Once again, I’m pleased to say that this little blog has been chosen as a finalist in the Winery Blog category of the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards. Steady, here’s the sales pitch: if you like what you’ve read here; if you have learned or laughed or even just shaken your head in utter disbelief because of this blog; if you can admit to your friends and colleagues that you do read this blog, then would you vote for it? And while you’re at it, would you ask those same friends and colleagues to vote, too??:) Take a look at the other deserving finalists in this category (many of which are my own faves), and in the other categories as well. There’s great stuff happening in the wine blog world — this is your chance to check it out!! Voting starts March 21 & ends March 28.  Click here to vote.

I’m trying to find out how the term “racking” originated. The French term for racking is “soutirage“, but in the sources I’ve looked at, I’ve gotten no indication of where or how this term came about. “The Rack”, of course, was a medieval torture device (thus, “racking my brain” translates as a form of torture for one’s brain in retrieving information from it — very applicable to me, I’m afraid), but racking wine isn’t tortuous. If anyone know the answer to this question, please let me know…..

Anyway, here is racking, VISUALIZED. I think this a somewhat opaque term to someone who actually hasn’t done it, so when I was racking some tank-fermented sauvignon blanc the other days from it’s primary lees, I remembered to take my camera along. So the first photo was taken when I had mostly emptied the tank. Two things to take note of here: the tartrates lining mostly the back of the tank, and the color of the wine. Potassium bitartrate can be formed in a liquid of alcohol, water, potassium and tartaric acid, the main acid in grapes, grape juice and wine. It tends to form and fall out of solution in it’s solid, crystalline form usually when the solution is chilled. General winery practice when making white wine is to chill the wine at pretty low temperatures (as low or slightly lower, even, than 32 degrees F) to make the tartrates “drop out” of solution, thus preventing any cloudiness, flakes, or crystalline chunks from forming in the bottle. This tank has four squared sides, and only the back side is refrigerated, so the tartrates formed there mostly as it is the coldest area and also because the texture of the stainless steel encourages crystal formation. These tartrates are actually very hard and I will need to steam this tank quite a bit to “melt” the tartrates and clean the tank. Also, potassium bitartrate is what “cream of tartar” is made from — a tidbit for all of you baking fans out there. Now, regarding the color — it looks pretty brown, but that’s mostly because we are also seeing the color of the lees at the bottom of the tank. The wine is actually a nice, true light yellow — no browning and a very fresh, pretty color.

The next photo shows the primary lees left on the bottom of the tank after I have taken the wine from the top. This stuff is goopy and thick. It looks like silly putty and acts like mud.

The last picture shows the wine that I have blended with the barrel-fermented portion in a second tank. See the difference in color?

 

I’m racking 2007 Sauvignon Blanc from barrels now. In these photos, you can see the clean wine that I’m racking from the lees, and then the lees being poured from the barrel into a bucket. 50% of this wine was fermented in old french oak barrels and the other half was fermented in tank. I can take and post all the photos I want of this process, but it’s hard to convey the aromas that fill the winery at this time. This is one of the most hedonistic times, at least for me.

The lees are the dregs, the “bottom of the barrel”, and largely viewed as waste but in a winery they can be useful and wonderful. Lees is composed of grape solids, yeast bodies, nutrients, bacteria that have settled out of the wine during aging, but it is also a way to “diagnose” or ascertain the condition of the wine itself. Sweet, clean, ethereally aromatic lees is the sign of healthy grapes, a good fermentation, a clean wine.

I do this process myself because I want to make sure we get a very clean wine from this racking as it will not be filtered. So, all of the barrels are “racked in place”, ie, the barrels are not moved or disturbed until racking. That’s a rule for all of the wines we produce here, but it is particularly critical with the Sauvignon Blanc as it is packaged in a clear bottle!! I will probably fine it with a little bentonite to make sure it settles out as much as possible before bottling.