If you want to make wine there is no excuse for not doing so: you need neither license nor cellar and the utensils may already be in your house, flat or caravan -for wine may be made in the smallest of places. To make a couple of gallons of wine is no more bother than to bake a tray of cakes or pickle a few jars of onions, and in comparison the rewards of your labours are far more pleasurable.

A word of warning: The fact that home-made wines do not exceed fourteen per cent (by volume) of alcohol leads the uninitiated to believe that they can drink un­limited quantities without it having effect upon them. How wrong they are! It is a saying in country districts that 'home-made wine is all right when you know how to drink it*. The unsuspected kick in home-made wines has to be felt to be believed. Drink home-made wine as you would drink neat whisky.

Before we begin, I ought to say that two people using the same recipes do not necessarily turn out identical wines any more than they would turn out identical sponge-cakes by using the same mixture. Why? The answer lies, probably, in the fact that one may make a good cup of tea while the other does not, but - tea, sponge-cake or wine - there is always someone to like it the way you have made it.

Water and ingredients doubtless have a lot to do with this variation of wines turned out from the same recipe. Fruit and vegetables of different varieties in one brew; harder or softer water in various districts; a wet or dry summer, which would affect the sugar content of fruits; rich or poor soil in which the roots were grown - all these must be allowed for. Commercial producers offset such differences in the quality of their grapes by careful blending, which is a highly skilled operation carried out in laboratories, and which results in each brand of wine containing all the characteristics that have made it pop­ular. Thus two bottles of the same brand of wine will taste identical, even though one bottle may contain as many as eight or nine different wines of varying ages against the other's four or five.

If commercial producers have this advantage over us home producers, do not begrudge them it, for it is the only one they have - as we shall see.

Utensils

The best utensil to use for boiling ingredients and juices is one of good quality enamel; one sold under a proprie­tary name is most reliable. It must not be chipped.

Cheap enamel utensils often contain lead in the glaze and this might be boiled into the brew; if this happened the wine would be dangerous.

If aluminium or copper is used there is a slight risk of minute particles of the metal being boiled into the brew. This might poison the yeast, and fermentation would not take place.

For fermentation purposes and for soaking fruits and flowers we may use a china vessel or one made of polythene. China vessels should not be too wide at the rim as this exposes too large a surface to the air. A polythene bucket is ideal - but do make sure it is of polythene, as some plastics are not suitable. And choose a pale color or a white one. Where large batches of wine are made, a polythene dustbin makes an excellent fermentation vessel, as does a strong poly­thene bag, lining a worn-out barrel or similar vessel.

Polythene has the advantage that it is unbreakable. A polythene bucket may be used for all wine-making pur­poses except boiling the ingredients.

Do not use enamel vessels for fermentation and do not use a galvanized vessel for any part of wine-making.

The Best Ingredients

All fruits must be ripe, but not over-ripe. A few shrivel­led grapes or blackcurrants are unlikely to harm a brew, but in the case of large fruit such as plums, the doubt­ful ones should be picked out.

The choice of roots (beetroot, parsnips, etc.) for wine-making purposes must not be dismissed so readily. The best, in fact I would say the only, roots suitable for wine-making are those that are old and shrivelled. Parsnips that have been stored throughout the winter or left in the soil are at their best for our purpose in March, as are old potatoes bought in June when the new ones are coming in. If they are well shrivelled and sprouting, so much the better. (Rub off the sprouts before using them.) These old roots contain less starch than the fresher ones, and we do not want starch in wines for it slows down the clearing process. Besides this, when old roots are used they flavor the wine less, and it is not in the least bit 'earthy’.

Important Note on Ingredients

It is a mistake to believe that using more ingredients, or less water, or more sugar or yeast, than is prescribed in the recipes, will produce a more potent wine. The strength of wine is decided by the volume of alcohol in which the yeast can live and continue to do its work, and not on the quantity of any ingredients. Too much sugar makes the wine far too sweet. More yeast makes no difference at all, simply because it cannot make more alcohol than it can live in - as we shall see under 'fermentation'

(P-13)-Age makes no difference to the alcohol content of wines. Too many ingredients will produce a liquid of too high a specific gravity - a liquid containing too many solids per ratio of water, in other words a liquid which is too thick - and this will take a very long time to clear.

The rule is, therefore: do not use more ingredients than are prescribed in the recipe.

