Part 4 - Wine Making: The Sediments And Racking

Now that your wine is well on its way through the second fermentation, you?ll have the benefit of being able to sit back and wait. This step in the process is no doubt going to be a long one and you?ll be tempted to taste and make changes, but remember that the final flavor hasn?t been decided yet. At this point, your wine
is in a secondary vessel and is fermenting. After several weeks, though, its time for you to give it some help.

You?ll need to siphon the wine off of the sediments that will regularly deposit in the wine. Every month or so during the few months, you?ll need to pay close attention to your wine?s color. By removing the lees or the sediment from the bottom of the wine, you are allowing for the impurities to come out and for nothing but the good stuff to be left inside.

To do this, you?ll want to use a siphon. Remember that you don?t want the air getting into the wine at this point. You should also use a clean and sanitary vessel for the movement. Once you have gotten the wine into the secondary container that it will sit in again, you?ll need to reattach the fermentation trap to the bottle?s neck. But, that?s not all.

Although it's tempting not to pay enough attention, you need to. Every thirty days, come back and look at the wine again. If there are deposits that are fresh at the bottle?s bottom, you?ll need to go through this step yet again. You may need to do this several times; you may only need to do this twice. The length of time that it takes will also determine how often you need to remove these sediments. This is a step that shouldn?t be avoided, though!