I have a cellar craft Pinot noir made a few months ago on 5/14 that I plan to bottle around 8/14. I racked to carboy after about 5 days and about 2-3 weeks after that I degassed and clarified before topping up. So it has been on the fine lees since day 5 and I am wondering if I can leave it until 8/14 or if I need to rack again because I have about an inch of fine lees? Is 3 months on fine lees a problem for kit wine?
Cellar Craft Rack or not?
- Thread starter jsbeckton
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It's best to bottle clear wine in a clean carboy. I recommend you go ahead and rack it off the lees now so that when you bottle you don't have to worry about disturbing the lees and having them go into the bottles. Plus you will want to dose with kmeta and stir it in before you bottle. Can't stir with lees on the bottom at this point.
I plan to rack to a bottling bucket so this would just be an extra racking. Seems it may do more harm than good.
@DoctorCAD, I have an eclipse cab that is finishing primary so I need the carboy. Don't want to buy another 6 gallon carboy given that I already have four other 6.5s for beer. Will there really be a difference in aging for another year in bottles vs the carboy?
@DoctorCAD, I have an eclipse cab that is finishing primary so I need the carboy. Don't want to buy another 6 gallon carboy given that I already have four other 6.5s for beer. Will there really be a difference in aging for another year in bottles vs the carboy?
Without a doubt, the real question is will you be able to taste the difference? I open one bottle at a year and a bottle every month or so to keep track of the changes. My wife, on the other hand, drinks it as fast as I can make it. She just likes wine, not necessarily high end wines.
I dropped it to 27F for a week so I am thinking it's pretty clear and am confident I can rack to bottling bucket without any disturbance. My concern was more about potential off flavors. Any worries about a kit wine sitting on fine lees for 3 months?
