How long is your first ferment of Noirette & Marquette before you rack it for the first time?

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When I am fermenting Marquette or for any other variety I will watch the gravity reading to see if it is finished. The rate is extremely temperature dependent as if fermenting at 30C I can be dry in 2.5 days or if fermenting at 7C it can take eight weeks.

Room temp/20C should take about a week.
 
I've been fermenting at about 18C. What type of gravity reading should I be looking for?

My kit intructions said to ferment for 2-3 months and then rack. That's what's confusing me. The violent phase finished @ 2 weeks ago. It's been in the carboys since 12-28.
 
The ferment is finished if the SG is 1.000 ish, and the SG hasn’t changed for 3 days. If you did this wine from grapes, and have gross lees, skins, pulp, etc. then it is time to rack. If it was fermented from juice, you probably have fine lees. If so it’s ok to leave a little while longer, but given the time it’s been fermenting I suspect it’s done.
 
Humm, for what purpose?
- if I had skins I could argue that I was going to extract more tannin or pigment. There are some processes which will run for a month or if carbonic laceration is done the skins can be macerated prior to alcohol production. ,,, The most I have let reds sit on the skins is probably ten days, normal about a week.
- On my part I do lots of fruit where air exposure is bad/ creates acetaldehyde, so I pull the primary at 1.010 to 1.030 when it is actively producing CO2.
- flavor, if my goal was lots of tannin I could extend primary, With petite pearl which has the best tannins in my vineyard I try to make a pleasing young red and press at about a week.

What is your gravity? If it is 0.995 +/- the yeast is done and chemical oxidation will happen.
 
The ferment is finished if the SG is 1.000 ish, and the SG hasn’t changed for 3 days. If you did this wine from grapes, and have gross lees, skins, pulp, etc. then it is time to rack. If it was fermented from juice, you probably have fine lees. If so it’s ok to leave a little while longer, but given the time it’s been fermenting I suspect it’s done.
 
All my ferments this year are from juice so no skins or pulp. I’m going to check my SG tomorrow. I also started fermenting Cayuga White @ 3 weeks ago. Do the whites finish as quickly?

How do you decide how many times to rack a wine before you let it sit for a few months?

Thank you for the information.
 
Humm, for what purpose?
- if I had skins I could argue that I was going to extract more tannin or pigment. There are some processes which will run for a month or if carbonic laceration is done the skins can be macerated prior to alcohol production. ,,, The most I have let reds sit on the skins is probably ten days, normal about a week.
- On my part I do lots of fruit where air exposure is bad/ creates acetaldehyde, so I pull the primary at 1.010 to 1.030 when it is actively producing CO2.
- flavor, if my goal was lots of tannin I could extend primary, With petite pearl which has the best tannins in my vineyard I try to make a pleasing young red and press at about a week.

What is your gravity? If it is 0.995 +/- the yeast is done and chemical oxidation will happen.
I m going to measure the SG tomorrow. Then I’ll rack it.
All my ferments this year are from juice so no skins or pulp. I also started fermenting Cayuga White @ 3 weeks ago. Do the whites finish as quickly?

How do you decide how many times to rack a wine before you let it sit for a few months?

Thank you for the information.
 
I try to rack three times.1) off of the primary 2) about a month out or when gross lees look like they are largely down 3) when I am ready to bottle. The variable is how well is it clearing, if it looks like it needs help for me to get the carboy back in use I will try fining.
Next you could ask about meta. Last year was 50 ppm always. Listening to ideas in the vinters club I am going to try high SO2, going into the eight to ten month hold.

All my ferments are run against gravity numbers. ,,, FYI ,,, A process that the vinters club suggested on whites was to ferment to 1/3 loss of sugar and then splash rack to a carboy with airlock, ,,, plus add Fermaid K. The logic is that healthy yeast use oxygen as well as nitrogen to build cell walls therefore this process will minimize reductive flavor (meaty/ hair perm/ bitter long notes) and retain fruity aromatics. I have one season of this and will see how it does in club contest/ stair fair. I have never done a first place on whites with one shot DAP feeding. (it helps having someone in the club critique the flavor)
 

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