Since the end of the alcoholic fermentation our wines have been sitting quietly, in tank, on their lees. Just in case you don’t know, lees are the exhausted yeast cells that fall to the bottom of the tank at the end of fermentation when their job is done, and the sugar is converted into alcohol. Despite the fact that they are dead, they still contain some nutrients that feed the wine, over time adding to the character, structure and complexity of the finished product. The problem is that the lees cannot simply be left in contact with the wine for an infinite amount of time, and deciding the optimum moment to remove them is best judged by simply tasting the tanks at regular intervals throughout the winter and early spring. It’s really a matter of experience and judgement. If for any reason the lees are not completely healthy, they will simply taint the wine, leaving unpleasant ‘off’ flavours – clearly not something that we want.

Our 2013 vintage has been ‘on the lees’ (sur lie in French or sobre lias in Spanish) for some seven months now, and so we have just embarked on a programme of racking the first few tanks. The process of racking is actually quite straight forward and involves pumping the wine to a clean tank, leaving the lees behind at the bottom of the original tank.

The law does not allow us to simply wash the redundant lees down the drain, quite naturally we are obliged to dispose of them responsibly. Indeed, they actually still have some value! This thick paste still contains wine, and so we actually collect it in large plastic tanks (see photo), ensuring that it is correctly sulphured, and sell it for a nominal amount to our local distillery. You may recall that we also sell our pomace (the residue of grape skins and stalks left after pressing) to our distillery, but they much prefer to buy lees….. and the reason? The answer is quite simple – the skins and stalks are not fermented and contain only grape juice, whereas the lees contain finished wine. This makes the distillation process a whole lot easier for them.

Since the end of the alcoholic fermentation our wines have been sitting quietly, in tank, on their lees. Just in case you don’t know, lees are the exhausted yeast cells that fall to the bottom of the tank at the end of fermentation when their job is done, and the sugar is converted into alcohol. Despite the fact that they are dead, they still contain some nutrients that feed the wine, over time adding to the character, structure and complexity of the finished product. The problem is that the lees cannot simply be left in contact with the wine for an infinite amount of time, and deciding the optimum moment to remove them is best judged by simply tasting the tanks at regular intervals throughout the winter and early spring. It’s really a matter of experience and judgement. If for any reason the lees are not completely healthy, they will simply taint the wine, leaving unpleasant ‘off’ flavours – clearly not something that we want.

Our 2013 vintage has been ‘on the lees’ (sur lie in French or sobre lias in Spanish) for some seven months now, and so we have just embarked on a programme of racking the first few tanks. The process of racking is actually quite straight forward and involves pumping the wine to a clean tank, leaving the lees behind at the bottom of the original tank.

The law does not allow us to simply wash the redundant lees down the drain, quite naturally we are obliged to dispose of them responsibly. Indeed, they actually still have some value! This thick paste still contains wine, and so we actually collect it in large plastic tanks (see photo), ensuring that it is correctly sulphured, and sell it for a nominal amount to our local distillery. You may recall that we also sell our pomace (the residue of grape skins and stalks left after pressing) to our distillery, but they much prefer to buy lees….. and the reason? The answer is quite simple – the skins and stalks are not fermented and contain only grape juice, whereas the lees contain finished wine. This makes the distillation process a whole lot easier for them.