Can you wash wine yeast?

[Bostrows128]

Hello, today I am asking a question that has been bugging me for the last nine hours now.... can you wash wine yeast? I'm getting into yeast washing on the beer side but today I had to rack my wine into secondary and the thought crossed my mind. I mean it would be fairly simple to do because on most kit wines that I have done have never called for any fermentation additions so the yeast doesn't really need to be washed it just needs to be stored. I just thought that it would be an interesting thing to ask.

 

[65C]

In my experience it's hard to do much that will damage yeast - that a clean and feed won't fix

I washed with tap water some M44 only 30 mins before pitching the other day (it was dregs of a previous batch but it was a bit citra smelly so I quickly washed it just to see what would happen)

The porter I pitched it into kicked off within a couple of hours and is happily bubbling away next to me a week later

I've had sour dough yeast that has gone absolutely rancid, mouldy and dry - after scooping a bit of the damp bottom out and a couple of feeds - it's been good as new two days later

 

[Yooper]

Remember that wine is over (usually) 11-12% by the time you rack to secondary. That amount of alcohol is very damaging to yeast, and will stress them. It’s much better to use a fresh package of yeast for winemaking.

 

[jgmillr1]

Here is an article that discusses fermentation kinetics from UC Davis:
wineserver.ucdavis.edu/industray/enology/fermentation_management/wine/problem_fermentations.html

About a quarter the way down there is a paragraph describing the phases of a normal fermentation. Quoting from the stage where the alcohol reaches 11-12%:

"There is a distinct transition to a slower rate of fermentation. The blue circle shows the change from the initial faster rate to the new slower rate. The rate slows because ethanol in the medium forces an adaptation of the plasma membrane. The yeast can easily form a membrane that depends upon ethanol replacing water for its structure and functionality if sufficient survival factors are present to allow the new membrane to be made. "​

It seems that the yeast physically change due to the high ethanol content. I've successfully used must from fermenting wine to inoculate a new batch early in the fermentation. But I've been unsuccessful when trying to use yeast that had settled following a fermentation to dryness.

Given the information above, I would be suspicious that trying to wash and re-use wine yeast will be fruitful.