My recipes are designed to produce approximately one gallon of wine; not two or three quarts according to the extent of evaporation and the formation of lees. It will be noted that many recipes begin with five quarts of water. If this fifth quart were omitted, when the wine had finished fermenting its specific gravity would be high and therefore it would clear more slowly. Less water, then, would have the same effect as using more ingredients in the amount of water stated. Do not for­get that fifth quart - or extra pint as the case may be.

Straining

Fine muslin is best for straining mixtures produced when making root wines. Tie one piece on the tub - allowing sufficient sag - and place a second piece over this. This top piece containing the solids can be lifted off without letting them fall into the brew.

jelly bags or similar things made of suitable material are needed for fruit juices, as will be seen in the recipes.

Sugar and Yeast

Always use white sugar, and always make certain that all the sugar is dissolved before adding anything - such as wheat and raisins - to the brew. If all the sugar is not dissolved the yeast might not ferment it properly and some of the sugar might settle in the form of syrup and be left in the lees when they are thrown away. The wine might then be quite sharp. With a lot of other stuff in the brew, it is quite impossible to tell whether all the sugar is dissolved or not.

Baker's yeast is all we need bother with at this stage and this can be obtained from your local bakehouse. Yeast is added at the rate of one ounce to one, two or three gallons.

Do not add the yeast too soon as a temperature well below boiling point will destroy the yeast organism and fermentation will not then take place.

Rainwater for Wine-making

Being naturally soft, and 'sweeter' than tap water, rain­water will make far better wines; unfortunately it is heavily contaminated both chemically and micro-bio-logically. Nevertheless, it can be rendered quite safe, by careful filtering and boiling.

If you are sufficiently interested and have the time to take the trouble that a friend of mine goes to you will not regret it.

First he collects the water; then he filters it twice and boils it for fifteen minutes regardless of whether he will be boiling it again when making the wine (as in root-wine making) or whether he will be sulphiting the must when making a fruit wine.

This is how he collects it. He waits until rain has been falling for an hour, so that dust from the roof and gutters has been washed away. He then puts a tub under the fall-pipe and collects about five gallons. This he allows to stand overnight. The clear water is then pour­ed off any solids at the bottom of the vessel, and put into a sawn-off barrel fitted with a tap.

Under this tap is a stone jar which is also fitted with a tap. In the top of the stone jar there is a polythene fun­nel with a knob of cotton-wool pressed gently into place.

The water from the barrel runs very slowly - hardly more than dripping - through the half-turned-on tap on to the cotton-wool. The partly filtered water runs into the stone jar and out at the bottom into a second jar which also has a funnel fitted with cotton-wool. The partly filtered water runs through this second layer of cotton-wool and into the second jar.

By cleverly arranging the tub on a bench, the first jar on a box and the second jar on the floor, and by care­fully regulating the flow - all this taking him about ten minutes - he can leave the water to double-filter itself while he prepares his ingredients.

If the filtering is prepared last thing at night the water is ready for use by the following morning. Admittedly, filtering in this way does take hours, but it does it itself.

Readers wishing to use rainwater must be warned not to use water from a lead roof or from one covered in tarred felt.

The Enemies

The greatest enemies of successful wine-making are acetic bacteria, wild yeast (and bacteria and the spores of fungi which are often present with wild yeast), and pectin. Let me deal with each in turn.

If allowed to contaminate wines, acetic bacteria will convert the alcohol into acetic acid, thereby giving the wine a vinegary or very bitter taste. The main cause of acetification - as it is called - is exposure to air. This shows the risk involved in allowing wines to ferment in uncovered or lightly corked bottles.

Wild yeast is always present in the atmosphere; it col­lects on the skins of fruits as they reach maturity, and with this yeast come harmful bacteria and the spores of certain fungi. To make good wines we must destroy this yeast and the bacteria and fungi spores at the out­set, otherwise we might produce a sour wine or one which will not taste like wine at all.

Wild yeast and bacteria will begin fermenting wines that have been bottled for months. Really magnificent wines have been spoiled by the maker thoughtlessly leaving the wines exposed to danger, and if allowed to collect on wines - through the fermenting brew being left uncovered - wild yeast and bacteria will ruin the wine at the outset, but this might not become evident for quite some time.

Wild yeast will begin fermenting fruit-and-water mix­tures left for short soaking periods. Many old-fashioned recipes allow for this ferment to make the wine; as will be seen from the foregoing, this method is a very risky one, for it means that wild yeast, the spores of fungi, bacteria - in fact, most of the enemies of wine-making -are with you from the start.

