Racking

It's fine. I rack mine after one month then leave it up to 3 months between rackings. Any more than 3 months and you risk the yeast rotting and imparting flavours. You'll be racking a lot if you do it every time you see a bit of sediment. But I've heard people say "if in doubt rack". There's little harm in it.

rotting

Yes there is. Each racking exposes the wine to a large amount of oxygen, so particularly with whites, I wouldn't rack more than necessary.

Pp

The yeast smell was perfectly normal and just indicated that it had freshly finished fermenting. The clean leas will not hurt anything for a period up to a few months. I agree with PP. Each racking exposes your wine to air and each racking will loose wine. Two good reasons to limit racking. Don't over do handling of your wine.

You indicated that you racked at 0.99 That is an odd indicator. I rack as you did, between 1.010 and 1.030 and then I leave it alone until about 1 month after it has finished fermenting. This give the wine time to drop a lot of it's sediment but not enough time for the sediment to cause major problems. Then I rack it and give it at least 3 months before the next racking, even if there is sediment. After all, that sediment has been suspended in the wine for months already. If it was going to rot, it would already have done so.

Ray

It's not "rotting"; it's going through autolysis. Autolysis products in wine impart a roundness and improved palate feel - albeit perhaps at the expense of some of the fruit. Not a bad trade, really.

You'll be racking a lot if you do it every time

As others have posted, there is risk in the extra exposure to air - particularly in white wines. It doesn't pay to be too busy with the wine once it has finished fermantation and become stable. Give it some time.

Tom S

From Jack Keller's website, who seems to be regarded quite highly in this newsgroup:

It is perfectly okay to leave the wine on the lees for three months. Beyond that and the wine enters a danger zone caused by dead yeast cells breaking down -- rotting. While this can cause off-flavors and odors if allowed to go on too long, the bigger danger is the formation of hydrogen-sulfide gas, which smells like rotten eggs and can be the death of the wine.

I think it makes a huge difference if you are talking about "dirty" lees or "clean" lees.