Unfiltered Wine?

[Randy Caparoso]

Foodie, the only people who think unfiltered wine -- white or red -- are purely marketing ploys are probably those who like to brag about their boring, stripped-down stuff. Sure, they're predictable. To each his own.

Unfiltered wines, however, are definitely for consumers -- and winemakers, for that matter -- who prefer the taste of wine in its full, unfettered state. People who push the envelope, live dangerously, skirt the edge, etc., etc. You know that I prefer unfiltered wines. The fact is, virtually all the winemakers I've met who dispense with filtering are those who've done the research: they've compared the wines they've made that have been filtered with with their wines that are unfiltered, and found that the unfiltered taste best... pure and simple! As another matter of fact, most producers who do not filter do NOT state that fact on their labels -- they let the name, and quality of the wine inside, speak for themselves.

By the way: the wineries that I mentioned previously -- Chalk Hill, Saintsbury, and others such as Frog's Leap -- apply their unfiltered regimes to white varietals such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. They see no problem in producing fairly clear looking, clean tasting white wine, given good, clean, careful winemaking.

[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 03-21-2000).]