Jim,

> > If you wish to stir on the fine lees to in encourage autolysis and
> > give the wine complexity can this be done after you have added
> > potassium metabisulphite and what would be a suitable regime when
> > doing the stirring?

Yes that's fine. Scroll down to "Stirring Schedules" at
http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/Surlie.htm
for some common regimes.

Tom,

> I stir the wine on it's _gross_ lees, but aside from that there's no
> difference.

Using that terminology can be confusing given that you do some serious
juice settling resulting in essentially "fine lees" (by definition) in
what would normally be regarded as "gross" or (perhaps better put as)
"bulk" lees. (This confusion arose earlier in the recent "Forgot to
Cold Settle - Advice?" thread.)

Ben