Dear Friends of Monolithos
In this month’s newsletter, we shall look into the pros and cons relevant to the wine filtering debate.
Wine filtration, and to a lesser extent, fining, remain subjects of controversy among wine professionals and wine lovers. To filter or not to filter, that is the question.
The purpose of filtering is to remove sediment, solid impurities, grape skins, dead yeast, etc., from the wine. Although filtering may help to clarify the wine, it is also accused of stripping wine of flavour and character, and there is a trend towards very light filtration or even no filtration at all.
In the early days of filtration after World War II, it was a dangerous procedure because historically, many filters before the 1980's were made from asbestos. Technology has removed health dangers and cleaned up wine, but the arguments about filtration refuse to go away. While filtration has been a support of commercial wine production for decades, the range of available technologies has increased and improved, and winemakers have become smarter about how to maximize the usefulness of filtration and minimize the potential side effects. Any dispute over the effect of filtration today concerns the taste of the wine.
In the late 1980’s, the subject became fashionable and captured the imagination of the public, resulting in a new marketing issue. Unfiltered wines were presumed by some to be of better quality, because they had not had some part of them stripped out. However, blind tasting conducted with wines that were available both from the same producer and in a filtered and unfiltered form, showed repeatedly that the unfiltered wines were "dirtier" and exhibited more flaws.
There is the school that argues filtration is always necessary for stability in the bottle. An unfiltered wine is a less stable wine. More chemical reactions take place in the bottle over time, simply because there are more elements present. There are yeasts still present for instance, and they can start up fermentation if there's any residual sugar left in the wine. Unfiltered wines are more likely to go off, and in commercial terms, that's another negative point.
The other side argues that a carefully made wine, red wine in particular, which has gone through barrel ageing, should not need filtration, either early or before bottling. To take the opposite case, Beaujolais Nouveau generally lacks aroma and flavour because it has been heavily filtered so that it can be drunk in a stable condition within two months after harvest.
It is admitted that most young and healthy wines, if left long enough under good conditions, would eventually reach the state of clarity within a few months. It is also argued that, while filtration may be necessary for ordinary commercial wines, too heavy a filtration can indeed rob a fine wine of some of its complexity and capacity to age. Filtration does remove some macromolecular components that may not have a direct mouth-feel component, but these macromolecules help to stabilize flavour and texture and do, in fact, contribute to this important area of wine of textural and flavour components. It is also pointed out that unfiltered wine will develop greater complexity with age than filtered ones. This is because a greater number of different chemical reactions are likely to occur during bottle ageing, since essential constituents have not been removed from the wine.
There is also the perception among at least some consumers that unfiltered wines are somehow superior or more "natural" than wines that have been filtered. This attitude has been encouraged by wine marketers who put the message on the wine label, sometimes even the front label, that the wine has not been filtered. Wine writers promote, and consumers seem to accept, the view that filtration might remove delicate features of a wine’s aroma and palate, so the best filtration is no filtration.
The pragmatic winemaker knows that there are serious risks involved in bottling a wine with an unknown load of bacteria and, perhaps, yeast. Filtering largely removes that risk and, therefore, it is often standard procedure. When the term "unfiltered" appears on a wine label, it serves as notice that the wine inside may be less than perfectly clear and contain more than a usual amount of sediment. That said, however, wineries are under no legal or moral obligation to reveal to what degree or whether or not a wine has been filtered.
The vast majority of wine in the marketplace, even at the very high end, goes through one kind of filtration experience or another in order to achieve some combination of clarity and microbial stability. If the wine is not filtered, there is a chance that the residual population of bacteria (and sometimes yeast) will grow in the wine after bottling and cause it to go cloudy, to develop a smudgy deposit or even some off-tastes and aromas. Cloudy wine is difficult to sell, and sometimes getting a white or blush wine clear and bottle bright without using some kind of filtration is difficult. Consequently, practically all commercially produced white and blush wines are filtered before they are bottled.
