Filtering wines in the decanting process

I know there are some folks who filter wines in the decanting process, particularly if there is fine sediment. I also know there are some who would never do this. Do folks have an opinion, and if you do filter, do you use paper coffee filters, or a stainless, or a gold filter?

I just use a fine metal mesh filter when I decant wines with alot of sediment. But sediment doesn’t really bother me.

My Vinturi comes with a mess top that I use for wines with a large amount of sediment.

I’ve never thought there was a reason to do so. If a wine has had adequate time for the sediment to settle and is decanted carefully, everything other than the very finest of sediment is left behind. Even a coffee filter won’t get that superfine sediment out, and there’s very little of it anyway with proper decanting. Sometimes I pour the dregs into a glass and let that settle for a bit to squeeze one last sip out of it if the wine is really special.

+1

The really fine sediment in, say, and old Barolo can take a month of standing to settle. I know of folks who will try to filter this with a paper filter. I know of other folks who won’t even filter their coffee with a paper filter, let alone their wine.

John, whether I filter strictly depends upon upon the wine, its age and the likelihood of fine sediment. Nebbiolo is a singular case. In my experience, few hands are steady enough to decant old Nebbiolo for sediment, and a relatively small amount of sediment can ruin the wine. In addition, using no filter for old Nebbiolo risks leaving a good-sized gulp of wine behind. I use an ultra-fine nylon-mesh filter/funnel combination that I picked up somewhere along the way. I would also use a stainless or gold filter, but never paper, which I think risks taking something away from the wine. Lastly, I wet the filter with a tiny bit of the wine, so that wine pours through wine-“coated” mesh. This last step could be pure BS, but if so, so is the seemingly sensible serving ritual here of pouring a little wine in a first glass, swirling to coat the glass, and then pouring the same wine into a second glass and repeating the process, continuing until all glasses are coated before pouring the wine. Either the wine is thus insulated from possible contaminants in the glass, or one is passing soap residue from one glass to the other! I doubt that the use of a filter or the serving ritual just described matters for 99.9% of us, surely including ALL wine reviewers…

I always think of preparing the glasses with a small pour of wine as catching any dust or similar contaminants. Naturally rinsing with water first is not an option. Preparing a filter would make sense to me as well but I guess I’m not afraid to entertain my own neuroses when a good bottle of wine is at stake.

prewetting a filter membrane used to be necessary some time ago (from a scientific standpoint) so I bet that is where the habit comes from. It would not have any effect on a mesh type filter.

George

For most wines, the majority of my wine group would just save the small glass of sediment containing wine to sample now and then as the decanted wine is airing. Some members of the group filter this stuff. The main problem arises in a wine where there is a lot of fine sediment, and you would be sacrificing 1/4 of a bottle (or a wine that you just remembered to stand up 3 or 4 days ago).

Does anyone have a good source for a quality fine mesh either metal or nylon/synthetic filter? We’ve got winemakers in the group, so I suppose they may have a stack of these hidden somewhere that they don’t let on about…

Cheesecloth, the old standby. Still works.

older CdP - 10 years plus - i always decant through a coffee filter. i find that super-fine sediment doesn’t really settle if you stand up the bottle and contributes a muddy texture to the wine. this method clears it up beautifully.

2-4 weeks allows most sediment to settle. I think there are some wines that benefit from longer time settling…but I’m in a small minority. Sediment REALLY bothers me. I think it makes the wine taste bitter, and completely un-drinkable. I had an '82 Bordeaux tonight and I gave up about 4-5 oz. to ensure that the wine I drank was completely sediment free. I loved the wine, and I wish I could get more at a reasonable price. I say set the bottle at a 45 degree angle, leave it alone for 3-6 weeks depending on your sensativity to sediment, and decant with a head-lamp for sediment.

Stainless mesh only, coffee filter is too much filtering.

This has served me well.

http://www.amazon.com/Swissgold-TF-300-Tea-Filter/product-reviews/B000G72D70

This came up in the travel shock thread, so it’s worth repeating.

If your bottle has fine sediment that takes a month to settle (i.e., colloids), it will resuspend as soon as you start to pour and end up in your glass anyways (and more likely than not, there are even smaller particles of sediment that will never settle out, period). The only way to keep that sediment out would be to filter - with something with a really fine mesh, like appropriate paper. Next best solution would be to decant off with a pipette or similar device.

I worry that paper could strip things out of the wine and isn’t inert enough. I also worry about processing chemicals, but you can get paper filters relatively free of “chemicals”.

+1 Perzackly !

There are medical grade filters you can buy that are used in chemistry labs. Can’t say if they would strip but can guarantee they are very inert.

(Back in my geochem days, I spent a lot of time devising procedures to process marine sediment. So this was sort of an area of professional interest, though any true chemist would likely know more than me.)

John,

I’ll occasionally use an ultra fine lacquer filter funnel; the mesh is tight enough to catch anything likely to bother me. You can get them at any good paint/finishes store for very little money.