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Lexicon

The largest wine encyclopedia in the world with 26,670 Terms.

0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

racking

See under tapping.

Tapping

Decanting (also soutirage) of a young wine after fermentation into another container. Further ageing may take place there. The aim is to separate the wine from the lees (yeast sediment, coarse yeast), the lees (suspended matter) and undissolved parts of the pulp and grape skin. In the past, this was done manually using special vessels known as wine supports.

The term soutirage is also generally used in French for decanting, but in Bordeaux in particular it refers to the traditional method of racking developed in the 19th century without pumping, in which the wine is transferred from one barrel to another by gravity alone. This technically complex process is still practised there to this day and is repeated several times during the ageing process.

Application

Today, racking is usually carried out by pumping over or, more gently, by siphoning into an empty container. Modern racking tanks have height-adjustable suction nozzles that can be positioned above the sediment. After fermentation and...
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This page was last modified at 26 November, 2023 at 09:28.

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The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

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