yeast question

Because yeast dies, which and forms the sediment at the bottom of the vessel and if the wine left to long on the sediment then the wine smells and tastes of compost.

On the other hand, the sediment from a fresh fermenting primary works great. I often do this to make "second" wines with fruit pulp and sediment.

I was not aware that it actually =died=; I thought it just went into dormancy, awaiting the correct conditions to bring it back to "life".

It forms a composed of decomposing matter, hence the terrible smell and taste when the wine is left to long on the lees.

If the object is to save money by not purchasing another packet of yeast then a better method would be to only use a quarter of a packet of yeast in a starter solution of sugar in a small glass bottle with a cotton wool stopper, 24 hours before you start off your wine.

That sounds like lees from a red fermentation. Typically, there is a lot of vegetal material present in red wine lees, and it can easily go "reductive" on you, producing hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) and worse.

OTOH, if the juice of white grapes has been carefully clarified to exclude fruit solids and other stuff from the field prior to fermentation, the lees will be nearly pure yeast. The decomposition products from dead yeast can greatly improve the flavor and mouth feel of wine aged in its presence. The French anthropomorphise the effect, claiming that the yeast lees "feed the wine". My experience tells me that long sur lie contact is very good on some varietals - notably Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Gewurtztraminer.

Tom S

It does not matter if its white, red or pink.

Why not leave the wine on the lees or sediment for a year and improve your end wine no end.

If yeast entered a dormant state then all you would need is a small drop of old wine to begin the fermentation of a new wine.

I don't believe either of the about is recommended.

The yeast is in a CATCH 22 situation, the more sugar there is, the more alcohol produced, the higher the alcohol level the less the yeast survive. Different yeast strains have different alcohol tolerances.

Next you make white wine leave a small amount of wine on the sediment and watch it darken then smell and taste it, you will know.

"reductive"

Well, there has to be some dormant yeast, otherwise why do we have to go to all the trouble of preventing refermentation of wines with residual sugar in the bottle?

Pp

That because the alcohol as not been reached a high enough level to kill off the yeast, I found the hard way that refermentation mostly happens when I bottle the wine during the winter months. When the warmer weather comes during the summer the yeast reactivates cause further fermentation so to prevent this happening I don't bottle the wine until it as passed through all four seasons at least once (red wine at least twice). This was good advice giving to me by a nation wine tasting judge.

The best wine take time to perfect, rushing a wine means adding more chemical or filtering which removes some of the taste.