DaveMcIntyre: TTB Takes on Clean Wines

Article by Dave McIntyre in today’s WashPost on clean wines:

Bout time.
Tom

I find the term “clean” troubling in another context as well. I tend to like red wines that age well. To me, a wine described as clean has been heavily filtered and will not throw a sediment. Too many people already think a wine that throws a sediment or has tartrate crystals in it (like many German wines) are flawed. I want wines more naturally made that throw a sediment when they age because wines that are overly filtered IMHO don’t age well.

It doesn’t seem like they’ve really cracked down as much as I would have hoped… Clean is dubious to be sure, but something else will always pop up if ‘clean’ is no longer an available advertising nothing burger.

I agree it’s such a weird assertion, as “clean” sounds like an extreme, and quite contradictory to “organic” or “natural”. It sounds sterile. Like it’s the most unnatural, boring, simple, pasteurized, filtered, stabilized “product” out there. I mean, if it’s being marketed to housewives as “clean”, does it have one of the same gimmicks to reinforce that perception, like a fresh Pinesol scent?

This is from the perspective of a wine geek and not the average consumer, certainly not the target audience for these wines. “Clean” is very commonly used with food and body care to indicate natural, healthy ingredients (without synthetics, etc.). This is the way the Whole Foods crowd tends to interpret the word.