The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

First Racking of Barolo

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The instructions say to rack the Barolo when the SG reaches 1.040-1.050, and the SG today is 1.038.  I guess I didn’t expect it to go so fast, although after racking, it’s obviously still in vigorous fermentation.  The oak chips get added at this point, they can been seen floating in the foam at the top after racking.  I also added the pack of yeast nutrient at this point, something I haven’t yet seen in a kit wine.  The raisins get squeezed out with cheesecloth to extract all of their goodness, and this is also added to the juice in the carboy.  I ended up with about 1 liter of overflow wine, which I put into a separate 1 L bottle.  I’m sure I’ll need it after the next racking.