My wines are in secondary with headspace about 2 inches from where the neck turns into the "shoulder". There's still bubbles rising from the top and the airlock probably bubbles every 30 secs. or so, leaving a nice blanket of CO2 on the surface. Here's my questions:
When activity stops, should I rack each carboy, sulphite and top up OR should I top up without racking or sulphiting and let sit for a while? If so, how long?
Would you do different things with different wines? I have 4 carbs. Cab. Franc. 2 carbs. Red Zin 3 carbs. Seyval Blanc 3 carbs. Geisenheim (a Riesling cousin)
None of the above are from kits. Thanks for any suggestions you ma have.
ALWAYS use metabisulfite solution in your airlocks and change it once a month. Keep bungs spotlessly clean too.
Keep all these wines as they are for at least 4 months before any racking. The CO2 blanket is good enough if the temperature is constant. You don't lose much if you quickly change the airlock for a clean one.
Rack, then add the recommended amount of metabisulfite to each and beat well and let sit another month. (want 50ppm SO2 here)
I would get 2.5 FULL carboys out of each white type. In fact, I would blend the two part carboys to have a table white. I would rack once more after a month and bottle (unless fining is really required).
Look at the clarity of the wine in a glass when you rack, and this will tell you how long to hold and whether you would fine (isinglass is my choice).
The reds might want another 2-3 months, but those carboys would need to be filled as full as possible (you would hold these as full as possible, even to using a half size carboy). Then you can see if they need fining as well as one more racking before going into the bottle. Again, I would choose isinglass unless I saw some good reason to do otherwise. Sparkolloid works OK after isinglass if it is needed.
The less you handle good wine, the better. This information came to me from a winemaker with years of experience and I have found it to be the best way to think about winemaking. I learned to rack carefully and eliminate the need for fining unless there is a lot of oak chips, or some other reason to fine.
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