What's that stuff in the bottom of my glass!?

There you are sitting minding your own business enjoying a glass of Tassie's finest red wine when - gag - what the ...?  -  this mucky stuff hits the back of your mouth and to your horror you see (cue the law and order dun dun - Ed) some sort of powder sitting in the bottom and up the sides of your glass.

Many punters in this situation start channelling their inner 'Stewie' from the Family Guy and exclaim "what the blazes have you done to my glass of wine you incompetent fool!?". In the interests of all those hospitality staff and winemakers who cop the brunt of the 'Stewie' response we thought we should reassure punters out there.

The gritty residue at the bottom of your glass is a sign of quality not incompetence. In fact you should be overjoyed if you experience the powdery kiss of sediment (c'mon people you've had worse kisses - Ed).

To help you understand this we need to talk about a part of the wine making process and since we proudly proclaim our ignorance of such matters we went looking for someone with just a tad more expertise. Cue Billy Connolly's mate Peter Shields. We wanted to get Peter's views because he not only has a lot of skill as a wine maker but his pinots have sediment.

Please explain!

"We basically do what Burgundy does really ... none of our (red) wines under our labels are filtered or fined in any way" Peter explains. Fining refers to a process where an agent like bentonite is added to the wine. Bentonite removes sediment by binding to it and making it sink to the bottom of a barrel. The wine can then be removed without the sediment. 

This is the usual process with white wines and is the reason why you will sometimes see phrases like 'contains fish products' or 'contains milk products' on wine labels.

Filtering, as the name suggests, means passing the wine through filters of varying guage (measured in microns) to remove any sediment and any remaining yeast.

Peter believes, and he is supported by internationally renown writers like Robert Parker, that over filtering ruins a red wine. Every time a wine is filtered it removes 20 - 30% of colour and flavour. This takes a lot of the vitality out of the wine and as Peter says "Pinot can't afford to lose this amount of colour because it's short of colour anyway".

So why do they do it?

Well that is our fault. To many punters the presence of sediment means that the wine is 'off' or 'poorly made' and they refuse to buy these wines. "People seem to want their wines to be crystal clear" Peter laments. "They want a wine that is clear and they want to see a sheen". Due to this aversion to sediment by the purchasing public many people in the industry who know that sediment is a sign of quality still insist on it being removed. Which is a shame really because you can have your flavour, your colour and deal with the sediment.

So what's a punter to do?

First off trust us and stop worrying about sediment. It doesn't affect the taste of the wine. If you get any in the cake 'ole grab a quick mouthful of water with one hand and signal for another bottle with the other (multi-tasking people multi-tasking - Ed).

Secondly do as Peter recommends. Don't be afraid to pay for quality and when you do leave that wine standing for a couple of hours before opening. Any sediment will be sitting in the bottom of the bottle. If that's not possible pour gently, particularly when you are getting to the bottom of the bottle and the sediment should remain in the bottle.

If you are having to pour wine for some free loading relative or friend or your partner, pour your glass, then your partner's and then shake the bottle gently to make sure the free loader gets all the 'quality' sediment (I should probably be saying something here to dissuade you from doing this but it just sounds like the right thing to do - Ed).

Lastly tell all your friends that sediment equals quality and reassure them. That's it punters - be a force for good in your community and banish the fear!

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