How should I transfuse/extort/etc???

[GiannisF_96]

Hello everybody,

Hopefully everyone is wrapping up with a successful harvesting/winemaking season.

In my previous post I asked you guys how should I proceed with the vineyard that my deceased father left behind. The answers really helped me out, and I am truly grateful.

The harvest gave almost a ton of grapes. Most of them I gave to a distillery that will make tsipouro out of them (a Greek kind of moonshine) but I kept a hundred kilos in an inox barrel to make wine out of them. Around 40 days pasted, I tested and measured,and I now have my first wine.

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I now have a small problem on my hands. (Most of) the local winemakers say I have to "de-mud" my wine, meaning that I have to transfer the wine to another container, leaving behind the sediment that has been formed. However, I got as many opinions about how to proceed as the number of people I asked. And another issue is that I don't have another (clean/ready) container available.

My question is this: Can I use a thin tube to slowly siphon the sediment without mixing it with the wine? I was thinking maybe that would be the less disturbing choice for the wine...

Frankly speaking, I was even told to seal the inox barrel as it is, without even removing the sediment, and wait until December when I can bottle the wine. If that works, I would consider it as a choice.

Due to my job and my university studies, I only have 2 days before I leave my hometown... So keep in mind I only have a few hours available to solve this situation.

Thanks everyone for helping out, I deeply appreciate it. Hope to hear from you all soon.

John

 

[sour_grapes]

I am no expert, but I believe you will find that you cannot really siphon the "mud" (also known as "lees") from the bottom of your barrel. In my opinion, it will be too thick to suck up compared to the wine.

If you had 100 kilos of grapes, you likely have 60-70 liters of wine to deal with. My suggestion would be to find 5 or 6 plastic buckets (preferably made for contact with food), each of which is ~20 liters. Transfer the wine from your inox barrel to the buckets, clean the barrel, then transfer the wine back to the barrel.

 

[franc1969]

Hello everybody,

Hopefully everyone is wrapping up with a successful harvesting/winemaking season.

In my previous post I asked you guys how should I proceed with the vineyard that my deceased father left behind. The answers really helped me out, and I am truly grateful.

The harvest gave almost a ton of grapes. Most of them I gave to a distillery that will make tsipouro out of them (a Greek kind of moonshine) but I kept a hundred kilos in an inox barrel to make wine out of them. Around 40 days pasted, I tested and measured,and I now have my first wine.

View attachment 80415​

I now have a small problem on my hands. (Most of) the local winemakers say I have to "de-mud" my wine, meaning that I have to transfer the wine to another container, leaving behind the sediment that has been formed. However, I got as many opinions about how to proceed as the number of people I asked. And another issue is that I don't have another (clean/ready) container available.

My question is this: Can I use a thin tube to slowly siphon the sediment without mixing it with the wine? I was thinking maybe that would be the less disturbing choice for the wine...

Frankly speaking, I was even told to seal the inox barrel as it is, without even removing the sediment, and wait until December when I can bottle the wine. If that works, I would consider it as a choice.

Due to my job and my university studies, I only have 2 days before I leave my hometown... So keep in mind I only have a few hours available to solve this situation.

Thanks everyone for helping out, I deeply appreciate it. Hope to hear from you all soon.

John

Do you have this in barrel without much headspace/ airspace? Then transfer out, clean, transfer back as sourgrapes says. Add potassium metabisulfite, top off, put under airlock until you can bottle.
If not- that is you don't have this in as small a container as possible- do you have access to wine bags or multi-liter jugs or flexible-squashable plastic jugs? Transfer it into those and wait.
Basically you want bulk storage with very little air reaching the wine- how do you do that before you leave? Even if you have to seal up jugs while carbon dioxide is still in the wine, better than oxidizing in the meantime.