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James[_8_]

wrote:

> I am making port and I have french cubes in the 5 gallon carboy
> according to the instructions. We put the port in Oct and we have
> racked it once. I have three questions:
> 1) should I rack again - how important is that to do with Port?
> 2) if I rack I will have more head space. Should I top off with another
> port or not worry so much because of the alcohol content?
> 3) As for the french cubes, I was planning on leaving them in there for
> a year, but I am wondering if they will need that long before maximum
> extraction.
>
> thanks
> marc
>
Oak flavour extracts from cubes very quickly. A month or 2 should be
sufficient.

Have you fortified this wine yet? If so then do not worry about the
ullage. Port can tolerate this fine.

If it is well settled do not worry about racking, unless there is a
stack of lees there. These could start to stink. If so then rack it again.

Keep the SO2 level around 150 ppm total sulphur dioxide.

James.