In article > ,
Mark Garwatoski > wrote:
>Thanks for the info. How important is it to top off when racking? I don't
>have any wine to top off with and it seems your just diluting it if you add
>water which can't be good. I have 6gal carboys I plan to use and purge with
>CO2 prior to any racking and I can also purge after racking and adding the
>airlock. I also thought about using marble to bring the volume up to the top
>of the carboy.

Grab a 5 gallon carboy for aging, and fill it to the neck. Bottle the
other 2-4 bottles for early consumption.

I picked up the ~$90 Mosti Mondiale (?) Cab Sauv from grape&granary.
It's all juice rather than concentrate. The early bottle we had was
wonderful. I also have the upper-end Merlot from BK waiting for its
turn in the fermenters (oddly, it's seems that it's still slightly
concentrated; I thought it would be pure juice). It came with three
packs of oak.

Also, you can just order more oak when you buy the kit.

hawk
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