Syrah - Day 28 - Secondary Fermentation

Secondary fermentation is still underway for our Syrah. The airlocks still gurgle to release carbon dioxide every so often as the remaining yeast churn through the residual sugar in the wine. With the temperature dropping, biological activity in the wine is slowing down, the secondary fermentation probably will still take several more weeks due to the cool temperatures. The malolactic fermentation is also ongoing, though this does not generate the outward signs the yeast's fermentation does. The malolactic fermentation will likely continue until to first racking and even possibly beyond, depending on how slowly the temperature causes the bacteria to work.

Another passive process that's going on is the settling out of the sediments in the wine. These sediments are composed of dirt from the vineyard, yeast cells, grape pulp, grapes skins and other particles in the wine that weren't filtered out when we pressed the must. By letting the wine sit undisturbed for weeks at a time, these particles slowly succumb to gravity and settle out of solution at the bottom of the carboy. After weeks or months of quietly accumulating the sediments at the bottom of the carboys, we will be able to separate them from the wine in the process called racking. This process involves siphoning off the wine while leaving as much of the sediment as possible behind. The other goal in the racking process is to leave as little as possible of the wine behind with the sediments.

The settling and racking process will be repeated a few times over the coming months. We can also assist the process by adding agents that will attract the particles and help them settle to the bottom. This will allow us to have as clear a wine as our patience and continued rackings will yield. Racking often also minimizes the flavors of the sediments from carrying through to the finished wine.

If one of the rackings occurs during especially cold conditions it will also allow us to remove the tartaric crystals from the wine, since these acid crystals come out of solution in the wine at low temperatures. These crystals appear similar to broken glass and are considered undesirable in the finished wine. They can occasionally be found at the bottom of bottles of wine or in the last pour from a bottle. Hopefully for both the wine and the coming snow sport season, the temperature will drop to freezing and allow us to remove the tartaric crystals during one of our upcoming rackings.

Speaking of racking, the batch Cabernet Sauvignon we did prior to the Syrah should be almost due to rack for the first time, we might need to hop on that...