I want to do an ML on my wine after alcoholic fermentation is over. My
plan is to press the juice out of the skins add So2 to about 50ppm
wait 1 month then rack, add oak chips and ML culture and let it sit
over the summer. I have read that I need some fine lees for the ML to
occur. My question is would there be enough fine lees or should I rack
sooner or does it even matter?

On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 15:31:27 GMT, "Ray Calvert"
> wrote:

>Take what I say as my opinion as it may not match the suggestions of some of
>those above.
>
> First -- There is no such word as "immediate" in wine making. Drop it from
>your vocabulary.
>
>What you are describing is certainly gross leas. You will not get 2 inches
>of fine leas. When you press your fruit some of the meat will pulverize and
>come through as very tiny particles the stay in suspension as long as
>fermentation is keeping things stirred up. But you do not have to get the
>wine off of it immediately. It has been in your wine ever since you started
>the fermentation and a few weeks more will not hurt anything. If 2 inches
>have dropped out in a day or so, then there is a lot more that will drop
>out. If you rack in every day or every few days as more drops out you will
>loose a lot of wine. Every time you rack you will loose 1/2 inch or so as
>you need to stop above the sediment.
>
>Leave it alone for 2 or 3 weeks so most of it will drop out. Then get rid
>of most of the "gross" sediment with one racking and you can let the fine
>leas that drop out after that set in the wine for another 2 or 3 months.
>Then when you do your second racking you will be rid of virtually all the
>sediment and you can start worrying about clearing the wine of particulates
>that are not settling out that cause cloudiness if there is a problem.
>
>It is true that if you leave the gross leas for several months you can have
>a problem with H2S. But a few weeks or up to a month is not going to cause
>a problem. You don't want to end up doing 4 or 5 or more racking, each of
>which looses wine, when you do not have to.
>
>Ray
>
>"Lee" > wrote in message
roups.com...
>> After making wine for 5 years, I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm not
>> sure I know the difference between gross and fine lees.
>>
>> I have a fresh batch of red, which I pressed near the end of its
>> primary fermentation. It's now in carboys with a SG showing that the
>> primary is completely done. Each carboy has about 2 inches of sediment
>> (after settling for 1 day). This is all dead yeast cells, etc...no
>> recognizeable grape parts other than a few seeds.
>>
>> My inclination is to rack off of this stuff immediately, but I've read
>> that leaving some fine lees will add complexity and flavor. So, should
>> I just rack and leave a little bit of this sediment?
>>
>> For that matter, what is your routine racking schedule for reds?
>>
>> Lee
>>
>