The wild yeast, bacteria and fungi on utensils, etc., will be destroyed during the making of the wines, so these need not worry us. If wild yeast or bacteria reach the wine after it has cleared the wine will go cloudy and be ruined - for there is no cure once the damage has been done.

Wild yeast and bacteria have been known to ruin bottled fruits; they have begun to turn them into sour wines. Even tinned fruits have been known to become 'blown'. All these troubles are caused by wild yeast and the fungi and bacteria which are present with it. The trade goes to great lengths to ensure that wild yeast does not ferment their grape juice. All juices are treated with sulphur dioxide (which is later precipitated) and a speci­ally selected yeast is introduced into the juice for the purpose of fermenting it.

Sulphiting the juices is not recommended to the be­ginner, but there is nothing to stop us following the methods of the trade in our own way. After all, I can­not imagine the trade letting millions of bottles of wine go sour each season.

Wild yeast must not be confused with natural yeast, which will often produce quite good wines if allowed to work alone. Unfortunately the natural yeast, which forms the bloom on grapes and other fruits such as plums and gooseberries, is too often accompanied by 'undesirable* strains of yeast and bacteria, which are the cause of most of the troubles so well known to the home wine-maker.

As I have already mentioned, the trade sulphite the juices so that these 'undesirable* ferments are held in check while the natural yeast, or a specially prepared yeast culture, is allowed to ferment the juice unhindered.

Most people rely on the greengrocer for their wine ingredients, which, by the time they are received, have passed through markets and shops and been exposed to all sorts of dirt and bacteria. Washing with cold water, or pouring boiling water over them, is of little use; boil­ing is necessary if the bacteria are to be prevented from harming the wine. As we shall see, boiling the fruits themselves produces wine that will not clear, so we must boil only the strained juice. Plums, gooseberries and other fruit gathered fresh from the garden often produce good wines without the addition of yeast, but I have found that when the natural yeast is allowed to make the wine, 'undesirable* ferments take place at the same time and spoil the wine. We may add tartaric acid, and this will certainly hold 'undesirable' ferments in check, leaving the healthy yeast to ferment alone. Un­fortunately, so much tartaric acid has to be used that the resulting wine is usually far too acid. Besides this, when natural yeast is allowed to make the wine the fer­ment is usually a long-drawn-out and erratic process lasting perhaps several months, which starts and stops at the slightest variation of temperature. The beginner might well cork the wine too soon with the result that the corks blow out or there are a series of explosions.

In any event, a long slow ferment is to be avoided if we are to keep our wines free from the troubles which so often arise from their being left to ferment in an 'open* vessel for months on end.

Frankly, I shall never understand how anyone has ever made wines by leaving the crushed fruit to soak for weeks and then, after the sugar and yeast have been added, allowing it to ferment for several weeks in a tub and then for many more weeks in uncorked or lightly corked bottles. But they have done it, I know they have, and they have never taken precautions against any of the enemies of wine-making. There are thousands of these people throughout the country who for years have made good wines in this way. But then their luck gave out and they gave up wine-making, for their brews went sour or turned to vinegar, would not clear or turned out insipid and flat. And they never bothered to find out why. Let's hope one or two of these people are reading this book.

The short soaking period advised in my recipes is not long enough to allow for the yeast and bacteria to begin their work. The short boiling period is sufficient to give safeguard and at the same time is not long enough to give the juice - and therefore the wine - a 'cooked* flavor. However, should it happen that under excep­tional circumstances, a fruit-and-water mixture begins fermenting of its own accord, the reader is advised to strain at once and boil immediately, and then carry on with making the wine.

Pectin is a glutinous or 'sugary' substance present in greater or less degree in all fruit: mainly found in the skin and pips but, in any case, in the fleshy and pithy parts of the fruits themselves. If allowed in wines other than in minute quantities, pectin will hold itself in sus­pension and produce a permanent cloudiness which I have found quite impossible to clarify.

People have written to me complaining that they had to throw their wine away after waiting years for it to clear.

To get a pectin-free juice, we merely crush the fruit and strain out the juice without applying heat of any kind. Boiling the fruit themselves is the cause of the trouble and even pouring boiling water on certain fruits will give pectin trouble.

As with all things, prevention is better than cure. My recipes are designed to guarantee against an overload of pectin. But the problems of acetic bacteria, other harm­ful bacteria and wild yeast are not so easily disposed of. It must be remembered that contamination by any of these micro-organisms must be prevented, for there is no cure once the damage has been done.

