My wines are in secondary with headspace about 2 inches from where the
neck turns into the "shoulder". There's still bubbles rising from the
top and the airlock probably bubbles every 30 secs. or so, leaving a
nice blanket of CO2 on the surface. Here's my questions:

1. When activity stops, should I rack each carboy, sulphite and top
up OR should I top up without racking or sulphiting and let sit for a
while? If so, how long?

2. Would you do different things with different wines? I have
4 carbs. Cab. Franc.
2 carbs. Red Zin
3 carbs. Seyval Blanc
3 carbs. Geisenheim (a Riesling cousin)

None of the above are from kits. Thanks for any suggestions you ma
have.

Mark L.
Buffalo-Niagara

ALWAYS use metabisulfite solution in your airlocks and change it once
a month. Keep bungs spotlessly clean too.

Keep all these wines as they are for at least 4 months before any
racking. The CO2 blanket is good enough if the temperature is
constant. You don't lose much if you quickly change the airlock for a
clean one.

Rack, then add the recommended amount of metabisulfite to each and
beat well and let sit another month. (want 50ppm SO2 here)

I would get 2.5 FULL carboys out of each white type. In fact, I would
blend the two part carboys to have a table white. I would rack once
more after a month and bottle (unless fining is really required).

Look at the clarity of the wine in a glass when you rack, and this
will tell you how long to hold and whether you would fine (isinglass
is my choice).

The reds might want another 2-3 months, but those carboys would need
to be filled as full as possible (you would hold these as full as
possible, even to using a half size carboy). Then you can see if they
need fining as well as one more racking before going into the bottle.
Again, I would choose isinglass unless I saw some good reason to do
otherwise. Sparkolloid works OK after isinglass if it is needed.

The less you handle good wine, the better. This information came to
me from a winemaker with years of experience and I have found it to be
the best way to think about winemaking. I learned to rack carefully
and eliminate the need for fining unless there is a lot of oak chips,
or some other reason to fine.

Irene
(Mark L.) wrote in message . com...
My wines are in secondary with headspace about 2 inches from where the
neck turns into the "shoulder". There's still bubbles rising from the
top and the airlock probably bubbles every 30 secs. or so, leaving a
nice blanket of CO2 on the surface. Here's my questions:

1. When activity stops, should I rack each carboy, sulphite and top
up OR should I top up without racking or sulphiting and let sit for a
while? If so, how long?

2. Would you do different things with different wines? I have
4 carbs. Cab. Franc.
2 carbs. Red Zin
3 carbs. Seyval Blanc
3 carbs. Geisenheim (a Riesling cousin)

None of the above are from kits. Thanks for any suggestions you ma
have.

Mark L.
Buffalo-Niagara