Rackings

Was hoping to get some advice regarding “handling” pinot or anything similar (Grenache?).

Father and I have 4 full barrels of pinot from 3 different vineyards (Santa Rita Hills and Edna Valley) and am looking to bottle two possibly at the 11 month mark since they are drinking great now, this is all home wine. So far I have racked nothing. All 4 pinots were pressed and went dirty into the barrel (on lees) and have remained there since. I’m curious if I should give it a good rack and return (and clean out barrel) now? Or, rack at time of bottling into tank, allow to settle (final SO2 additions), and then bottle? I’ll admit, I have sort of just gotten lazy and distracted with my wedding coming up in two weeks and planning our honeymoon. I’ve at least been consistently topping and measuring SO2 levels monthly, just haven’t thought about rackings yet. Any thoughts as to why I may not want to rack until bottling or why I may want to rack now to prepare for bottling? It might help to describe a little about both barrels I plan to bottle soon. One is tannic as hell (40% whole cluster inclusion, martini clone) but I sort of dig the mouthfeel and the awesome aromatics. The other barrel is higher pH (3.87) softer ready to drink now pinot, 777 clone (no whole cluster inclusion since the pH was so ridiculously high at time of harvest. How would u handle these wines?

thanks
Brandon

First of all do you have another barrel or small tank you can sparge and to rack them to? Do you have enough toping wine to replace the volume lost to the less (up to 5 gal/barrel)?

If no to both of those questions I would not move the wine and bottle directly from barrel. If your worried about reduction or any other off flavors or aromas taste the lees. Anything funky will show up there first. Unless you have lots of dissolved co2 or sediment in the wine I would not rack.

I do 0-1 racking durring barrel aging and then rack to the bottling tank. I measure turbidity, dissolved co2, and taste lees (what little is left after 24-48 hour settling post pressing) to determine if racking is necessary. If all is well I would just leave it alone, well except for topping and so2 like your already doing.

If you are happy with the way the wines smell & taste, why mess with a pre-bottling racking?

I thought the rules were don’t rack Pinot unless it needs it, rack Syrah even you think there is any chance that it needs it.

-Al

Joe, ya I had huge yields this year… 75-80 gallons per half ton… plenty of topping wine in case I rack… but looks like everybody is in agreement to leave it alone if all looks good… thanks everybody for clearing that up… sounds good. less work for me :slight_smile: