What does stirring the lees do for wine?
Lees stirring increases lees/wine contact resulting in an extra layer of brioche, yeasty flavour complexity and greater body or richness. Lees contact (amplified by stirring) encourages the release of mannoproteins, which can bind to tannins and improve the wine’s mouthfeel.
What does sur lees mean?
Results for: “sur lie” Sur Lie: Wines aged sur lie (French for “on the lees”) are kept in contact with the dead yeast cells and are not racked or otherwise filtered. This is mainly done for whites, to enrich them. (It is a normal part of fermenting red wine, and so is not noted.)
What does aging on the lees mean?
It is a common practice to deliberately leave many white wines in contact with the lees for an extended period of time after fermentation. This is called lees aging.
How long can wine sit on lees?
Wines can be aged on lees for a few weeks and months or several years. By law, a non-vintage Champagne must be aged for 15 months in bottle and spend at least 12 months on lees, according to the Comité Champagne.
What does lees smell like?
Sparkling Wines: Traditional method sparkling wines that are aged for extended periods on the lees will have increased flavors of toast, bread-like aroma, cheese or buttermilk-like aroma, and floral elderflower-like aromas and sometimes sweet, nutty aromas.
What is the process of making wine called?
Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology. A winemaker may also be called a vintner.
What does Muscadet sur lie mean?
ageing on the Lees
What is Muscadet Sur Lie? ‘Sur Lie’ refers to the ageing of the wine, translating to ‘ageing on the Lees’. This process is the ageing of wine on dead yeast particles, left over from the fermentation process, adding extra complexity and flavours to the wines.
Can you ferment wine twice?
In the case of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (wine yeast) cells, a re-ferment can happen anytime there are yeast present and there is still fermentable sugar present in the wine.