The Second Racking of Your Wine

Time for your second racking?

By November we should have racked our wines off of the gross lee's. Having done this, and after giving gravity the time to do it's thing, we are ready for our second racking. Fine sediment should be visible at the bottom of our glass storage vessels or accumulated in the bottom of our barrels. At this point it is time for our second racking.

Be certain to clean and sanitize all hoses, tubing, racking canes, and everything that will come into direct contact with your wine.

Take care not to overexpose our wine to excessive amounts of splashing during this process.  Be certain that any and all tubing used is placed in the very bottom of the receiving vessel so as to allow the vessel to fill from the bottom up. This will limit the amount of oxygen that you will take up during transfer.

Make sure you replenish SO2 (sulfite levels) to at least 20ppm. Or 1/8th of a teaspoon in 5 gallons.

Immediately clean and sanitize the vacant vessel. Doing this now will be much easier than waiting to do it later. As sediments dry and harden they can get to be impossible to remove.

When our second racking is complete, we should have wine that is clear and ready for the next step in our process which is long term stabilization. If your wine is not clear at this point further intervention with a clarifying agent may become necessary.