WineXpert Oops, an accident

[peterCooper]

Finally got to bottling my Pinot Grigio. Got the first dozen bottles out and
then everthing fell apart. Lost the siphon on my racking cane because I
didn't close it up properly. The air came up through the hose and cane
and disturbed the lees. I thought I could get it reset without too much
disturbance, and in my haste, clumsiness etc managed to drop the
racking cane onto the lees.

So... I have 12 decent bottles and problem. I have air in the carboy now
but I can't really bottle the rest as cloudy as it now is.

I'm thinking that what I should do is leave the remainder for 24 hours
closed up for the lees to settle again and try to bottle the rest tomorrow.
I don't think I can leave it any longer than that because of oxidation and I
have another kit waiting to get into the carboy.

Any help or advice will be gratefuly received.

 

[masta]

Best advice overall is to rack your wines into empty carboy before bottling...first you must always have an empty!


No way your wine will settle in 24 hrs so you either have to put it into a smaller carboy or pour the bottles back into the original one and let the whole batch settle. This doesn't free up the carboy for the next batch....how quickly can you get another carboy?

 

[peterCooper]

As soon as George can send me one, I guess. If I order it tomorrow it'll be
here by Wednesday.

 

[Hippie]

One of the bigtime rules of winemaking is to never bottle a wine with sediment. I understand this is a kit and you are just following the instructions. Never bottle wine that is standing over sediment.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

I always rack my wine into my empty primary and bottle from it.

 

[Waldo]

I have found that bottling from a primary works best for me too Stinkie. Mine has the spigot on it and I attach my hose and bottlingwand to the spigot and it works pretty smooth.

 

[rgecaprock]

I use the primary too, that way if I need to sweeten it a little there is plenty of adding and stirring room.


Ramona

 

[peterCooper]

Temporary solution:

1. I orderer another carboy this morning so I should have the problem
completely resolved by Wednesday or Thursday.
2. I had a discussion with some of your earlier about using a plastic 5 gallon
water bottle and the consensus was that I should't do that. As a temporary
measure, until my carboy arrives though it is a good way of keeping the O2
out of the wine. I figure a week won't hurt it and I may be able to rack it off
more of the lees also.
3. That allowed me this morning to move the Sangiovese from the primary
to the secondary before the fermentation poops out.