The Racking of the wine
(Part two)
Here's the follow-up to my post on Sunday, with a more in depth look at the wine racking process!
The wine is stored in oak barrels that vary in size, the ones that we racked held about 30 gallons. First we cleaned the temporary vessel using a dilution of food-grade chemicals and rinsed with a garden hose. The temporary vessel used was a round plastic tub that is about the same volume (or more) as the wine barrel. After cleaning out the pump by running water and the dilution through it, we begin to pump the wine from the barrel into the plastic tub. Towards the bottom of the barrel the wine becomes more concentrated and viscous. This is the remaining "sludge" that shouldn't be pumped out.
After pumping out the wine it's time to clean the barrel. The barrels sit in a specific metal base that cradles them on either end, allowing them to be easily rolled over. Thus the barrel gets rotated so that the top opening of the barrel faces down and the bulk of the sludge exits the barrel. Then using a hose and a special spraying contraption, that my uncle came up with, the barrel gets rinsed out.
Once fully cleaned the wine gets pumped back in. This process is almost identical to the initial pumping out process. For the barrels sizes we were using, the pumping process takes about five minutes each time (in and out). So about ten minutes total per barrel.
At the end there was a generous spread of snacks and libations. We (my father and I) brought some typical Greek/Cretan snacks including olives, feta cheese, paksimadia (rusks), halva (ground sesame seed paste/cake) and homemade tsikoudia (raki/grappa). While my uncle brought some more "typical" wine snacks: a variety of cured meat, brie cheese and French bread. Of course he also brought some of his wines from past vintages - some made with the same grape varieties as the wines we're currently making.
Stay tuned for more steps in the wine-making process already performed and forthcoming!