How do I know when to rack my wine to secondary ferm

[karrlot]

All of the recipes I've read give a specific time for when to rack the wine to secondary fermenter. How do you know when to rack it? Is it when the SG stops dropping?

I've got a batch of chokecherry wine in a bucket that has all of the cherries in it. I am trying to figure out when to put it into the secondary fermenter and get the wine off of the fruit.

 

[blackfin1]

Assuming your starting SG was 1.080 to 1.090 and your primary fermenter does not have an airlock, then you should rack to a carboy when your sg reaches 1.020 or less. The reason is there is less CO2 being produced to protect the wine from oxidation so a carboy with an airlock is needed.

Sal