Racking, and surprise tasting

As yesterday was Green Sunday at the co-op (ie, a day when urban consumers can go and get their hands dirty at the farm), I took advantage of the presence of 30+ organic food and wine lovers to inflict the latest offerings from Vinos Ambiz onto them:

Lunch and wine tasting in Perales de Tajuña (Spain)

- The Young White 2009 (100% Airén), which is not done yet. Probably ready by end November. This year, it doesn't look like it's going to be slightly bubbly, like it was last year. A pity because a lot of people liked it bubbly ("con aguja" in Spanish). But that's life with natural wines, they come different every year!

- The Young Red 2009 (100% Garnacha, made by the carbonic maceration process, ie whole clusters, uncrushed, fermented in a sealed tank for 15 days). Also not ready, and probably by end November. This year it looks like its going to be drier and less fruity than last year.

- The Young Red 2008 from last year (100% Tempranillo). This one was more than ready of course and several bottles were tasted and appreciated!

Yesterday morning, before going to perales for the tasting (and for lunch) I racked 350 l of the afore-mentioned Young White and 300 l of the Young Red. This is done to separate the wine from the lees that have settles to the bottom of the tank.

We used to do this manually (no kidding!) But a few years ago we invested in little drill pump (<€20), and it's amazing - it can pump around 3000 l of liquid in an hour!

Little drill-pump

We kept part of the gunge at the bottom of the tank for our friend Caro (La Meiga) who uses it as an ingredient for her artisan hygiene/cleaning/cosmetic products.

Lees of the red Garnacha wine

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