Gross Lees

It has been about 48 hrs since we pressed the wine and racked it into our carboys.   Dead yeast cells and small particles of the pulp and skin have now settled to the bottom.  If you use a standard press and don't strain through a filter, the gross lees can be a couple of inches at least:

No problem, since we normally will rack this one more time before we begin the malolactic fermentation stage.  We want the wine to be as stable as possible when we add the MLF bacteria.  Racking while MLF is going on can disrupt the process and cause it to stall or not finish.