Hi,
I'm making a Wine Expert Rioja kit and I have a question. According to
the directions, Step 3 calls for stabilising the wine by adding
metabisulhite, sorbate and then stirring. I completed this 9 days ago
and last night I performed Step 4--Racking and Clarification. After the
stabilising step there was a good two inches of sediment on the bottom
of the carboy--I racked the wine off of this layer as I was under the
impression it was gross lees. The
instructions didn't say either way, so I made the decision to go ahead
and leave the sediment behind. Was that the correct thing to do? It's
too late now, but in case that was not the best move I'd like to avoid
the same mistake in the future.

Thanks for your help.

Exactly correct. No problem. You did top up the wine when you put it back
in carboy didn't you?

Ray

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hi,
> I'm making a Wine Expert Rioja kit and I have a question. According to
> the directions, Step 3 calls for stabilising the wine by adding
> metabisulhite, sorbate and then stirring. I completed this 9 days ago
> and last night I performed Step 4--Racking and Clarification. After the
> stabilising step there was a good two inches of sediment on the bottom
> of the carboy--I racked the wine off of this layer as I was under the
> impression it was gross lees. The
> instructions didn't say either way, so I made the decision to go ahead
> and leave the sediment behind. Was that the correct thing to do? It's
> too late now, but in case that was not the best move I'd like to avoid
> the same mistake in the future.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>

Yes, I topped up the wine.

Thanks for the reply.

John

You don't actually say when you added the fining agents (chitosan or
isinglass, depending on kit). If you added them as part of Step 3,
then that was correct (and according to the instructions).

My understanding of Step4 is that you are supposed to rack of the
sediment, so you did good.

Steve

On 5 Jan 2006 07:45:55 -0800, wrote:

>Hi,
>I'm making a Wine Expert Rioja kit and I have a question. According to
>the directions, Step 3 calls for stabilising the wine by adding
>metabisulhite, sorbate and then stirring. I completed this 9 days ago
>and last night I performed Step 4--Racking and Clarification. After the
>stabilising step there was a good two inches of sediment on the bottom
>of the carboy--I racked the wine off of this layer as I was under the
>impression it was gross lees. The
>instructions didn't say either way, so I made the decision to go ahead
>and leave the sediment behind. Was that the correct thing to do? It's
>too late now, but in case that was not the best move I'd like to avoid
>the same mistake in the future.
>
>Thanks for your help.

Steve,
My kit called for chitosan and it was added during step 3.

Thanks,
John

That's right John. I keep forgetting that there are other fining
agents than isinglass.

Steve

On 6 Jan 2006 06:10:42 -0800, wrote:

>Steve,
>My kit called for chitosan and it was added during step 3.
>
>Thanks,
>John