Wine Focus: April - Everything’s Fine

[David M. Bueker]

Remember the good old days of Robert Parker railing about fining and filtering as if the fate of the universe depended on banishing the practices from wineries around the globe?

Does anyone even talk about fining and filtering anymore? I know that wineries, and not just industrial ones, still use the practices, but you never hear anything about them.

Have any opinions on the practices? Willing to divulge a wine you like that is fined or filtered, or God forbid…both?

Back in the early Parker period fining and filtering was an issue when selling wine to the casual consumer. Many of them confused tartrate crystals with contamination with sand or glass and thought that there was something wrong with a wine throwing a sediment. I've talked to many wine shop proprietors who experienced consumers returning wines because of these perceived "faults".

Fining and filtering have never really figured into my wine buying decisions. I'm a bottom-line guy--I look at the final product. I don't really care how the producer got there. That being said, I do observe that over half of the reds that I drink throw a considerable sediment.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

At least half the white wines (and even a few reds) I drink have “wine diamonds.”

I think it's safe to say that few, if any, of the wines I drink are filtered. When it comes to fining, there are degrees. I'm pretty sure that quite a few of the wines I drink may have undergone some amount of light fining, but I am not doctrinaire about those sorts of things, so whatevs.

[David M. Bueker]

Same here. Heck, I know German pradikat wines have to undergo some scandalous filtering, but they still taste great, so…

I will have to re-listen to a couple of podcasts, as I know on one of them David Ramey gave a detailed and rational explanation regarding fining. As with many things he says it made me go “huh, that makes a lot of sense.”

[Jenise]

I never sat at the feet of Parker so never had an opinion about it one way or the other--I like what I like and generally presume that the wines I gravitate toward are lower intervention than not. But I can't swear to any of it.

[David M. Bueker]

And isn’t that really the thing Jenise? Unless there’s an “unfined and unfiltered” or something similar on the label it’s not easy to know. The Newton Chardonnay had “unfiltered” on the label (still does) but fining? Who knows. Heck, who cares, unless there’s a vegan consideration, and egg whites may have been used.

And isn’t that really the thing Jenise? Unless there’s an “unfined and unfiltered” or something similar on the label it’s not easy to know. The Newton Chardonnay had “unfiltered” on the label (still does) but fining? Who knows. Heck, who cares, unless there’s a vegan consideration, and egg whites may have been used.

or isinglass...

[David M. Bueker]

At least icinglass sounds cool.

[Jenise]

I do have one objection against egg white fining: when it's done wrong and little white loogies are floating in the wine. (Yes, as actually found once in a bottle of red Atlas Peak.) Pretty disgusting: at the risk of being indelicate, egg white isn't neccessarily the first thing it reminds you of.

Back in the days of the Mad Cow Disease panic there was some controversy about some French wine estates that were still using the old practice of fining using cattle blood.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Now here’s a case I have never even thought about before - sparkling wines. I would suspect that the base wines undergo some clarification process(es) before the secondary fermentation, but I have never looked into it.

Now here’s a case I have never even thought about before - sparkling wines. I would suspect that the base wines undergo some clarification process(es) before the secondary fermentation, but I have never looked into it.

I think that riddling probably does the job for them.

[David M. Bueker]

Now here’s a case I have never even thought about before - sparkling wines. I would suspect that the base wines undergo some clarification process(es) before the secondary fermentation, but I have never looked into it.

I think that riddling probably does the job for them.

But that’s just the yeast for the secondary fermentation. I wonder if they do anything to the vin clair.

From what I've read the vin clair is racked before being blended with wines from other vineyards and--in the case of non-vintage Champagne--other years. It's then bottled, a small amount of yeast and sugar is added, and the bottle is crown-capped. Secondary fermentation occurs and when the yeasts use up the sugar they form spores. The riddling process collects the spores as sediment at the base of the cap. When the wine is ready for bottling the sediment is chilled and the crown cap removed. CO2 pressure expels the sediment. The bottle is topped back up (with added sugar unless it's brut sauvage) and the cork put in place.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

That’s not what I am talking about.

They at least do racking on the vin clair. Are you talking about other means of clarification such as filtering, fining,, or cold stabilization? I haven't seen any mention of those in descriptions of Champagne making I've read.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Nobody talks about filtering because there’s an irrational backlash against it.

That said, I got some feedback from a respected Champagne grower that filtering of the blended wines prior to the secondary fermentation is very common. “Absolute purity is required” was the point of emphasis.

Thanks, David. Makes sense that those who do filtering are reluctant to talk about it.

-Paul W.

I have no opinion on fining wines, but I do know people who have opinions on feinherb wines

[David M. Bueker]

That’s some fine herb!

By the way, at the risk of getting overtly political, I cannot hear the Panglossian phrase "everything is fine" without thinking of the wonderful Camper Van Beethoven song "Sweethearts," which seems just as apropos now as it was when recorded in 1989, though one has to replace the name Ronald Reagan with that of the current POTUS.

[David M. Bueker]

No need for you to filter!