adding a pennyworth of Roch Allum dryed in a fire-shovel and beaten to powder and as much of white starch after this take the whitâ—â— of 8. or 10. Eggs a handfull of bay-salt and having beaten them together in a Tray put them also into the Wine filling up the Pipe again and letting the wine stand 2 or 3 dayes in which time the wine will recover to be fine and bright to the Eye and quick to the taste but be sure You draw it off that bottom soon and spend it as fast as you can For Claret in like manner distempered with a Flying Lee they have this artifice They take two pound of the powder of Pebble-stones bak'd â—n an Oven the whites of ten or â—welve Eggs a handfull of bayâ—â—lt and having beaten them well together in two gallons of â—he Wine they mix them with that in the Cask and after two or three dayes draw off the wine from that bottom The same Parell serves also for White Wines upon the Frett by the turbulency and rising of their Lee. To cure Rhenish of its Fretting to which it is most prone a little after Midsummer as was before observed they seldom use any other art but giving it vent anâ— covering the open Bung with 〈◊〉 Tile or Slate from which theâ— are carefull to wipe off the fi lt purged from the wine by exhalation and after the Commotioâ— is by this means composed aâ— much of the fretting matter caâ— forth they observe to let it remain quiet for a fortnight or thereabout and then rack it
into a fresh Cask newly fumed with a Sulphurate Match call'd in Latine tela Sulphurata in High-Dutch Einschlag ¶ As for the various Accidents that frequently ensue and vitiate Wines after those forementioned Reboylings notwithstanding their suppression before they were incurable You may please to remember I referr'd them all to such as alter and deprave Wines either in Colour or Consistence or Taste or Smell Now for each of these Maladies our Vintners are provided of a Cure â—n particular To restore Spanish and Austrian wines grown Yellow or Brownish they add to them sometimes Milk alone sometimes Milk and Isinglass well dissolved therein sometimes Milk and White Starch by which they force the exalted Sulphur to separate from the liquor and sink to the bottom so reducing the wine to its former clearness and whiteness The same Effect they produce with a composition of Flower-â—eluce roots and Salt-petre ana 4â— or 5 ounces the whites of 8 or 10 Eggs and a competent quantity of common Salt mixt and beaten in the wine To amend Claret decayed iâ— Colour first they rack it upon 〈◊〉 fresh Lee either of Alicant or Râ— Bordeaux wine then theâ— take 3 pound of Turnsol steep it in all night in two or three gallons of the same wine and having strained the infusion through a bagg pour the tincture into the Hoggshead sometimes they suffer it first to fine of it self in a Rundler and then cover the bung-hole with a tile and so let it stand for 2 or 3 dayes in which time the wine usually becomes well-coloured and bright Some use only the tincture of Turnsol Others take half a bushel of full-ripe Elder-berries pick them from their stalks bruise them and put the strain'd juice into a hoggs-head of discoloured Claret and so make it drink brisk and appear bright Others if the Claret be otherwise sound and the Lee good overdraw 3 or 4 gallons then replenish the vessel with as much good Red Wine and rowl him upon his bed leaving him reversed all night next morning turn him again so as the bung-hole may be uppermost which stopt they leave the wine to fine But in all these cases they observe to set such newly recovered wines abroach the very next day after they are fined and to draw them for sale speedily To correct wines faulty in Consistence i. e. such as are lumpish foul or Ropy they generally make use of the powders of burnt Alum Line Chalk Plaistre Spanish White Calcined Marble bay Salt and other the like bodies which cause a precipitation of the gross and viscid parts of the wine then afloat For Example For the Attenuation of Spanish Wines that are foul and lumpish having first rack'd them into a newly scented Cask they make a Parell of burn'd Alum bay Salt and conduit Water then they add thereto a quart of Bean-Flower or powder of Rice and if the wine be also brown and dusky Milk otherwise not and beating all these well together with the wine blow off the froth and cover the bung with a clean â—ile-stone Lastly they again rack the wine after a few dayes and put it into a Cask well Scented Here perhaps some not well understanding what is meant by this Scenting of Casks will pardon me if I make a short stand to explain it They take of Brimstone 4 ounces of burn'd Alum 1 ounce of Aqua vitae 2 ounces these they put together in an earthen pan or pipkin and hold them over a a Chausing dish of glowing coals till the Brimstone is melted and runs then they dipp therein a little piece of new Canvas and instantly sprinkle thereon the powders of Nutmeggs Cloves Coriandre and Anise seeds This Canvas they fire and let it burn out in the bung-hole so as the fume may be received into the vessel And this as I have been credibly informed is the best scent for all Wines Nor is it a Modern invention both Canterarius cap. 8. membr sect 23. and Levinus Lemnius Occult. lib. 2. cap. 48. taking notice of the like use among the Ancients of fuming their Casks with Sulphur Ut vasa à putredine defenderentur vinum ipsum majorem calorem aut Spiritus acriores acquireret To prevent the foulness and ropiness of Wines the old Roman Vindemiatores used to mix Sea-water with the Must Ut suo calore ne Vina lentescerent pendulaque fierent conservaret dum pondere suo in vase subsideret faeces secum ad fundum deferret Cato de R. R. cap. 104. Langius 2. Epist. 32. To cure the Ropiness of Claret the Vintners as well French as English have many Remedies among which I have selected two or three as most memorable because most usual One is this First they give the Wine a Parell then draw it from the Lee after the clarification by that Parell this done they infuse 2 pound of Turnsol in good Sack all night and the next day putting the strain'd infusion into a hoggshead of the Wine with a spring funnel leave it to fine and after draw it for excellent Wine Another this They make a Lee of the ashes of Vine-branches or of Oaken leaves and pour it into the wine hot and after stirring leave it to settle The quantity a quart of Lee to a Pipe of Wine A third is only Spirit of Wine which put into muddy Claret serves to the refining it effectually and speedily the proportion being a pint of Spirit to a hoggs-head But this is not to be used in sharp and eagre Wines When White wines grow foul and tawny they only rack them on a fresh Lee and give them time to fine For the Emendation of Wines offending in Taste Vintners have few other Correctives but what conduce to Clarification Nor do they indeed much need variety in the case seeing all Unsavouriness of Wines whatever seems to proceed from their impurities set afloat and the dominion of either their Sulphureous or Saline parts over the finer and sweeter which causes are removed chiefly by Precipitation For all Clarification of liquors may be referred to one of these three causes 1. Separation of the grosser parts of the liquor from the finer 2. The equal distribution of the Spirits of the liquor which alwayes rendreth bodies clear and untroubled 3. The refining of the Spirit it self And the two latter are consequents of the first which is effected chiefly by Precipitation the instruments whereof are weight and viscosity of the body admixt the one causing it to cleave to the gross parts of the liquor flying up and down in it the other sinking them to the bottom But this being more than Vintners commonly understand they rest not in Clarification alone having found out certain Specifics as it were to palliate the several Vices of Wines of all sorts which make them disgustfull Of these likewise I shall recite two or three of greatest use and esteem among them To correct Rankness Eagerness and Pricking of Sacks and other sweet Wines they