# Help degassing first wine from grapes!



## unclevarda (May 2, 2014)

Hey everyone! First post. I've make a bunch of wine from kits and from juice but this is my first year from grapes.

I pressed them back in september and have only racked once since then preferring to keep it sur-lees out of laziness. There is a fair amount of sediment.

The wine is in the garage and fermented in the 20's during september before dropping off gradually into 0-5c for a few months (I live in vancouver canada) and is now warming up. with temperatures in the high teens.

I bottled 2 out of the 7 batches, but the last one has TONS of carbonation, and I'm trying to not repeat that mistake as I plan on cellaring half of the bottles for a couple of years. So far my degassing consists of vacuum splash racking into a clean carboy and then vacuum bottling the wine. This didn't remove all the C02 (probably due to the cold temperature at the time?)

Should I get the drill mounted stir wand and go at each batch now mixing up the lees and trying to degas before I do my usual splash racking (maybe add some isinglass at the same time? The wine is quite clear from months at cold temperatures.) I would prefer to not have to rack.

Advise?

Thanks a lot guys!


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## sour_grapes (May 2, 2014)

If you could warm it up to 24 C, any of the methods you suggest will work a WHOLE lot better.


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## Turock (May 3, 2014)

Why are you degassing a wine that needs bulk aging.


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## bkisel (May 3, 2014)

Welcome to the forum!

From how your posts reads I'm thinking you're way more advanced than I. However I think what I would do is another vacuum splash rack or two with the temp. of the wine raised to more easily release CO2. I'd maybe add some k-meta to protect from O2 due to the additional vacuum rackings. But then under a vacuum racking maybe there's no concern for O2 issues?


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## Runningwolf (May 4, 2014)

unclevarda said:


> Hey everyone! First post. I've make a bunch of wine from kits and from juice but this is my first year from grapes.
> 
> I pressed them back in september and have only racked once since then preferring to keep it sur-lees out of laziness. There is a fair amount of sediment.
> 
> ...



I don't understand, you attempted to make wine starting with fresh grapes but you say you're too lazy to rack off the sediment. You didn't mention what kind of grapes these were. I can only assume you haven't added any meta to the carboys either for protection.
I have do doubt the wine is clear but I only wonder what it tastes like. I can only suggest racking off your sediment, taste the wine, and run your tests on it. Again depending on what you pressed you probably shouldn't even be bottling yet.
Additionally if you crushed and pressed the grapes it makes me wonder why you still have "tons of carbonation" as you say.


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## altavino (May 4, 2014)

its pretty young to be bottleing it , thats why its still full of gas . yours might have even gone into mlf on its own and thats why its bubbly.

whats the rush?

mine only finished mlf in february and went into barrel in march.


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## grapeman (May 4, 2014)

I agree that it should be racked off the lees. You only stir up the lees with some types of clearing agents. Since you aren't using it, you don't want to keep the lees. Like others say, you also should sulfite it unless it is actively in mlf.


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## unclevarda (May 6, 2014)

Some more info:

There are 5 different wines, shiraz, zinfindel, pinot noir, cab sauv, merlot.

I crushed, fermented on the skins 5 days, pressed, fermented for a couple of weeks, and then racked. Since then I haven't racked again. The first racking removed all the seeds and random grape bits, but I haven't transferred it off the yeast cake. I did make meta additions. My understanding is that people aren't that concerned anymore about yeast autolysis or off-flavor from leaving wine on the yeast?

Maybe I should wait until it gets warmer out and then splash rack and bottle. Or is it imperative that I splash rack now and then bottle in a couple months?

Thanks guys!


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## Turock (May 7, 2014)

Don't splash rack it--let it bulk age at least 1 year. Rack as needed.


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