Frequency of racking - White Wine

[bsc_so_cal]

Been making reds for about 5 years now with good success and tried a Rose' last year that came out very nice. Trying a white this year and wonder how often I should rack the wine? Definitely want to minimize exposure time to O2 and can rack under vacuum to help with that. But still wondering what is reasonable for racking frequency? For additional detail - the wine was made from good quality zin grapes (had more than I needed for my standard red zin)- crushed and pressed on the same day and ferment went smoothly. Currently settling in a 5 gal carboy at 60 deg.

 

[balatonwine]

Racking will depend on the wine making style. If you do sur lie, then you rack less (but you also have potential for wine disorders, which I have run into doing fewer racking). If you want a fruitier white, then rack more.

Personally, for a fruity white, I will rack within a few days of crush or when about 2/3rds of the sugar in the must has been consumed, and every 4 to 6 weeks there after, till the wine falls clear, then one final racking before bulk aging and degassing during which I will not rack again for a few months before I bottle. Some say a three day, three week and three month racking but I think the three month racking for a white might be too long if you want a fruity white.

I just did a third racking of some of my white wine today.

Quite frankly, I think the O2 concern is not really that significant an issue. Especially during the period the wine is degassing and not fallen clear yet, it should push out any O2 layer pretty quickly. IMHO, if you measure and keep up your sulfite levels at each racking, you should be fine. But if you want to take additional precautions (racking using Nitrogen, or vacuum, etc) you certainly can decide to do so.

Hope this helps.

 

[bsc_so_cal]

Thanks balatonwine. All good thoughts. I will probably rack the wine on a more frequent schedule to maintain the fresher notes. It is definitely still in the outgassing stage and I have the equipment to check the SO2 (about monthly). How do you perform the degassing? Just a vigorous stir of the wine - or?

 

[winemaker81]

I concur with @balatonwin, getting whites off the gross lees sooner than later will give you a cleaner tasting result. Keeping it off the fine lees will give you a fruitier result.

Last fall I started stirring grape wines. IMO really vigorous stirring isn't required -- kits instructions say to do so as kits are designed for quick bottling. But if you're not bottling before 4 months, a light stirring at each racking will drive off the CO2. If you are racking with a vacuum system, that may address the CO2 sufficiently.

BTW, the faster the CO2 is gone, the faster the gross lees will settle.

I also agree that the O2 during racking issue is overblown. O2 exposure over time, like with a large head space, is a problem. In my experience, short term exposure during racking is not. I limit exposure, racking relatively quickly, and have no problems.