Hannah Woolley’s 1670 Recipe for ‘Damson Wine’

“Take four Gallons of Water, and put to every Gallon of Water four Pounds of Malago Raisins, and half a Peck of Damsons : Put the Raisins and Damsons into a Vessel without a head, cover the Vessel and let them steep six days, stirring them twice every days then let them stand as long without stirring, then draw the Wine out of the Vessel and colour it with the infused juice of Damsons sweetned with sugar, till it be like Claret Wine, then put it into a Wine Vessel for a fortnight, and then bottle it up.”

Hannah Woolley, The Queene-like Closet, or Rich Cabinet Stored with All Manner of Rare Receipts (1670)

I have to confess: I have next to no experience of producing home-made fruit wines, so my interpretation of today’s seventeenth century recipe is likely to be shaky at best. But hey, I’ll give it a go.

Damsons, though. I’m on much more solid ground with damsons. And it’s damson season at the moment, so sourcing some of those shouldn’t be too horrendously difficult. Malago raisins are, of course, ‘Pasas de Málaga’, or raisins from the province of Málaga in southern Spain, also the place of origin of Malaga wine.

The method is simple-sounding enough: put four gallons of water, sixteen pounds of raisins, and four pecks – according to various sources a peck is about two gallons, so that’s eight gallons in total – of damsons into a large vessel – I was originally thinking this might be some sort of earthenware crock or pail, but surely you’d need a 16/18¹Vessel sizes changed over time, and also depending on the product that was intended to be stored in them, so it’s all a bit confusing… gallon kilderkin to contain 12 gallons of water and damsons, plus all those raisins? – and cover it, presumably with a cloth? But possibly a wooden lid instead?

After steeping for six days with twice-per-day stirring, and then another 6 days without, the wine needs to be drawn from the vessel, perhaps into a 8/9 gallon firkin this time, and then coloured with sweetened damson juice – more damsons needed! – until it looks like claret (red) wine. After that it needs to be transferred to a “wine vessel” – at this point your guess is as good as mine – for a fortnight, before bottling.

The recipe offers no clue as to how long the stuff keeps, but back in the seventeenth century that sort of thing would probably have been reasonably common knowledge. Either that or they would have drunk it until it turned to vinegar in the bottle? Likewise, there’s no clue as to how strong the resulting brew is likely to be, in terms of a.b.v., but I suppose finding that sort of thing out for yourself is half the fun of home wine-making.

One thing I might suggest is scaling the recipe down somewhat, what with kilderkins and firkins being harder to come by these days. Perhaps half a gallon (about 4 pints) of water, two pounds of raisins, and half a gallon of damsons? And maybe use a modern fermenter for the final stage? That might be a little safer.

How about you? Do you like the sound of seventeenth century damson wine? Have you tried making your own, successfully or otherwise? Do you have a more modern method for making fruit wines that you can recommend? Please do let me know the answers to any or all of the above, via the comments.

Footnotes

• 1
  Vessel sizes changed over time, and also depending on the product that was intended to be stored in them, so it’s all a bit confusing… ↩︎