Referring to the (often semi-intoxicated) comments at the end of the recipes, it's clear the wines turned-out pretty well. They represent the most instructive examples from the records. Recipes not copied were good too, except several that were completely duff for reasons previously mentioned.

If you can decipher the terrible scrawl... my dad's is the smoother, curly style, while mine is the angular, spiky one (maybe this tells something about our 'relative' natures?)... then the recipes shown offer a reasonable guide of how to make some damn good wines.

Racking (removing the wine from its sediment) is crucial to avoid off-flavours and clouding - and even, I reckon, the risk of forming small amounts of methanol (methylated spirit). All alcohols are essentially poisonous, but ethanol is what people usually mean when they refer to 'alcohol'.

The ethanol molecule closely resembles the acetic acid molecule. There's a chance that a bacteria carried by little fat brown 'vinegar' flies, which appear like magic whenever there's wine sloshing about, could get into the wine and convert the alcohol to vinegar (which is ~3% acetic acid). This NEVER happened for me - the flies always dutifully appeared, but I guess I always succeeded in keeping them away because none of the wine I or my dad ever made tasted even remotely like vinegar. The only acidic wine was rhubarb, for which, I recall, we used precipitated chalk and then overdid it and had to add citric acid.

When you start a wine there's not much yeast and no alcohol so it's highly vulnerable to stray airborne yeasts and other contamination. This means the wine should be kept well covered until fermentation is vigorous enough to raise the pulp above the liquid. The yeast should increase hugely in just a few days if conditions are right: sweet, but not too sweet (SG <~1.15), and warm, but not too warm (deg C: >15, <25 ).

It's usually best for the initial fermentation to take place in an open but well-covered tub for several days, but not more than a week, because the yeast needs a bit of oxygen. And to be stirred once a day for maybe for the first couple of days. This re-blends pulp that forms a thick top layer, and removes excess CO2. A dry, oxidised top layer, though, is best not stirred in. I remove it before stirring.

So then, after a few days, the wine should be racked/sieved into an airtight container with an air-lock so the CO2 can escape. I've known people use big plastic ex-orange-juice containers with a plug of cotton-wool in the top. And I guess that's OK. As for me, I've preferred a slightly more 'professional' approach with those weird-shaped airlocks that bubble away nicely... bloop..pop... blop... boooop...oop. And with them you know when it's slowing too - which means thinking about checking the gravity (or tasting the sweetness) and a third (or fourth) racking.

The second racking should be within a week or two of the first BIG removal of the pulp. Then it can probably be left several weeks while the fermentation works itself out - using ALL the sugar and producing a good dry finish.

If you want a sweetish wine then rack again when the gravity gets to '1' or when the wine tastes the sweetness you prefer. This racking should be fairly meticulous compared with the previous two. What I mean here is that you will want to remove as much as possible of the sediment - ie, small particles of pulp that got through the first two rackings, and any dead or residual yeast. You can do this by carefully pouring off as much as possible, or using a syphon tube (like I do) without letting any of the sediment through. If (also like me) you want to squeeze every last drop, then allow the remaining sediment to stand a day in a tall container (a clear bottle or two) before pouring or siphoning off that.

We usually made 5-gallon batches using lidded beer tubs to start the wine, then those 5-gall cubic wine containers with airlocks. When fermentation is complete and you want to start drinking the wine (not that you haven't indulged in an occasional 'tasting' at earlier stages), it isn't always necessary to bottle wine... those square plastic containers collapse as they dispense, as they're designed to, so air doesn't enter and risk spoiling the wine. But when we bottled/stored the wine we always kept an 'observation sample': a clear bottle which we sometimes retained for a few years after all the rest had been consumed. See the bottom of recipe 12: upon opening TEN YEARS after making - Observation Sample PERFECTION.

That was a powerful desert style. White wines and most dry table types are best consumed within a year or two of making and I found significant improvement for all red wine after a couple of years though not beyond that - unless strong sherry types which improved notably with age. After four-or-five years table styles of less than about 13% alcohol marginally deteriorated (though never enough to preclude drinking).

Nowadays, my principle pastime being IDLER, I make only wines from fruit that would otherwise go to waste - such as from a couple of plum trees in the garden that last year provided enough to give loads away AND make ~20-galls of great wine.

So GOOD VINTING .... and Brewing (which we used to do also, but not from scratch; rather, from Malt kits).

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