When I plan to open an older bottle I generally stand it up for a few days to let the sediment settle at the bottom. Occasionally want to open something spontaneously though so I am wondering if any of the wine sediment filters out there are worth it or if they take away more of the wine than we would like.
A friend swears by using muslin cloth for a sediment filter. I use the metal screen filter like Victor mentions, but it does not get the finer sediments out.
Some wines have some pretty nasty stuff around the sediment, where you really need to decant to avoid. You should be able to find discussions here about it. Most typical (but not 100%, I have a '64 counter-example) with very mature Barolo. Iāve had it with a '68 CA Cab that got jostled, settled for a few hours, so all the big stuff that would get screened out wasnāt an issue, and carefully decanted. It still had nasty bitter mucky tastes that muted the wonderful tertiary perfume all the other bottles of that wine I had showed.
The argument in favor of screening. 1) A few times weāve had wines with our tasting group that were dramatically different - much better - from the later pours. This is where bottles have been stood, then carefully poured into all the glasses without bringing the bottle upright. Maybe that was from some stirring up of the sediments, or maybe denser solids that had settled down, but not out. 2) With some great mature wines that were decanted, itās worth going back and screening that last little bit. Sometimes itās clearly superior.
You can do a hybrid of these. Stand long enough for a wine to truly settle. Decant. Then screen the rest, assess it, decide if it would be good or bad to add to the decanter.
Cloth and paper can pick up aromas. Itās a good idea for people who do choose to use them to keep them ziplocked.
As far as coffee filters go, one of our Berserker coffee experts, winemaker Eric Lundblad points out, go with bleached. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the bleaching is a neutral process, taking out impurities without adding anything.
As someone whoās been using filters for coffee and myriad kitchen projects, I noticed something else. My very old bleached Mr. Coffee-type filters still seem pretty neutral. I could detect a slight difference with the unbleached pour-over filters when the bleaching issue was pointed out. Thatās also when I switched to Aeropress (with bleached discs). A few years later I pulled out an old unbleached pour-over one for something and it reeked. Theyāve been in the exact same environment as the much older Mr. Coffee ones, which are still okay. So, at least with that brand, thereās something in them that seriously degrades over time.
Interesting, Wes. Iād think that the sediment would make the wine taste gritty, at least it does to me, but supple texture of a mature wine is really important to me. I think the ābottomā of the bottle might be better because that wine has gotten more air to it, not because of the sediment. I only use a screen if I have toā¦I think the best results are with standing the bottle for a week and a steady decant. If you decide to pull something on the spot, keep the same side down that has the sediment, open it at an angle so the sediment goes down on one side, and pour with the same side down. If youāre careful you can do it well.
I only like to do this if a cork crumbles a lot and ends up in the bottle.
For sediment you can usually just pour slowly and/or decant. If itās stirred up a lot then the stuff that will not settle out in a couple minutes probably isnāt big enough for you to notice anyway. If youāre worried, donāt do a ābottoms upā with your glass.
If using a filter those narrow funnel shaped ones that are of metal seem best. Iām always afraid of using paper and cloth as you are straining it though something small enough that it might catch too much. And worse, release itās own particles into the wine. Just avoid.
Ah, yes. The coffee geek advice with paper filters is to always rinse them off before using. I think some people do that before using for wine. Like, distilled water, then hang them up somehow so they can mostly drip out, enough ahead of use.
We did an ancient wines tasting at a friendās house. He had these fancy stainless funnel filters, but they literally sprayed the wines into the decanters. It was horrifying! It seems contradictory to have a very fine screen designed for very old wines, and maximum aeration youād want for very young wines. Needless to say, more wines were dead than my previous experience with them and similar vintages.
Iāve never seen a funnel filter āsprayā wine. Iām trying to imagine how that is even possible.
In any case, it seems odd that someone would care take a wine into itās delicate sunset years. Preserving it for a careful opening and pouring and then dump it through paper or cloth. Itās not like sediment is poison. It seems like risk in order to avoid having to pick something less than an olive pit from your mouth.
The wine shot out sideways out of 4 spouts, hitting the sides of the decanter. A lot of pressure from not that much volume. Not so different in appearance than how commercial bottling line fillers spray wine into bottles. Of course, those are sparged bottles, filled under a vacuum.
I have that tool. the filter part is awesomeā¦ i donāt use the funnel part. i take a regular funnel (without those 3 little holes that spray the wines)ā¦ and filter into the regular funnel.
or if the decanter has a big enough opening, i just use the filter part right into the decanter.
I found this GuildSomm video of interest. Notice she never turns the bottle upright. GuildSomm - Decanting Wine Service - Decanting Wine Service - YouTube