Racking v.s. Bulk Aging

Barry, I don't know enough to answer your sulfite question, but I would like to comment on what you said about "racking every month". For me, I try to rack according to the recipe. For example, when making strawberry wine, the recipe calls for racking every 6 weeks. For pumpkin, the recipe I got from Jack's site calls for racking the wine maybe once or twice, and then letting it sit for 3 months without racking. If I don't have a recipe to follow, I tend to rack when there's a lot of lees at the bottom of the jug or if the wine doesn't clear. Since I usually bulk age about 7 - 9 months, this comes out to about 3-4 rackings before bottling. I do also add 1 crushed campden tablet every other racking to keep the sulfite levels up. Good-luck. Darlene