Decanting BEFORE bottling ?

[Obelix]

Hi guys,

the other day I watched this French movie, and they discussed how they need to "decant wine before bottling it", and this confused me no end.


Been doing this for 4 years now, and this is new to me .

I need to bottle two kegs (100L) soon, so maybe this is a step I was missing?

Anyone can shed some light on this?

thanks

 

[winemaker81]

I typically rack a wine before bottling, in case there is a bit of dust in the bottom of the carboy. I hold the racking cane off the bottom and rack down to leave maybe a bottle's worth, then bottle the racked wine. The remainder, muddy or not, gets bottled as well. If I've done a good job of clearing the wine I have 25 clear bottles. If not, I have 24 clear bottles and 1 that's not for sharing.

 

[Obelix]

Thanks Winemaker 81,
This wine has been in the kegs for 18 months now, after settling for 6 months in a big container. So it has been raked after 3 days (grosse lees,) then after 6 months again.
Any sediment is well settled at the bottom, and hard by now.
If "decanting" in this case means a separation from sediments I will be OK. Can't imagine it would need any aeration before the bottling.

 

[Cynewulf]

Hi guys,

the other day I watched this French movie, and they discussed how they need to "decant wine before bottling it", and this confused me no end.

It might be a translation issue. What was the film and do you know what the original line was in French?

 

[Obelix]

no idea. Could be

 

[Cynewulf]

no idea. Could be

What was the film?

 

[Obelix]

Yes "Back to Burgundy".
The usual dramas around personal life, interwoven with a survival of a family winery.
The writer tried to impress the audience with his knowledge of the process , but only managed to confuse me

 

[winemaker81]

The writer tried to impress the audience with his knowledge of the process , but only managed to confuse me

Best to ignore it; movies are notoriously bad at explaining technique!

And no, I cannot think of ANY reason to aerate the wine before bottling. Not unless you're interested in oxidation in the bottle ...

 

[winemanden]

Decanting is not just aerating, it is also decanting off any deposits. Different but the same.Take your pick!

 

[Cynewulf]

Yes "Back to Burgundy".
The usual dramas around personal life, interwoven with a survival of a family winery.
The writer tried to impress the audience with his knowledge of the process , but only managed to confuse me

That’s on my list to see but I haven’t yet. If I ever get around to it I’ll try to verify the translation as I suspect they may have been talking about a final racking before bottling. But as @winemaker81 said, I wouldn’t base my process on a dramatic film.

 

[Obelix]

I guess raking in this context makes sense. Thanks guys.