The Wine Fly

A lot of nonsense is talked about the wine fly. It is true that these tiny flies will sometimes make their ap­pearance where there is wine fermenting, but to say that they alone are responsible for souring of wines is wrong. If the fly can get into the wine then so can air, and it is a safe bet that the bacteria in the air turned the wine long before the fly had had a chance to do any harm. Leaving the wine corked loosely is inviting trouble, of course, and if this were done then the wine fly might very well get in and cause trouble first.

Covering as I have directed will not only prevent the fly from entering but will also prevent to some extent the smell of fermenting wine reaching it and inviting it into the house. I rarely see a wine fly.

Cotton-wool covering filters out any bacteria that may be in the air and this will certainly prevent the wine fly from causing trouble.

Sterilization

If the following precautions seem somewhat tedious, re­member that they are the difference between success and failure, and after all, they only take five minutes. Remember, too, that they are no more trouble than your usual precautions for an afternoon's successful fruit bottling.

Knives, graters - in fact all utensils used before the boiling stage - need not be sterilized, since any harmful bacteria on these are automatically destroyed during the process. Straining cloths and fermenting vessels must be sterilized, and this is best done just before the in­gredients are ready for straining. Fermenting vessels and straining cloths are harbourers of harmful bacteria, as are chipped and cracked utensils.

Straining cloths are merely boiled for a few minutes. Scald fermenting vessels well, or use sulphur dioxide, about which I shall have something to say later.

So much for the early stages. The next step we must take is to ensure that the brew is kept well covered dur­ing the all-important fermentation period. Most of us would cover our brews as a matter of course, but here it is best to use a double thickness of blanketing and a sheet of brown paper, each of which must be tied down tightly. Alternatively - and this might prove more con­venient for most people - use a sheet of thin polythene and tie it in place with thin string. This will give excellent protection.

Remember that this is a risky period for fermenting wines and we are taking the best precautions we can to prevent our wines becoming contaminated by wild yeast and bacteria.

As already mentioned, exposure to air is the main cause of all the trouble. On the Continent certain vine­gars are produced merely by exposing wine to air for short periods of time.

The wine must be left covered for fourteen days: at this stage fermentation will have slowed down and the time has come to use isinglass, and to put the wine into bottles or stone jars, where fermentation continues.

The saucepan to be used for dissolving the isinglass must be scalded, and while the isinglass is dissolving, the bottles or jars and their corks must be sterilized by boiling them in a pail of water or by baking in an oven. I myself use a five per cent solution of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and have found this to be the quickest and sim­plest method of sterilization. Sulphur dioxide is quite safe - it is used extensively by the trade - but the whiff of gas one sometimes gets whilst using it is like that of strong smelling salts.

If you cannot get sulphur dioxide from a chemist, read the last paragraph on page 89. One pint of this home-made solution will sterilize four or five gallon-size jars or a dozen bottles. Pour the solution into the first bottle and swirl it round, then pour into the next bottle and so on. This pint might not be reliable for further use, so throw it away. The rest may be saved for future use. The solution will also rid jars of mustiness and the smell of stale wine.

Having used the solution, rinse the bottles inside with boiled water that has cooled a bit. All this takes only a few minutes, and the slight odor remaining at this stage will not harm the wine in any way.

Stoppers and corks may be immersed in this solu­tion for a few minutes and then dipped in boiled water. There is no need to dry either the bottles or the corks.

When the still fermenting wine is put into stone jars or bottles, the top of each one must be covered with a small piece of polythene, pressed down all round and secured with a strong elastic band or tied tightly with strong thin string. Alternatively, use two thicknesses of fine material, between which should be a knob of cotton-wool pressed flat so as to overlap the rim of the bottle, and tie tightly. The wine is left thus protected until all fermentation has ceased.

From the above the reader may imagine himself about to fight an army of microbes bent on frustrating his best efforts; he is quite right, but he can defeat that army at the expense of only a few minutes of his time.

Fermentation

Fermentation is indicated by a frothing (however slight) and a slight hissing noise or 'fizzing*. This is the com­plex action whereby the living organism of yeast breaks down the sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. The action of the yeast on the sugar continues until the vol­ume of alcohol has reached somewhere between twelve and a half and fourteen per cent. At this stage the yeast organism is destroyed by the alcohol it has produced and fermentation ceases. This is what is known as a natural wine; most commercial products come under this category until they have been fortified. This period of fermenting in the tub is the danger time; therefore we must get fermentation over and done with as soon as possible - even at the risk of losing a little of the wine's bouquet.

