The purpose of racking at 1.010 is to get it under airlock and remove it off of the gross lees, which include a layer of yeast that is autolyzing (dying). As you get towards your terminal (final) gravity, less and less CO2 is being produced. This CO2 creates a protective blanket (CO2 is heavier than O2) that helps keep the wine from oxidizing and helps keep other nasties out. If that CO2 gets depleted you have a large surface area that can absorb O2, which is not good. A topped up carboy has less surface area, especially if you fill it up to within an inch or so of the airlock.
Craig I was with your post till you got to the last paragraph about topping up to within 1 inch of the bung....If this is done on first racking to get the mix away from the lees......What happens when you come to degassing.....surely there isn't any room and to transfer the mix to another degassing vessel would introduce more oxygen.
I adopt a far simpler option...I ferment in a 30l fermenting carboy, the type with the 4 inch plastic screw on lid with the hole in the middle for the bung and airlock. I start the brew off and after 24 hrs, I agitate the mix to introduce air for the lazy yeast cells to kick in. It then goes under a bung for between 3 to 10 days when I check daily to see what the sg is By drawing off a little from the tap on the bottom of my vessel. When it gets to 1010 or a little less, it gets racked into another similar vessel and air locked till the fermentation reaches 995 or less, but I tend to use my tongue to test if it tastes right. I very rarely let any mix ferment out completely as I don't like bone dry wine.
Once I have what I think is my perfect mix, taste and nose, in goes the stabiliser and out comes the drill. On the hour every hour she gets a good whipping till the little medicine bottle fizz test shows very little fizz but I never let it go to an absolute flat mix (I will explain why later) Once its been finned and left to settle, the mix goes through 2 big coffee filters in a funnel to get rid of the big bits (about 10 to 20 microns) the mix is then put through my trusty old boots .5 micron filter.
A tip on these filters....when the filter runs slow, stop the action and remove the pad very carefully, place it on a flat chopping board, it will stick quite well and run it under the tap with warm water and scrape a large flat carving knife over the top. This will remove the particles that are blocking the filter and will reduce the overall filter capacity of the pad to around .3 microns. Put it back in with 2 coffee filter papers cut to the exact size as the pad and clamp it all together and away you go.
Once polished and ready to bottle, there will still be a little gas still in the wine and its dead easy to get rid of. Just place the finished wine in a bottle or even a demijohn and use a £5 air extractor pump which can be bought on e bay. The ones people us to take the air out of a bottle of wine which is open. This little pump will draw the bubbles to the top and away and you can see it happening very quickly. After there are no more bubbles coming out, cork it and lay it down.
Bobs your uncle. Job done. I don't believe in leaving wine on lees for any periods and neither do \I think its necessary to leave co2 in the mix for any oeriod of time to escape by cold chilling. My philosophy is, once the yeast has done its job, get rid of it and oncve the sg has reached its final figure, clear the wine of all bad stuff and get it in a bottle with as little gas as possible and let it mature with no negatives in the mix.
A lot on here will say you need patience to make good wine, I disagree, you need to do it right and follow the instructions. A bottle that has gone from start to finish and clear will mature quicker and better than anything else.
My brews are anything from the cheaper end stuff to cantina up to wine expert and they are all in the bottle and laid down within 3 to 4 weeks of starting and I am never disappointed, plus I can tweak and mix as I want to achieve a blend which suits my moods.
Blending is a great way to get what you want. I just brewed a cheap 30 bottle Belvino forest fruit kit and when it was done I mixed in a full gallon of robust merlot. The end result is a wine with a great nose, a great deep red glow, a blast of fruit but the underlying taste is woody which comes from the merlot. 2 wines that don't taste that good alone but together, they are the best summer quaffing brew for a hot sunny day outside with the Barbie and a good steak.
By the way....ABV is measurement of the wine designed for people that need wine, not like it. Wine is brewed for taste, not to fall over on. Ive never checked my abv under brewing by the og and sg figures, I always use a little vinometer and my brews are always between 11.5 to 13.5, so I get a buzz. If you need stronger wine, drink another glass, simples. ABV is so over rated.
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