2. (Red.) British white cape, sound rough cider and mulberry wine, equal parts; well mixed and fined down.
British champagne. 1. From stoned raisins, 7 lbs.; loaf sugar, 21 lbs.; water, 9 galls.;. crystallised tartaric acid, 1 oz.; cream of tartar, 1⁄2 oz.; Narbonne honey, 1 lb.; sweet yeast, 1⁄4 pint; ferment, skimming frequently, and, when the fermentation is nearly over, add, of coarsely powdered orris root, 1 dr.; eau de fleurs d’oranges, 1⁄4 pint; and lemon juice, 1 pint; in 3 months fine it down with isinglass, 1⁄4 oz.; in 1 month more, if not sparkling, again fine it down, and in another fortnight bottle it, observing to put a piece of
double-refined white sugar, the size of a pea, into each bottle; lastly, wire down the corks, and cover them with tin-foil, after the manner of champagne.
2. As the preceding, but substituting 32 lbs. of double-refined sugar for the sugar and raisins therein ordered, with the addition of 3 galls. of rich pale-coloured brandy.
3. From amber hairy champagne gooseberries, English grape juice, or the stalks of garden rhubarb, and lump sugar; with a little sweetbriar, orris, or orange-flower water, to impart a slight bouquet. The last forms what is known as ‘patent’ or ‘Bath champagne.’
4. (Pink.) To either of the preceding add red currant juice, q. s. to colour; or 1 oz. of coarsely powdered cochineal to each 10 or 12 galls. at the time of racking.
Obs. It is notorious that two bottles of wine out of every three sold for ‘genuine champagne’ in England is of British manufacture. “We have ourselves seen sparkling gooseberry, rhubarb, and white sugar wines, sold for imported champagne, at 7s. 6d. per bottle, and the fraud has passed undetected, even by habitual wine drinkers. (Cooley.)
British claret. 1. Rich old cider or perry and port wine, equal parts.
2. To each gall. of the last add of cream of tartar (genuine), 3 dr., with the juice of 1 lemon. Sometimes 1⁄4 pint of French brandy is also added.
Obs. If these mixtures are well fined down, and not bottled for at least a month or 5 weeks, they closely resemble good ‘Bordeaux.’ A mixture of 4 parts of raisin wine, with 1 part each of raspberry and barberry or damson wine, also forms, when so treated, an excellent factitious ‘claret.’