Today, I got allot of wine work done, starting with the degassing and racking of the Chardonnay & Chianti that passed through MLF (malolactic fermentation). I measured the Chardonnay first and it registered a specific gravity of 0.996, perfect. The Chianti came in at 0.992 SG. So, I was able to add the provided Potassium Metabisulphites, the Potassium Sorbate, and the Isinglass to each of the wines and used my degassing wand (with the cordless) to whip the wine into a froth. I’ve learned to rack about half of the wine from each carboy into a temporary carboy for the degassing to allow room for expansion and explosion.
Regarding the degassing. I received a response from my latest YouTube video about over-degassing. One person suggests that over-whipping can introduce too much oxygen into the wine and cause it to oxidize. I’ve not yet had a problem with this, but would be interested in hearing what others thought on the matter.
After degassing, I re-racked all of the wine into their respective carboys where they will sit and settle (fining) over the course of the next month or so until they are bottled. Instructions tell you that you can bottle within a couple weeks. I find that it is much clearer after a month. So… I wait.