All industries have their own language which others ‘on the outside’ will not fully understand. While talking to customers in the cellar door I have certainly been guilty of using wine industry terms.

One that comes to mind is racking.

What could that mean? Well it might mean shelving in a warehouse or garage. It could be we are racking our brain over something, which is a regular occurrence!

In the wine industry, racking is the process of removing wine from one vessel to another. Usually from barrels to wine tanks and then back again, unless the wine is about to be bottled. The transfer is completed with a pump and hoses.

Racking is a form of filtration. Solids and dead yeast cells or ‘lees’ (another wine term 😊) settle at the bottom of barrels. So, by doing this we are clarifying the wine. The barrels are cleaned before the wine is pumped back into the barrels for further rest and maturation.

If you are racking your brain over any other wine term, we are more than happy to chat about it when you visit our cellar door.