It was time to rack Kathy’s Muscat. She had it settling in two three-gallon carboys and the sediment was piling up. She decided to rack the wine before our New Zealand wineries trip. The wine was already beginning to clear a little and the gook on the bottom was notieable. Realizing that we wouldn’t get a full six gallons, it was decided to rack the two three-gallon carboys into a five-gallon carboy and place any extray wine in a half-gallon jug. We have a lovely glass half-gallon jug from Garrett’s Winery. The opening is large enough for an airlock.
Rather than racking wine all the way to the surface of the sediment, Kathy satyed about a half-inch or more away. We later transferred the remaining wine, down to the sediment level, into a bottle and quickly noticed the overwelming yeast aroma. That was eventually discarded.
A taste during the process indicated some floral notes on the aroma and a hint of orange on the taste. The wine was very dry, so I experimented adding some sugar to see what would happen. The most noticeable affect of the sugar was a softening of the wine. It became velvety. At the time, the sugar didn’t have an effect on the aroma or taste other than being a bit sweeter. We are going to have to learn how to gage how much sugar to add to the wine before bottling. For now, we are leaving it alone and letting it age, settle and perhaps clear up some more.
Cheers,
Terry
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