Racking is the process of siphoning the wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 or beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

 off the lees

Lees (fermentation)

Lees refers to deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate, or are carried by the action of "fining", to the bottom of a vat of wine after fermentation and ageing. The yeast deposits in beer brewing are known as trub...

 into a new, clean barrel or in the case of beer off the trub

Trub (brewing)

In the process of brewing beer, trub refers to the layer of sediment that appears at the bottom of the fermenter after yeast has completed the bulk of the fermentation...

. Racking allows clarification and aids in stabilization. Wine that is allowed to age on the lees often develops "off-tastes". A racking hose or tubing is used and can be attached to a racking cane to make this task easier. The racking process is repeated several times during the aging of wine

Aging of wine

The aging of wine, and its ability to potentially improve wine quality, distinguishes wine from most other consumable goods. While wine is perishable and capable of deteriorating, complex chemical reactions involving a wine's sugars, acids and phenolic compounds can alter the aroma, color,...

.

Racking may be referred to using the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

term soutirage.

Racking equipment

A racking hose is a flexible, clear plastic hose, usually 3/8 inch in inner diameter, used to siphon wine from one vessel to another. It is used in both racking and bottling operations. A racking cane is a stiff, plastic tube, usually "L"-shaped, that is attached to the racking hose to make racking easier. A protective cap is placed over the lower end of the cane that allows liquid to be drawn into the cane from above rather than below while keeping most large solids out. The cap allows the tip of the cane to be lowered close to the lees without unduly disturbing them. The lower tip of the racking cane should initially be held about midway between the surface and the lees and gradually lowered as the volume decreases due to the siphoning.