Lees (fermentation)

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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 aging.

Normally the wine is transferred to another container (racking), leaving this sediment behind. Some wines, (notably Muscadet), are sometimes aged for a time on the lees (a process known as sur lie), leading to a distinctive yeasty aroma and taste. The lees may be stirred (batonnage in French) in order to promote uptake of the lees character.

Derived from French term lies. Hence, such slightly archaic phrases as 'drained to the lees.'

US winemakers use the term mud.

And a Surname of many great Australian families.

References go as far back as the early Jewish scriptures where the phrase "Wine on the Lees" is used in Isaiah 26:6 in the King James version of the Bible.