Racking Of Fine Lees

We met yesterday to discuss our plans to rack off the Fine Lees and get all the wine into the cooler. 

 

We need 2 or 3 racking sessions to get all the wine racked.  We went through schedules and tried to choose a couple days that might work. How does May 20th (Thursday/tomorrow) and Monday May 31 (Memorial day) work for people?  I would guess the racking Thursday would be in the afternoon.

 

We have 2 empty barrels that had the Cab Reserve that we want to fill with wine, if possible. Below is a list of how much wine we have in our barrels and carboys. Here is an option for combining wines to more into wood. I like getting the cabernet into Ray's 30G barrel because it's newer.

 

1. Free up Lee's 15G barrel by taking the 15G of ID Cab plus 15G of ID Cab in carboys and putting that into Ray's 30G barrel.

 

2. Combine 15G of Syrah and Petite Sirah and put it into Lee's 15G barrel (as a pre-blend for our Cousin's blend). I recommend 7.5G of each Syrah and Petite Sirah so we have a 50/50 blend. This leaves enough syrah and petite sirah for topping and makes blending math easier later.

 

This gets rid of five 5G carboys and leaves my 26G barrel empty.  We don't have enough of any other wine to combine to fill it, so we'll sulfur it and keep the rest in carboys.  I think we'll have enough space in the back part of the wall-side cooler to put away all the carboys.

 

If you have other suggestions, please reply-all.

 

Troy

 

We want a non-airitive racking now (ie: minimim splashing). When racking we need to add 15ppm of Meta--best to add after racking out and before racking back in so it gets mixed well. The barrels just need a fresh water rinse/drain unless there is an off smell or taste. We'll have to check the empty barrels before filling them. I think they got a meta rinse after bottling but I'm not sure.
    - 1/4 tsp meta = 15ppm in 15 gal
    - 1/3 tsp meta = 15ppm in 20 gal
    - 1/2 tsp meta = 15ppm in 30 gal

 

Order of Racking (initial, can change. Could reverse what is racked on which day)

May 20th:

1. Merlot

2. Malbec

3. WA Cab

4. Porto

 

Memorial Day

1. ID Cab barrels and carboys (including filling Ray's 30G barrel)

2. Syrah

3. Petite Sirah

4. Combining leftover Syrah and Petite Sirah into a 50/50 blend in Lee's 15G barrel

 

 

Carboy Size	Wine	TTL		Barrel	Size	Wine	TTL		Combined Wine	TTL Gal
5	CabFranc	5		Troy A	26	Empty	0		CabFranc	5
1	ID Cab			Ray F	30	Empty	0		ID Cab	58
5	ID Cab			Ray F	22	ID Cab			Malbec	23
5	ID Cab			Lee F	15	ID Cab	37		Merlot	41
5	ID Cab			Bob A	15	Malbec	15		P Sirah	33
5	ID Cab	21		Mike H	30	Merlot	30		Porto	18
5	Malbec			Bob F	20	P Sirah	20		Syrah	40
3	Malbec	8		Troy H	15	Porto	15		WA Cab	35
5	Merlot			Mike H	30	Syrah	30
5	Merlot			Lee F	30	WA Cab	30
1	Merlot	11
1	P Sirah
1	P Sirah
5	P Sirah
5	P Sirah
1	P Sirah	13
3	Porto	3
5	Syrah
5	Syrah	10
5	WA Cab	5