I have three questions about winemaking:

1) I have a book of wine recipies, which for some of the fruit wine suggests
adding a wineglass of brandy to the secondary "if desired". Why would I
desired this? What will it do to the wine?

2) I have read that when metabisulphide tablets are dissolved in water, the
solution can be kept for later use. Can it be kept indefinitely, or does the
solution get weaker over time?

3) Another winemaking book I have says that one should not give up on a wine
too quickly, and that once the author threw out a batch, only to discover a
few years later that a bottle that hadn't been thrown out tasted wonderful.
How many years should I keep a wine I don't like before I give up on it
completely?

My first-ever batch of plum wine is delicious, and I haven't even bottled it
yet.

Geoff,
North Loburn,
New Zealand

--
Burn the land and boil the sea,
You can't take the sky from me.