First racking, malolactic inoculation
Erwin came over and we racked the syrah off the gross lees at 2:30 pm. It toiok us three hours to do everything.
- Racked most of the containers into 2 20 gallon tubs.
- Racked the rest of the last demijohn into the now empty and cleaned demijohn.
- Racked the tubs back into the demijohn + carboy.
- We ended up with almost 34 gallons of racked wine.
- 2 14 gallon demijohns
- 1 5 gallon carboy
- 4 wine bottles.
- We started with 36, so we lost 2 gallons, or about 6%.
- We started the malolactic fermentation:
- Enoferm Alpha malolactice bacteria
- 2.5 g bacteria hydrated with 50mL distilled water.
- 20 mL into each of 2 demijohns
- 10 mL into the 5 gallon carboy
- Put in the oak staves at the same time; apparently the staves give the bacteria a god surface to work on.
- We put medium toast french oak staves into the demijohns and carboy. The label suggested 3 staves/5 gallons. We put approximately 2 staves/5 gallons. I was worried about overoaking. This way there is no chance the oak needs to come out before the malolactic finishes, which should be in 4-6 weeks.
- 6 staves each carboy
- 2 staves for the 5 gallon carboy.