Racking is a method of clarifying wine. By moving wine from one barrel to another, we can control the time the wine spends on the lees, and aerates the wine.
Barrel Fermentation
While we use the more traditional techniques for barrel fermenting most of our Chardonnay wines, we take a slightly different tact in barrel fermenting some of our red wines in the pursuit of unique, more complex tastes. How? By draining down rotary and static fermenters directly to the oak barrel while there are still a few degrees Brix (a measurement of the percentage of sugar in a fruit juice) in the must (the juice/pulp/skin slurry.) This allows the last few percent of sugar to be finished off while in contact with the oak in barrels. We find that we get a better integration of oak flavor in our wines though this unique process. And ultimately, achieving more complex red wines.
