When you are, as you surely will be, turning out gallon upon gallon of delicious, crystal-clear wines, and when you have mastered the technique of blending (if you want to), and have experimented a little of your own accord, you may, like many other people, try to make your wine even better.

The idea of distilling home-made wines occurs to most people at some time or other and, fortunately, the idea dies as quickly as it is conceived. A few people, however, do try tampering with the stuff: and it is to these tempted few that this warning is directed.

Violence, insanity, blindness and even murder have resulted through drinking distilled home-made wine. In the mining and construction camps of Prohibition America, the easy-money boys set up stills in which harmless brews were turned into rot-gut liquor. Gang­ers and construction managers, worried by accidents and absenteeism, tried at first to handle the situation themselves, but the trade quickly got out of hand. Men normally of sound mind and judgment became killers at the flick of a card; spirit-inflamed suspicion sent them berserk with knives, guns or whatever came to hand. Permanent blindness struck down many, while others died of alcoholic poisoning.

So be warned, you tempted few: home distilling, be­sides carrying heavy penalties, is a very dangerous practice. Leave it alone - be satisfied.

Apart from the heavy penalties for illegal distilling (which may under certain circumstances amount to a fine of one hundred pounds or even more, with im­prisonment for a second conviction), the risk of injury to health through drinking the raw spirit should be enough to deter even the most adventurous.

Spirit distilled in the home is very greatly over proof - the amount depending on the efficiency of the appara­tus. The whisky or brandy addict used to daily doses of his 75 per cent proof spirit would, if he tried drinking home-distilled spirit, be knocked sideways by perhaps as little as one-eighth of what he is used to. And the effect might be as disastrous as consuming methylated spirit or even petrol. We have all read of people dying as a result of siphoning petrol from the tank of a car.

I am often asked what would be the result of distilling some of a wine in order to 'fortify' the rest. And my answer is always, 'Disappointing.' Not only is it a waste of good wine, but the act of making the wine stronger by adding spirit usually ruins the flavor. The alcohol breaks down various chemical matter important to the wine's flavor.

A friend of mine prides himself on the kick in his wines; kick there is, and precious little else. So don't be tempted to produce alcohol at the expense of flavor.

Wines made with the recipes in this book will be as strong as anybody would wish a wine to be.

The present laws relating to home wine-making let you make all the wine you want, free of tax and license, but it must be consumed on the premises where it was made. It must not be sold. It cannot be given away - not so much as a bottle for raffling at a church bazaar.

That is the law - even if it isn't common sense. So if you take a bottle of parsnip wine round to a friend at Christmas, wrap it up well!

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