Fig. 15.
Cask and Support.
The Casks and Tuns should be supported by strong timbers or masonry, and should be sufficiently elevated, so that the wine may be easily drawn off, and should be securely blocked. [Fig. 15] represents a cask supported by timbers resting on brick work. Where the casks are arranged in piles, those in the lower tier should have four blocks or chocks each, for if they are blocked only on one side, they are liable to be disturbed, and the outer ones should also have a large block under the bulge. Of course, the outer blocks should be so adjusted that they cannot be knocked out in passing by, and in rolling barrels, etc. The casks of the upper tiers are rolled up on skids, or inclined planes, and are then rolled along over scantlings, laid on the tier below; and hoisting tackle is often of use in this connection. When, however, the cellar is furnished with sufficient large tuns, the piling of casks may be dispensed with.
CHAPTER XII.
RACKING.
The Racking of Wines, or drawing off, is performed for the purpose of freeing them from the lees. Some of the older writers recommend that wine should be allowed to remain on the lees till February or March, but the better practice is to draw it off as soon as it has cleared. If it is allowed to remain long upon the lees, variations of temperature and secondary fermentations, storms, etc., are apt to cause it to become troubled and muddy, and acquire a flavor of the lees. Boireau says that he has constantly observed that wines in general, and especially those which have been fined, if racked as soon as well cleared, say from two weeks to a month after fining, according to the kind of finings used, place of storage, nature of the wine, etc., are generally more limpid, have a cleaner taste, and are much less liable to work than if left on the finings for six months, from one racking to another. Wines not fined, which have become clear naturally by repose, exhibit the same results; those which are racked as soon as bright, are, in every respect, of a quality superior to those which have been left upon their lees from one equinox to another.
The Conditions Indispensable to Good Racking are stated by Mr. Machard as follows:
1. To perform the operation when the weather is dry and clear, and if possible during a north wind, for it is only during such weather that the precipitation of the lees can be really complete.
2. To avoid the operation during damp and rainy weather, and while violent winds are blowing from the south.
3. Not to proceed during a storm, because then the lighter parts of the lees rise and produce fermentive movements which are always to be guarded against.