Racking (or Soutriage) is a filtering/fining process in which the wine is moved from one barrel to another (or into a tank). Once a barrel is emptied of visibly clear wine, the barrel is turned upside down to empty the lees (deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate) and then rinsed with hot water.
Reasons for racking include: clarification, stabilization of wine, and removes the lees which can cause "off-flavors".
Everyone 3-4 months we rack the all of the wine from a specific vintage. Over each vintage will end up being rack several times before it is bottled. In the pictures below (Courtesy of Sy Bean) we are preforming the first racking of the 2013 Vintage.
No comments:
Post a Comment