23 April 2008
[Epi 23] TintoTV - double racking: malbec and amarone!
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Thanks again for coming back for another episode of TintoTV. In this episode we work with both of our bigger and grape-based batches, the Winexpert Malbec and the Mosti Mondiale Amarone. Previously, with the malbec, you saw us begin degassing and clarifying the wine; since then, the wine has been settling in the same six gallon carboy. With the Amarone, in the previous episode, we walked you along its primary fermentation.
Now, the malbec looks pretty and it’s time to taste and rack it for a second time. As you notice in the episode, we actually rack from a 6 gallon carboy to a 5 gallon carboy. We do this because the amount of space between the wine and the airlock/bung is now crucial to keep minimal and we lose a lot of volume due to the lees that will be left behind. As an alternative, you can top off with a similar wine to make up the lost volume. Although we lose some wine our way, we like to keep our juice as pure as possible :-)
For the Amarone, the raisins are plump and the specific gravity has fallen – it’s time to rack out of the primary bucket and into the carboy for the calmer secondary fermentation. The only extra cool thing here is how we had to wring the juice out of the raisins. Next time, I might consider cutting open the raisins so that we don’t have to squeeze as much juice out and so that the yeast has better access to the inside of the raisins.
Stay tuned now… NEXT, you will see our FIRST BOTTLING of the malbec which is truly an educational experience for our first time! As always, please leave your comments and questions below, we love to hear from you.
Cheers!
-Nico and Steph
Another fun video. Glad to see others have the same overflow problems. Haha, at least you’re proactive and have the towel already in place. That malbec has a great color.
Looking forward to your bottling episode. Have label ideas yet?
— Darren and Laura Apr 24 #
YAY, the oak chips are back!
— Juan Carlos Apr 29 #
You make messes like me, also looking forward to the bottling episode.
— Randy Apr 29 #
All in all, this went as a very polished operation. Thanks for sharing it with us.
— Harry Hebert May 4 #
Did you taste the Amarone yet?
— Mogens (Denmark) Aug 20 #