Proponents of filtering will tell you that it takes nothing out of the wine or that if it does, it is only temporary. After the shock of filtration the wine will recover in a month or so and will age in the same way as its unfiltered counterpart. In his book on wine-making, Emil Paynaud argues that the purely mechanical (as opposed to chemical) action of filtration cannot possibly have a negative effect on the quality of wine, because the foreign substances in suspension and the impurities that form the lees do not have a favourable taste function.
Today, and particularly when using mechanical harvesting, rotten grapes are usually picked and pressed along with healthy ones; the must is then filtered to take away the bad taste. If the filtration is not carried out, some impurities and bacteria may get into the bottle. An unfiltered wine is more likely to go off, because it contains impurities which may cause an unfavourable chemical reaction.
There has been a huge body of research done since Emile Peynaud's time on macromolecular level of influence of fining and filtration. The reality is that proper filtering may involve a lot of new equipment, knowledge and considerable trial and error. After all, filtering could harm the wine if the sulphite levels are too low, and the filtering introduces enough oxygen to cause spoilage, or if the filter and all the hoses and connectors are not absolutely sanitary and infect the wine. Filtering also removes some elements that contribute to flavours and aromas, so winemakers need to be judicious and conservative with this technique to avoid "collateral damage" that leaves the wine clean but lifeless. A number of connoisseurs, members of the wine trade and particularly wine critics, are under the increasingly popular notion that unfiltered wines, because they are manipulated less and therefore considered more authentic, are superior in quality.
However, unfiltered white wines are very rare, because consumers are bothered if they find sediment in a bottle of red wine and are totally frustrated if they discover sediment in one of the whites. After all, whites are often rejected if they have tartaric acid crystals in the bottom of the bottle. These crystals are formed during cold weather, unless the wine has already been chilled and filtered in the winery to remove them before bottling.
Filtering wine is mainly for commercial reasons, not simply for making a better wine. Wine should satisfy consumer’s expectations. Most people, apart from finding a taste that they like in the wine, whether red or white, expect it to be clear and bright and free from extraneous bits. Wine producers should offer wines that the consumer likes. No restaurant wants wine that the customer will reject. It is safer to offer a bottle of filtered wine that does not need decanting and has a lower incidence of rejection.
Whether to filter or not has been debated by winemakers as long as there have been filters. Some winemakers feel the only way to make wine is the “natural way”, letting the wine clear on its own, even if it does take a year or so. Other winemakers filter their wine to clear it so they can reduce the possibility of bottle ageing problems. A clear wine is more appealing, and the colour is brighter.
Filtering may make a wine drinkable sooner. A sterile or fine wine filter will remove most yeast cells that may cause sediment and possibly re-fermentation The real issue is that not all filtration is equal. A sterile filtration is better than wine that is not stable in the bottle. Filtration takes out solids in varying degrees, depending on the fineness of the filter pads. The disadvantage of filtering is the possible reduction of colour and tannins. After all, for every gain in winemaking, there is some sacrifice. Let your fruit hang until it has fully matured and you have to deal with higher alcohols. Raise your fermentation temperatures to gain some complexity and you sacrifice some fruitiness.
Like most aspects of wine, there is no absolute right or wrong. Filtering is a tool. Like any tool, it can be misused, or used with great skill. In the end, it all depends on the individual consumer. For many, it can be more of a visual thing than a flavour issue. Some people are put off by a wine that is not completely clear, while others feel a cloudy wine is more “natural”.
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Monolithos Monthly News
The back-breaking, hand-intensive labour of harvesting at Monolithos vineyards was completed by 17 September 2007. The grapes were hand-picked in the early morning hours before the autumn sun had a chance to warm the vineyard. After each session, the fruit was transported directly to the winery as quickly as possible to avoid any undesirable oxidation of the grape juice that can occur once it has been exposed to the air. At Monolithos Winery, we keep grapes/must from each vineyard in separate, stainless steel tanks. After de-stemming , crushing, pressing and fermentation, the various wine are evaluated before any blending takes place towards the end of October.
We thank you for your continued support, take care and remember that:
"Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age." — Pope John XXIII
If at any time you are passing near the
Regards from all of us here at Monolithos
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