We must then keep the brew warm. Our aim is to bring about ideal conditions in which the living organ­ism and yeast cells can multiply more readily. Warmth ensures this. The more rapidly they multiply the more rapidly they convert the sugar into alcohol and, there­fore, the sooner the yeast destroys itself.

Do not be tempted to keep a brew hot during fermen­tation: during warm weather any odd spot will do for a fermenting brew. During the winter, a warm spot in the kitchen or in an airing cupboard is as good as any.

After fourteen days' fermentation in a warm place, the wine is bottled or put into stone jars, and this is the time to add the isinglass.

Isinglass

Isinglass is not needed to clarify flower or fruit wines made with the recipes given in this book; these wines will clarify themselves quite readily within a few weeks of fermentation having ceased. Nor is isinglass an absolute need for clearing root wines, but I have found that root wines, and wines made from a mixture of roots and fruits, do clear more readily with the help of isinglass. For this reason you will see in certain recipes 'proceed with isinglass and bottling'.

When put into wine, isinglass forms an insoluble cloud which surrounds the minute solids in the wine and gradually forces them to the bottom of the bottle.

Apart from assisting the clearing process, isinglass helps to solidify the lees, thereby rendering them less easy to disturb while moving the bottles or when wine is poured from a bottle containing lees.

There are many methods of using isinglass, but the one I use myself with perfect results is as follows. Take one quart of the wine and warm it very slowly in a saucepan. Crumble one-eighth of an ounce of isinglass over the surface of this wine and then stir with a fork until all is dissolved, then pour it into the rest of the wine in a circling movement.

Many people advise dissolving the isinglass in a little water. As we have seen, ordinary tap-water quite often contains wild yeast; the very act, then, of using water might well ruin all our efforts to keep wild yeast out of the wine.

Bought from a chemist in half-ounce or one-ounce lots the amount required is easy to calculate, and this is usually plenty for one gallon of wine.

When the isinglass has been added, put the wine into sterilized bottles or jars and cover as already directed. The wine must then be returned to a warm place, and kept there until all fermentation has ceased.

If the wine were put in a cold place the yeast might go dormant and the wine cease to ferment; if it were later moved into a warm room, or the weather happened to turn very warm, the yeast would become active and start fermenting again. In a warm place fermentation cannot mislead us.

If by chance you notice that the top half-inch of wine has become crystal-clear, seal the bottles at once; for this is a clear indication that fermentation has ceased. Unfortunately we seldom get this invaluable guide.

When all fermentation has ceased - when no more tiny bubbles are rising to the surface - the yeast is dead. Fermentation cannot begin again unless wild yeast or bacteria get into the wine and begin that souring fer­ment I have mentioned. Perfect air-tight sealing at the earliest possible stage of production is essential.

Push the cork home hard and seal with sealing-wax. If screw-top bottles are available, use these by all means. I never use any other kind when I can get hold of them. Remember that the yeast is dead, so fermen­tation cannot begin again and explode the bottles or blow the corks unless wild yeast or bacteria reach the wine. Screw-top bottles are, then, the obvious choice.

The Clearing Process

As a general rule the clearing process will begin immedi­ately fermentation has ceased. Clear divisions will be seen, each a slightly different shade. These will gradu­ally fall to the bottom of the bottle as the wine eventu­ally becomes clear.

If you use at least one clear-glass bottle, this process may be watched with interest. The top inch may be­come crystal-clear in a matter of days, yet it may be weeks before the top division finally reaches the bottom and becomes lees. The layer of sediment which will con­tinue to build up in the bottles may remain an inch or so thick for some time, but this will eventually narrow down to barely half an inch. It may remain fluid, when it is very easily disturbed, or it may set so as to look like cheese.

At other times the clearing process will be seen as a gradual darkening, or in some cases brightening (de­pending on variety), of the color of the wine; the layer of sediment will build up in the usual way, but without divisions.

When the wine is finally perfectly clear, we must pre­pare for the final bottling. No harm is done in leaving the wine on the lees until you wish to drink it, but this final bottling makes a tremendous difference to the wine's appearance and flavor. The clear wine should be siphoned off the lees into freshly sterilized bottles and sealed again at once with freshly sterilized corks or stoppers. The wine is then put away to mature and ac­cumulate cobwebs. (For siphoning, see p. 18.)

