Why stir wine

Have you seen those huge Reidel glasses that look like they could hold half a bottle of wine, and wondered what was the point of an enormous wine glass like that? More space in the wine glass means the wine gets more surface area, and thus more exposure to oxygen.

This is especially helpful with older wines. This is also the reason why your Sommelier pours only a small amount in your glass when you first taste the bottle: She wants the wine to have optimum exposure to oxygen when you swirl, smell and taste. Swirling exposes the "legs" of a wine, revealing its viscosity. The way the wine swirls gives you a first indication of the wine' "texture:" its thickness or viscosity.

A dense wine, full of tannins or sugar will tend to spin more slowly around the glass, sticking to the sides. Yes, as a matter of fact, it does look cool. But here's a little trick so you look like a pro and covered in wine from your swirling practice: don't lift the glass when you swirl. Set the glass on the table or counter, hold the base down with your index and middle finger, then start moving the glass around in circles. You simply won't spill wine this way.

And here's a bonus! What's the difference between aroma and bouquet? A wine's aroma typically refers to the pleasant smells in a wine that give it specific character varietal character. We say that Merlot has aromas of cherry and Chardonnay has aromas of tropical fruit. A wine's bouquet comes from the smells created by the winemaking process or the wine's aging.

When we smell oak, for example, that's considered to be part of a wine's bouquet. Previous Next. View Larger Image. She's not tasting it. She's not even looking at it yet. So perhaps I'll give her a stir today to mix in the oak again and see what happens in the next couple of days.

Yep, the oak on top is not a problem. The yeast should mostly have sunk by now, on their own. A good stir at this point will be a good thing.

It can't hurt a thing but can help by adding a little oxygen to help the yeast get going. You are making a red.

You can stir twice a day for the first 3 or 4 days of fermentation. If the instructions say to add an air lock already, go ahead and do so. If not, you can just cover the air lock hole with something to keep critters out of your wine. What is the temperature of the must? For a red to start fermenting, it is best if the temperature is in the mid 70'sF. One nice piece of wine making equipment is a brew belt. It applies heat to the wine to keep it warm until fermentation starts.

Once fermentation starts you can turn the belt off because fermentation creates its own heat. When fermentation slows time for second stage of fermentation , if the temperature drops below about 72F, turn the brew belt on again.

This will help the wine finish out properly. Placing a brew belt around a glass carboy is something we all do regularly and without any problems. Good luck! Joined Jan 12, Messages 6, Reaction score 12, When I pitch yeast directly, I usually do not stir for the first 24 hours afterward. Then I stir twice daily after that to incorporate the yeast, oxygenate, and mix the sugars to make them more bioavailable.

Once my racking day is established, I will not stir for the 24 hours prior to racking to allow more sediments to fall. Good advice from all of you. I do live in Utah, and it can get cold. Thanks for all the advice. I have a tendency to stress out over the small stuff a bit, but I'm sure that as I learn and gain more experience that will subside.

Having access to the wealth of knowledge on these forums helps a lot. Joined Aug 28, Messages 71 Reaction score 2. I also tend to stress out over little things. I'm thinking that will go away with experience. I just started a Old Vine Zin and I sprinkled the yeast on top and in less tan 12 hours fermentation had started in full force! Over the weekend I was at the winery of a guy who has won tons and tons of first, second and best of show awards.

He has a huge board with them all on it. He's been making wine since the 70s. I saw maybe 15 things he was doing right there in my plain sight as he showed me around that would cause this forum to go ballistic! Then he pulled his tasting glass out of the chlorine bleach bath he keeps it in, right there on his winemaking bench , washed it out well with water "I'm a big believer in chlorine!

Now there are forum people clutching at their chests after reading that last paragraph! One of them was raspberry he said won the best of show like 3 years ago!!!!!! It's good to be careful and prudent, but not to obsess. Yep, I see that same thing from time to time.

As you already know, wine making is pretty forgiving. There are "best practices" and "just get by practices". Some of the things he is doing is not best practice now and never will be. Adopt a best practices methodology and you will avoid many of the problems he likely has had in the past or will someday have.

We all have a choice. Sort of like the pay me now or pay me later issue. Nothing wrong with wanting to be your very best. It starts with some learning experiences and training and an active imagination. You will do just fine. If you are getting a definite yeasty, fermentation smell, something must be happening for you. I assume you took an initial specific gravity reading; what is the reading today? It should be dropping but if fermentation just started, probably not that much.

The hydrometer is your friend! Is it the same yeast in both recipes? I have also found that the ingredients in the must affect how vigorous the yeast is. Also, the temp of the must affects the yeast. I don't airlock my primaries, but for example I have had 71B rock and roll along like crazy and sound like Rice Krispies, and I have had it barely popping bubbles at the surface.

They all turned out to be good wines. Your hydrometer is your source for info on what is going on, rather than your senses.