White Wine

Pick the grapes over carefully, removing any that are bad and taking out the’ stalks. Rinse the loose grapes to remove dirt and dust and crush them well in your hands, making sure to break each fruit. Pour off the juice, put the pulp into a clean cloth and squeeze out remaining juice. Put the pulp into a mashing vessel and pour on 6 pints of boiling water, stir, cover and leave for two days. You should have extracted about 10 pints of juice from the grapes. Put this into a fermentation jar with 2 Campden tablets and fit an airlock. A yeast starter should be prepared with the yeast of your choice, but in the first instance a general purpose wine yeast might be advisable. Later, you can experiment with Burgundy, Sauternes, Sherry yeasts, etc., but they will require different amounts of sugar and vary in their maturing times, but your results should resemble the wines to which the selected yeast is indigenous. After two days’ soaking, strain and press the grapes strenuously and add the strained liquid to the grape juice. Sugar is now added, and for a good all-purpose wine 1½ lb. to the gallon should be sufficient, but later, when you have a hydrometer, you can first of all test the amount of sugar in the must and add according to the type of wine you plan. The yeast should also be added, and the fermentation trap fitted. Put the jar in a warm place. After fermenting, rack three times over a period of six months, and store and use after it is one year old.