A Little Cellar Work

Grape sludge.  That's the name of the game when you rack wines.  Racking is basically transferring wine from one vat to another in order to remove the lees (or small particles of grape solids that have settled out) from the bottom of the vat.  This is usually done a couple of times a year depending on the state of the wine.  I racked all of our wines last week.  We have one vat that had finished it's malolactic fermentation and another which is still plugging along, but it was time to remove the lees from both. So, I went to it.  Once the vat is nearly empty you open the door to this wonderful grapey sludge! It's so beautiful. A neighbor stopped by while I was covered in grape gunk and cleaning out the vat. She was amazed by the beautiful color of the lees. She even told me that she'd like to have a sweater that color! Now the wines are all back in their original vats with a little bit of S02 to protect them as they rest throughout the winter... well, if you can call it winter. We've had a very warm winter. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 70s. The ski areas have next to no snow. Last week it was raining in Chamonix! Talk about a disaster for the ski areas. 

Anyway, back to the lees... When I lived in Burgundy I remember my friends at the restaurant "Les Millésimes" in Gevrey-Chambertin going to one of the local producers to get some lees to make a special sauce.  I just did a search on "recettes au lies de vin" and it came up with many including: foie gras, quail, and rabbit. I'm sure there are many more.  Unfortunately with all of these tastings, and pruning going on, I didn't have time to make any special dinners. Now the lees are just sitting in a big plastic barrel waiting to be picked up by the distillery where they will be made into some delicious industrial alcohol.  It's a shame, they would probably make a hell of a grappa! Maybe next year we'll try to find someone with a still....

Comments

[Lisa]

Since you are in France you better make some eau-de-vie rather than grappa! :)

I love the idea of using the lees to make a tasty sauce. I'll have to try that the next time we do a "sous-tirage".

[Mike Duffy]

Great pictures, Amy. You make it sound like terrific fun to play in the grape sludge. Thanks for another excellent post!