Wines will diminish, therefore the cask must be kept filled up with
some of the same wine, or some other that is as good or better.
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.