Many wines require fining _before_ they are racked, and the operation
of fining is not always necessary. Most wines, well made, do not want
fining; this may be ascertained by drawing a little into a glass,
from a peg-hole.
One of the best finings is as follows:—Take one pound of fresh
marsh-mallow roots, washed clean, and cut into small pieces; macerate
them in two quarts of soft water, for twenty-four hours, then gently
boil the liquor down to three half pints, strain it, and when cold,
mix with it half an ounce of pipe-clay or chalk, in powder, then pour
the mucilage into the cask, and stir up the wine so as not to disturb
the lees, and leave the vent-peg out for some days after.
Or, take boiled rice, two table-spoonsful, the white of one new egg,
and half an ounce of burnt alum, in powder. Mix with a pint or more
of the wine, then pour the mucilage into the cask, and stir the wine
with a stout stick, but not to agitate the lees.
Or, dissolve, in a gentle heat, half an ounce of isinglass in a pint
or more of the wine, then mix with it half an ounce of chalk, in
powder; when the two are well incorporated, pour it into the cask,
and stir the wine so as not to disturb the lees.
As soon as wines are clear and bright, after being fined down, they
ought to be racked into a sweet and clean cask, the cask filled up
and bunged tight.