Racking is an everyday task at Bodegas Eguía. All of our red wines are racked at least once while they are aging in oak barrels. The procedure involves moving wine from one container to another to remove large particulate matter such as seeds, skins and stems ?or lees, as winemakers call this sediment.
Racking is a way of blending in the wine so that the brand?s different lots or types of wine are uniform. The process allows us to monitor the evolution of the wine in the barrels and, if necessary, to act in order to obtain the character demanded by the market.
Racking is a common winemaking practice and therefore fully standardize in large wineries like Eguía. This is the procedure we follow:
1. The full barrel, containing wine in the process of being aged, enters the line.
2. The worker inserts a suctioning tube in the barrel that pumps the wine into an stainless steel tank.
3. Once it is empty, the barrel is turned upside down so that the action of gravity makes solid matter drop.
4. Barrels are cleaned several times using water pressure at different temperatures.
5. The barrel is disinfected with steam pressure.
6. In the meantime, the wine in the stainless steel tank undergoes all the necessary controls and analysis to ensure consistent quality. SO2 (sulfur dioxide) is added in order to protect and maintain the wine and avoid oxidation.
7. Once the barrels are spotlessly clean, they are filled again with wine.
How do we start? You can see here a video of the emptying of barrels.
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