Sediment discussion

[stormbringer]

Being new to home winemaking, I've noticed some discussion on this forum about the lees or sedimentwhere I need some advise.

As I understand in the winemaking process, after fermentation, stabilising, and clearing, the wine is racked into another carboy to aid in clairification.
Question: Is it during this procedure that the wine can be filtered?











Another topic I need advise on is on how many times the wine can be racked between carboys to aid in clarification.
Question: Can the wine in the above described scenerio be racked and/or filtered an additional couple of times to improve the claritywithout affecting the quality of the wine? What I'm asking involves letting the wine sit in the carboy a week or so at a time between rackings to allow any remaining sediment to settle.


And finally,what to do in the event, after bottling, one discovers sediment in a couple of bottles of the finished product. Most bottles are clear but towards the bottom of the bottling bucket I experienced a couple of uh-ohs.
Question: any way to filter-out any sediment in thewine prior to drinking?


Thanking all in advance for any advice provided.

 

[Wade E]

Being
new to home winemaking, I've noticed some discussion on this forum
about the lees or sedimentwhere I need some advise.</font>
</font>As
I understand in the winemaking process, after fermentation,
stabilising, and clearing, the wine is racked into another carboy to
aid in clairification. Question: Is it during this procedure that the wine can be filtered?












Another topic I need advise on is on how many times the wine can
be racked between carboys to aid in clarification.
Question: Can the wine in the above described scenerio be racked
and/or filtered an additional couple of times to improve the
claritywithout affecting the quality of the wine? What I'm asking
involves letting the wine sit in the carboy a week or so at a time
between rackings to allow any remaining sediment to settle.


And finally,what to do in the event, after bottling, one
discovers sediment in a couple of bottles of the finished product. Most
bottles are clear but towards the bottom of the bottling bucket I
experienced a couple of uh-ohs.
Question: any way to filter-out any sediment in thewine prior to drinking?


Thanking all in advance for any advice provided.

</font>

1) Filterering is done just prior to bottling .

2) The time to rack is when you have around 3/4" of sediment on the bottom of your carboy.

3) I dont think filtering more than once is a great idea but will have
to wait for someone more experienced with filtering on that one. I dont
really think you should have to. If you do have to its because your
rushing it and not letting it bulk age enough.

4) About filtering the bottles. If its that bad, you could empty them back into a bucket and filter it and rebottle.

 

[scotty]

I had my sangeovese sitting for a few months and it was still dropping lees.
Im a newbie but im learning to think in months or 6 month periods of time not weeks.
I have never used a filter and maybe that would change things.. You will get more precise ansers from the others

 

[Steve]

When you filter the wine it should already be clear. You are using the filter to polish the wine and give it the sparkle that commercial wine has. You should only need to filter one time, you can do this just prior to bottling or you can filter and let it age, up to you.


As for racking, you can rack it as many times as required to get all the sediment out, generally you would bait 6 weeks to 3 months between each. If you are doing it weekly you are exposing the wine to excess oxygen and put it at risk of being oxidized.

 

[Slingshot]

I'm on my first wine. A WE barolo kit. I have already racked 8 days after stabilising as per the kit instructions. That was two weeks ago. Tonight I racked again into another carboy. It looked very clear already. Now that the work is done for the evening I opened a bottle of store bought Pinot Noir and noticed my wine is just as clearas the commercial wine.

 

[geocorn]

You should not rack a wine more than 4 times. The additional rackings will add too much oxygen to the wine. I would never rack a kit wine more than 3 times. It is not necessary. If you still have a cloudy wine after 3 rackings, you probably have a problem that needs to be addressed or you are not giving the wine enough time between rackings to clear.


Filtering is normally one of the last things you do before bottling and, as previously pointed out, never filter a cloudy wine. Filtering is done to polish the wine and does not substitute for allowing the wine to clear. If you filter a cloudy wine, you will only use up a lot of filter pads!