What I figured out during this racking is that I could get a better “whip”, or more agitation while degassing if I kept the degassing wand toward the top of the wine in the carboy.  Intuition told me to submerge the wand as far into the bottle to stir up what was on the bottom.  However, it did not agitate the juice on the bottom nearly as much as when I kept it toward the top.  Who knew?

I reattached the airlock and moved the Riesling into the cellar, where it will settle for the next month or so before bottling.  Tastes great by the way.  Looking forward to drinking the first LaClair Riesling.

Here is some video I took and the tip about keeping the degassing wand toward the surface:

The wine I bottle yesterday was more full-bodied.  One of the mistakes that I had been making before today was topping off the carboys as they sat during clearing.  That had an effect of watering down the wine too much.  Sure, I wanted to get a full 30 bottles…but really, I was getting 29 bottles stretched into 30 bottles.  The other thing is that I have been more careful to leave behind more of the sediment in the carboys at racking, reducing the amount of wine that I have to bottle, but keeping a much more refined wine.  Makes sense.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to stay with #8 corks with the hand-corker that I have.  Though I can get a #9 cork into the bottle with the hand-corker, it is much more work, and I’m not sure it is worth it. 

So this batch of Pinot Noir has an alcohol percentage of 13.3% alcohol by volume.  Perfect.  As I bottled, of course, I tatsted the wine and smelled it.  It has a wonderfully smooth taste, with a clean finish.  After a couple months of aging, this wine will definitely be at the top of my favorites list.

The white zin is a nice, semi-sweet red wine that has a nice aroma, even in this early state.  The total alcohol for this wine will end up around 14 percent, which is just right.   Dubbed “Marcia’s Favorite”, this wine will not last long, since it is on the sweeter side and is what the neighborhood seems to enjoy more. 

I’ll get some labels made up and get them on the rack.  Would like to have them sit for a couple months before dipping into them.  BTW – I added only 3 campden tablets at bottling this time, compared to the usual 6.  My thinking is that the sulfites are giving the wife a bit of a headache when she drinks the wine.  And, I certainly don’t want that. 

The sediment on the bottom was a nice thick, gooey mash of dead yeast and grape lees.  I fit an airlock to the carboy and set aside for some further fermentation.  I will take another reading in around 2 weeks when the fermentation should be complete.

In preparation for bottling, I cleaned and sanitized 30 bottles, added metabisulphite and sorbate, and then added the dissolved sugar.  Interestingly, when I added the dissolved sugar (melted in about a cup of water), the sugar re-crystalized in the carboy and took some vigorous stirring to get it  dissolved again.  That’s the first time I’ve come across that phenomenon.  Perhaps the juice was too cool after sitting in the cellar for the past few winter months.

I was able to cork 30 bottles of this nice sweet juice.  With an alcohol percentage at around 13%, this should age to be some very pleasant wine.

Using the degassing wand with my cordless drill, I whipped both wines into a grand froth and added the potassium sorbate and the potassium metabisulphite.   Then, I added the isinglass that comes with the kit, and right away you can see how the gelatin attaches to the sediment and starts to precipitate to the bottom of the carboy.

I’ve noticed that after degassing wines, they tend to be more full, at least in volume.  Not sure why that is…but, it seems to make more wine.  I actually had some of the wine left over in the secondary container I used to whip it.

Now, the wines will sit for a few more weeks until they are ready to be bottled.

I learned a new technique today with the degassing wand.  I decided to remove about 1/4 of the wine into a second carboy, creating room for the wine to foam.  Then, I inserted the degassing wand into the wine and kept the tip toward the surface of the juice.  By doing this, the wand whipped the juice into an amazing foam.  But, what I found was that the spinning juice at the surface created a whirlpool effect, which actually stirred up the entire carboy better than when the wand was submerged further into the juice.  Sort of counter-intuitive.  But…it works.

So, then I added the super-rich, very sweet grape juice to the currently dry wine to sweeten it up and give it some color.  I could smell how sticky sweet the juice was that I added to the wine.  I am excited to give this wine a try.  It will sit for about a month now before it gets bottled.

Measured the Apple Cider Wine gravity today to find it at 0.990, perfect dryness.  It appears that there is still some malolactic fermentation taking place, but certainly, the wine is ready for clearing.  I racked the apple wine off the sediment into a new clean carboy so it can start fining and aging.  I was amazed at how much of the lees already settled out of this must.  Amazing.  It was a thick yellow mush of apple waste.  And it smelled…like junk.  I was especially amazed since I had already racked off the lees once already.

I took a quick taste of the wine and found it very tarte, which makes sense considering how dry it is.  Will definitely need to back sweeten this apple, as I’m not sure this really dry wine would be pleasant to drink.  Add sugar, and what a difference it will make.

Now it will sit for several months and settle out.  Rack again, and sit again.  The waiting part is definitely the hardest.  Its all about time.

The peaches fermented out to VERY dry and required some back-sweetening to make it palatable.  The peach wine has a distinct, sort of pungent aroma, but yet a very nice smooth flavor.  So, I’m not entirely sure if it just needs to age or if it will have that aroma forever.  Only time will tell.

I added 1.5 pounds of dissolved sugar to the wine just prior to bottling.  This of course, after adding potassium sorbate to prevent re-fermentation and 6 more campden tablets to ward of the bugs during aging.  I will get a label on it soon and get all 26 bottles on their side for the next year or so.  I intend to uncork one in about 6 months to see how the aging is going.  There wasn’t enough to get a full 27th bottle…so I guess I’ll just have to drink that now.  Darn.