Sweet Lees
March 10th, 2008 by Annette
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.
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- 2 Comments
April 24, 2008 at 1:13 am, Iris said:
We did the racking one month later than you, on a clear day with high pressure and healthy north-wind. As all our wines are reds, it gave a beautiful color range – you can look at the photos here:
http://lisson.over-blog.com/article-18907064.html
Have a good springtime
Iris
April 24, 2008 at 10:34 am, Annette said:
Hi Iris Great to hear from you. Beautiful colors! I hope you have a good springtime as well.