| Traditional Racking As a part of the Reid's emphasis on the highest quality, traditional French racking techniques are employed to make J.Kirkwood Merlot. This process has been perfected over centuries of winemaking in the Bordeaux region and is particularly suited to small family production. It is rarely done in larger wineries due to the time and labor involved. After crush and fermentation, red wine is typically aged in oak barrels for about 18 months. During this time, the wine is "racked" quarterly. Most wineries do this by using large pumps to transfer the wine from all the barrels into a stainless steel tank. The sediment or "lees" that forms at the bottom of the barrels is then rinsed out and the wine is pumped again back into the cleaned barrels. The more traditional technique involves moving the wine from one barrel directly to another using a combination of gravity and gentle air pressure. As the wine is removed from the barrel, the winemaker carefully inspects the wine through a transilluminated glass. At the first sign of lees, the flow is cut off and the barrel is rinsed so that it can be filled with wine from the next barrel. This process is repeated barrel by barrel until the entire vintage has been inspected and moved into clean barrels. Labor intensive, but worth it! |
 Each barrel is labeled with vintage information  Compressed air is used to help move the wine from barrel to barrel |
 Muslin is wrapped around the air compressor tip to prevent air leakage |
 The wine toward the bottom of the barrel flows into a specially designed stainless steel vessel |
 Using a flashlight behind the glass, the wine is inspected for clarity |
 More inspection |
 The wine that is deemed clear enough is poured into the next barrel |
 The lees are drained from the barrel into another vessel |
 Only the finest French oak barrels are used |
 The wooded plugs, called esquives, are wrapped with river reed to insure a tight seal |
 Should an esquive become stuck, this tool is designed to remove it from the barrel |
 Samples are periodically taken for tasting and analysis |
 Tools of the trade |
 The scrapper is used to remove wine stains from around the esquives |
 A small traditional whisk broom is used to remove any wood shavings from the head of the barrel |
 A sulfur wick is burned in each rinsed barrel to help protect the wine from spoilage organisms |
 Finally, each barrel gets a thorough rinsing before being filled again with wine |