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
— Darren and Laura Apr 24 #
— Juan Carlos Apr 29 #
— Randy Apr 29 #
— Harry Hebert May 4 #
— Mogens (Denmark) Aug 20 #
— Mogens (Denmark) Aug 21 #
— newbie wine maker Mar 25 #