Racking

[bitterbrew]

Hi, I have just started wine-making this year with a friend and have been wondering about the racking process.
Basically, is it entirely necessary? I was away for a month or so and when I got back our first wine (gooseberry) was fully fermented. With great care we bottled it making sure no sediment got in and after adding a touch of elderflower cordial we ended up with a very pleasant wine.
We did the same with a strawberry but this was pretty revolting if truth be told. Was this because we left it with a lot of sediment sitting at the bottom? Can this impair the flavour?
Currently we have one demijohn of blackberry and two of elderberry bubbling away merrily but don't want to ruin them by leaving them with sediment at the bottom.

We have found that the use of a syphon and a steady hand is more than sufficient to get a crystal clear wine straight to bottle from demijohn without any rackings between.

Cheers

[Crickleymal]

A little from column A and a little from column B. You can get away without racking as you proved with your first wine. But if you leave a wine or a beer sitting on lees then you can get an off flavour although it's fairly rare in my experience. Racking does increase your chance of getting a clear wine though.

[bitterbrew]

Can you define 'off flavour' in any more detail? I have often read of it, and if my strawberry was poor because of this then we might modify our methodology. If not then it sounds like we can get away with it.

[clanpowell]

We were wondering about the point of racking as well. Never bothered and never had a problem.
Belgium style beers (proper ones NOT stellar) have sediment in them. In fact in one bar in Brussels I was given a mini glass to have the last sediment filled mouthfulls of Orval in. It was considered a delicacy (spelling?) OK they take years of tweaking to get it just right but surely we all aspire to their level of craftsmanship!!

[MKG]

In home winemaking terms, racking just means getting the wine out of the demijohn and leaving the deposit behind - so syphoning or pouring IS racking. If you're going to mature the wine for any appreciable length of time, then rackings at, say, three-month intervals for the first year is said to improve the wine. Just how that would work, chemically, is another argument - but it does appear to help in clearing an otherwise persistently hazy wine.

The most important point is getting rid of the yeast and any leftover bits of fruit at the bottom of the demijohn. If you leave the bits of fruit there, they will eventually impart an off-taste to the wine. If you leave the yeast there, it will eventually autolyse (drop to bits) and impart a Marmite taste to your wine. Having said that, keeping a wine for a month or so with a yeast deposit at the bottom certainly doesn't affect it - but I think I'd not leave it any longer than that.

Mike

@ bitterbrew ... Strawberry wine should be drop dead gorgeous, but if you allow too much air in at any time (especially when racking), you're going to lose the colour and the taste. It's a wine well worth making, but one you must be oh so gentle with. Perversely, it's easier to make from canned fruit than fresh. The other big fault, in my opinion, is fermenting it to complete dryness, when it tastes bitter and yuck. Either aim for a sweetish wine or sweeten it after it's stabilised.

[bitterbrew]

Many thanks! I think the problem with the strawberry is exactly that, it is completely dry. Added to which we made a bit of a meal of straining it and that might have had an adverse effect.

Cheers

[frozenthunderbolt]

Just how that would work, chemically, is another argument - but it does appear to help in clearing an otherwise persistently hazy wine.

Depending on the wine, and the conditions of storage, some tannins and acids (particularly tartaric) will precipitate out and can be left behind. Additional, a very small amount of oxygen (akin to the breathing of a natural wooden cask) would be helpful in the development of certain flavor compounds, primarily esters.