They must at all times be kept in a cool cellar, if not, they will ferment. If wines are kept in a warm cellar, an acetous fermentation will soon commence, and the result consequently will be vinegar. The more a wine frets and ferments, the more it parts with its strength and goodness: when wines are found to work improperly in the cellar, the vent-peg must be taken out for a week or two.
If any wine ferments, after being perfected, draw off a quart and boil it, and pour it hot into the cask, add a pint or a quart of brandy, and bung up a day or two after.
Or, draw off the wine, and fumigate the cask, with one ounce of flour of brimstone, and half an ounce of cinnamon, in powder. Mix the two together, and tie them up in a rag. Turn the bung-hole of the cask downwards, place the rag under the bung-hole, and set fire to it, so that the gas ascends into the cask. As soon as it is burnt out, fill up the cask with wine, and bung it up tight.
240. To sweeten a foul Cask.
Set fire to a pound or more of broken charcoal, put it into the cask and immediately fill up the cask with boiling water. After this, roll the cask once or twice a day for a week; then pour out the charcoal and water, wash out the cask with clean cold water, and expose it to the external air for some days.
241. To improve Poor Wines.
Poor wines may be improved by being racked off, and returned into the cask again; and then putting into the wine about a pound of jar or box raisins, bruised, and a quart of brandy.
Or, put to the wine two pounds of honey, and a pint or two of brandy. The honey and brandy to be first mixed together.
Or, draw off three or four quarts of such wine, and fill the cask up with strong wine.
242. To improve Wine when lowering or decaying.