Dear All

I am vinifiying 300 litres of Pinot Noir that I fined about two weeks ago.

I noticed last year while making some Chardonnay, that the longer I left the
wine between when I fined it and when I racked it, the better it was.

Is there any benefit in leaving a long period before racking this.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Marc

Marc,
Leaving it longer on the lees is something the French call Sur Lie - check
out Ben Rotter's excellent article on it -
http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/Surlie.htm

Alastair

On 2004-03-16 10:57:16 -0500, "Marc CAMERON" >
said:

> Dear All
>
> I am vinifiying 300 litres of Pinot Noir that I fined about two weeks
ago.
>
> I noticed last year while making some Chardonnay, that the longer I left
the
> wine between when I fined it and when I racked it, the better it was.
>
> Is there any benefit in leaving a long period before racking this.
>
> Thanks in advance for any comments.
>
> Marc
>
>
>
>


The Mad Kiwi Winemaker
(Remove nospam for e-mail)

"Alastair Thomson" > wrote in
message news:2004031616105050073%madkiwiwinemaker@visualma giciannospamcom...
> I am vinifiying 300 litres of Pinot Noir that I fined about two weeks
ago.
>
> I noticed last year while making some Chardonnay, that the longer I left
the
> wine between when I fined it and when I racked it, the better it was.
>
> Is there any benefit in leaving a long period before racking this.

Yes. It'll be clearer and get some bulk age in the process.

> Leaving it longer on the lees is something the French call Sur Lie

Leaving the wine on the fining lees is _not_ sur lie aging. Sur lie wines
are aged on the dead yeast from the primary fermentation.

Tom S