Wade,
Sure thing. While Nino noted that he didn't necessarily feel that bulk aging was worth the risk of batch contamination/oxidation compared to aging in the bottle, Matteo did confirm what I've seen documented in regards to wine 'chemistry.'(I'm going to use the word chemical here loosely, so forgive me for the sake of explanation, PeterZ.)
Sincethe intent of a fining agent is to remove potential chemicals that may cause cloudiness in the wine (protein haze, fine suspended sediment) but because fining agents cannot specifically and individually remove these chemicals without affecting anything else in the wine, other potentially beneficial chemicals can be removed at the same time. Matteo noted that if you were going to bulk age some wine and there is still a bit of sediment or light residual lees on the bottom of the carboy, mix these up with a gentle stir to help contact (like in the Mosti oaking instructions). Then, he noted (I'm pretty sure this is also in the current set of instructions), add the clarifying agent a week before bottling. Then after the week is up, rack off of the sediment, add some K-Meta, add the Sorbate and bottle away.
This information is consistent with other aging notes that I have seen. In essence, the idea is that the molecules/chemicals that are floating about in the wine that could/would be stripped by the fining agents will bump into one another over time and evolve through reactions that will develop a variety of aromas /tastes in the wine - hence complexity. The concern with fining first and then bulk aging is the stripping of these base components, leaving the bulk aging as a method to avoid drinking the wine as opposed to letting it chemically develop further, loosely stated.
Hope that helps,
- Jim
