Racking the 2009 Vintage

It's been two weeks since I started fermentation on the 2009 vintage. Sixteen gallons of barbera, sangiovese and sauvignon blanc have been bubbling away and are now ready to be racked into carboys for bulk aging. I took gravity readings and the barbera was 0.998, sangiovese was 1.000 and sauvignon blanc was 0.998. If you read my explanation of specific gravity in my last post, you may ask how gravity could end up below 1.000 if by definition once all the sugar is consumed and there are no more dissolved solids, the hydrometer should only be measuring the water in the wine. It's essentially because alcohol doesn't have exactly the same gravity as water. In fact, some higher alcohols have gravities lower than 1, which drops the gravity reading of the wine. I'm not a chemist, but this is my understanding based on what I have read on the subject. In any event, this wine has fermented to dryness and fermentation is completed!
The wine will sit in the carboys for several months to clarify and stabilize. I added some bentonite to the wine, which is refined clay. The proteins in the wine will bind with the bentonite and the haze will fall out of the wine.
With the carboys nearly filled, I sacrificed a few bottles of alicante wine from last year to top up the carboys. You don't want an air gap in the carboys, which can oxidize the wine, and you'll get the bottle back in a few months when you bottle.
A few more rackings and a few months of aging and we'll be ready for bottling!