If your wine seems somewhat slow to clear do not worry; put it somewhere where you cannot see it every day and get on with making the next brew. Many people will advise you to rebottle and keep rebottling until it is clear. Frequent racking - as it is called - merely in­vites contamination by bacteria. Wines will clear quite readily, provided they have been handled properly throughout and provided the jelly-bag straining was thorough.

Isinglass may be used as a last resort with a trouble­some fruit wine, but I do not like this if it can be avoid­ed for it takes down with it various chemical matter im­portant to the flavor of the wine.

Cold - that is frosty weather - will usually clear ob­stinate wines.

I am at a loss to understand why some people are so impatient to get their wines clear. After all, wine is bet­ter for being a year old, and if it takes that long to clear I cannot see that anything has been lost. All wines im­prove with age; they become mellow, their flavor im­proves, their bouquet becomes more marked and their body more full. For all that, I expect you will drink your wine as soon as it has cleared. The period required for each brew to mature varies considerably: a safe rule is to allow six months for root wines and one year for wines made from fruit or flowers.

Storing

When the clear wine has been bottled and it is intended to keep it for more than three months, it must be borne in mind that corks dry out, and when this happens the shrinkage might cause cracking in the sealing-wax, with the result that tiny airholes will appear through which wild yeast and bacteria can attack the wine.

All bottles fitted with ordinary corks or cork-lined screw caps must be stored on their sides. This allows for the wine to keep the cork moist and so prevent shrink­age. Rubber-banded screw-stoppered bottles may be stored upright.

Having heard that wine should be stored at a certain temperature, which must remain constant throughout the year, many people go to much trouble and think up all sorts of ingenious devices to achieve that end. Author­ities are divided in opinion as to the ideal temperature in which to store wines - probably because wines, like human beings, like what suits them best. Perhaps there is an ideal temperature for one kind of wine, but what suits the Eskimo does not suit the Australian aborigine, and never will.

In any case the aborigine and the Eskimo get changes in temperature and no harm comes to them - in fact, they seem to thrive on it. So why not let us regard our wines as being something like ourselves in that they are quite at home in such temperatures as we can give them?

Rapid changes are best avoided, of course (as with human beings); so if we can store our wines on a stone floor so much the better. If this is not possible, a cup­board on the north side of the house will do provided a chimney does not run through it.

But, darn it, a friend of mine stores three hundred bottles of some really magnificent wines in an attic which becomes unbearably hot in the summer and all but freezes out in the winter - and no harm ever comes to any of his wines.

Store your wines anywhere you can and don't worry.

When serving home-made wines, remember that they are best when served at room temperature, except for champagnes, which should be served cellar-cool or iced.

Siphoning and Bottling

It is almost impossible to pour clear wine from one bottle to another without stirring up the lees; it is a good plan, therefore, to siphon off the clear wine when rebottling.

Using about a yard and a half of surgical rubber tub­ing or plastic tubing, siphoning is a very simple opera­tion. First put the bottles or jars of wine on a table and the empty bottles on a stool or box on the floor. Then put one end of the tubing in the first bottle of wine and suck the other end of the tube until the wine comes; pinch the tube at your lips and - holding on tight - put this end in the empty bottle and then let the wine flow. As the level of the wine falls, lower the tube into it, being careful not to let it touch the lees. When nearly ail the wine has been transferred, pinch the tube at the neck of both bottles, put one end into the next bottle and allow the wine to flow again.

In this way a constant flow is maintained and you have bottles of crystal-clear wine. The sediment from each bottle may be put together; this will clear in time to leave a little more wine.

Now-What's Yours?

Most of you will already have heard of one or other home-made wine and will have decided which to make. For those who have not yet decided, preference for a 'port* or 'whisky' may be the deciding factor and this must rest with yourselves.

I would advise you only in this: make, say, a gallon or a half-gallon of a variety of wines and then decide which you prefer over a period of time. I have whittled my own preference down to nine different wines which I brew regularly according to season, leaving the dried fruit for the time when fresh fruit is not available and when roots - potatoes, etc. - are too fresh for wine-making purposes.

Note

Different recipes will call for a slightly different ap­proach, but it must be remembered that whatever else has to be done, the brew must be kept in a warm place throughout the fermentation period, and that the pro­cess after fourteen days* fermentation in the tub is the same with all recipes.

Now select your recipe and go ahead with your wine-making, bearing in mind all that I have warned you about.

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