Racking

[cpote]

What is the best time to rack the wine from the secondary? Should it be based on a timeline, ie 30, 45, 60 days or should you rack whenever the lees gets built up to a certain level.

I have a peach wine that has at least an inch of lees in the bottom and I just racked it two weeks ago.

 

[WIP]

You can rack it as often as you like. The lees won't hurt anything though.

 

[Yooper]

I rack every 45-60 days whenever there are lees 1/4" thick (or sooner, if there are thick lees before the 60 days are up). Usually, only one racking takes care of the vast majority of the lees at the beginning, and then the racking is only maybe twice more over the course of the next several months. Once no new lees fall after about 45 days, I consider bottling or bulk aging.