Here's a dilemma that I faced yesterday. We did our first press a couple of days ago. I let it sit for about a day and a half and then started the first racking, to get the wine off the gross lees. I was going into a 3 gallon carboy and started with roughly 3.75 of pressed juice. I figured I would get pretty close to the 3 gallons, maybe just shy, but enough to call it good in the carboy. Well with the carboy about 90% full the wine was not so clear going in. I am assuming I was starting to bring in some of the lees I didn't want, but there seemed to be to much space (air) in the carboy. With this dilemma at hand I decided to continue racking to eliminate the space (air) hoping this will be the lesser of two evils. Since we are doing a malolactic ferm, we can't add SO2 for protection. So the question is, which way should I have gone? No lees and more space (air) or more lees and less air? Thoughts? Thanks.
Peace
TimK
Pic just cause we had a blast
Peace
TimK
Pic just cause we had a blast