What I do is press the wine of the skins and let it sit in my 23 liter
secondary fermenter for 3 days then rack it into a clean 23 liter
container with airlock. I then add the malolactic bacteria culture
(MBR31) and Optimalo leaving it to ferment in a warm room for a month.
I am assuming the first layer of sediment is gross lees and the second
layer is fine lees and you want the ML to occur on the fine lees. My
question:
Is the second racking superfluous?

Jim wrote:
What I do is press the wine of the skins and let it sit in my 23 liter
secondary fermenter for 3 days then rack it into a clean 23 liter
container with airlock. I then add the malolactic bacteria culture
(MBR31) and Optimalo leaving it to ferment in a warm room for a month.
I am assuming the first layer of sediment is gross lees and the second
layer is fine lees and you want the ML to occur on the fine lees. My
question:
Is the second racking superfluous?

I assume the first racking is taking place at pressing, and you're
then waiting 3 days before racking a second time.

If, at the second racking, you have no vegetal matter, precipitated
colloidal matter or fining particulates in your lees then I would say
yes (it is superfluous).

Ben

Jim wrote in message . ..
What I do is press the wine of the skins and let it sit in my 23 liter
secondary fermenter for 3 days then rack it into a clean 23 liter
container with airlock. I then add the malolactic bacteria culture
(MBR31) and Optimalo leaving it to ferment in a warm room for a month.
I am assuming the first layer of sediment is gross lees and the second
layer is fine lees and you want the ML to occur on the fine lees. My
question:
Is the second racking superfluous?

Jim
I follow exactly the same timeline as you. I do not consider the
draining and pressing of grape must as racking. The heavy grape pulp
that settles in 3-4 days is considered the gross lees, it will become
reductive (rot) if left and is the first racking. The fine lees that
settle are what you want the little ML bugs to grow and feed in. You
technique is super Zinman

Thank you very much for confiming my procedure Zinman. Have you every
stirred your wine on the fine lees after ML. ? I have always felt that
removing the wine from the lees was desirable but perhaps leaving it
on, adding some SO2 and stirring once a week for a couple of months
followed by stirring once a month for 6-8 months mite add a lot of
complexity. What do you think?


On 5 Nov 2003 23:40:15 -0800, (zinman) wrote:

Jim wrote in message . ..
What I do is press the wine of the skins and let it sit in my 23 liter
secondary fermenter for 3 days then rack it into a clean 23 liter
container with airlock. I then add the malolactic bacteria culture
(MBR31) and Optimalo leaving it to ferment in a warm room for a month.
I am assuming the first layer of sediment is gross lees and the second
layer is fine lees and you want the ML to occur on the fine lees. My
question:
Is the second racking superfluous?

Jim
I follow exactly the same timeline as you. I do not consider the
draining and pressing of grape must as racking. The heavy grape pulp
that settles in 3-4 days is considered the gross lees, it will become
reductive (rot) if left and is the first racking. The fine lees that
settle are what you want the little ML bugs to grow and feed in. You
technique is super Zinman

Jim wrote:
stirred your wine on the fine lees after ML. ? I have always felt that
removing the wine from the lees was desirable but perhaps leaving it
on, adding some SO2 and stirring once a week for a couple of months
followed by stirring once a month for 6-8 months mite add a lot of
complexity. What do you think?

It certainly will. Just keep stirring, and keep an eye out for
reductive odours developing.

Ben