Taking some wine to friends house.

Liar.

Get it through your head that there are no dregs in commercially bottled wines, they've already been filtered when bottled... what you see at the bottom of the bottle are crystals/sufites, you cannot filter that out because if disturbed it immediately go back into solution. I used to make my own wine, still had no dregs because I siphoned it out of the carboys from above the dregs, it didn't need filtering except for the last bit at the bottom and I used that for cooking... the dregs are nothing more than small bits of fruit, can't hurt anything. Anyone who brews coffee/tea there are dregs, no one filters those bits out, just don't pour the last dregs into your cup.

We ended up pouring it through a fine sieve. It was fine, but I was amazed at the volume of the dregs.

Moron.

OK, semantics! What is the sediment in the bottom of a bottle of port? It does not redissolve, AFAICT.

John, speaking of dregs.......

:-)

Obviously they pulled it from the bottom of the vat, any wine I made was pulled from about an inch and a half above the carboy's bottom and filtered through a electric filter (eight paper filters).

Most Chilean wines I've ever drank never had sediments, so I'm not sure what you bought.

The only thing obvious is that you didn't read much of my post. It wasn't Chilean wine. It was vintage port. I doubt that any Chilean wine sold here would have sediment. It is basically cheap wine made to be consumed soon after bottling. They may make some quality wines intended to be aged, but the stuff I see in the liquor store is budget wine, sometimes heavy tasting, but not complex.

Well the thread started with Chilean wine, and it seems ended up at vintage port, how vintage 60-80 years? Where was it bottled? If it was that old then it certainly would have sediments. Most don't drink the whole bottle for fear of mixing the bottle with sediment, and are quite careful pouring.

Reading this post in RFC:

I agree. Unless it has a few years of bottle age it certainly needs less than an hour to open up. IMO it doesn't require decanting if we are talking about the majority of Chilean wines on the shelves these days which are mostly sold ready to drink, not intended to be held for any serious length of time. That being said I like a number of the ready to drink Chilean wines available, very good bang for the buck, but no need to treat them like fine wines.

MartyB

Good bang for your buck is probably the best way to describe Chilean wines. They are okay. Most of them are quite drinkable. They are not remarkable, and should not be expected to be for the prices charged. I consider them to be relatively good quality cheap wines. FWIW, last year I bought a few bottles of a Chilean Reserve wine. It was under $12, which is pretty good for something that is supposed to be a Reserve. Not the best Reserve wine I ever had, but it was a good wine for the money.

WTF are "fine wines"... are those like the emperor's new clothes?

A "Fine Wine" is no more definitive than a "Fine Piece of Ass". ;)

and what would you know of this LOL

A lot of old wines throw sediment after long storage in the bottle. This tends not to happen in table wines. Sweet white wines like Sauternes, Beeren/Trockenbeerenausleses and Eisweins will throw off a white sediment, sometimes even looking like small stones. These are easier to see than in red wines. These sediments are a natural byproduct of aging. Truth be known, as was explained to me by a research chemist, it is all really a process of decay, even though we think of aging quality wines as an improvement.

It's just that some decay tastes a lot better than others. ;-)

There are a few unfiltered wines on the market, for example, certain Zins, but that is not the same as the sediment found in old cellared wines.

And no, it cannot redissolve.

The process of candling (placing a light source under the neck of the bottle as it is slowly decanted so as to see when the sediment is approaching the neck) is the time honored traditional way of eliminating sediment. Or you can just use a filter.

MartyB

You just made me think of the holiday season commercial for Heineken... "The Holiday Five-Pack" where a guy is taking a six pack to a party but can't resist drinking one ahead, and puts a stick-on bow on the six pack to try to disguise the fact that one is missing.

MartyB

Heineken has some good, humorous ads. I liked the one with a woman taking her friends for a tour of a her new home and they are all shrieking with delight when they see the huge walk in closet. The it cuts to the men having a similar reaction to the husband's walk in bear fridge full of Heineken.

Wine made from chili. Fascinating.

;-)

From your description, I wouldn't really know if the wine you have still needs decanting or not. Also, if your friends don't know much about treating wine before drinking then they might wonder why you brought wine that's already opened. I advice to just decant it in your friend's place, a few minutes before drinking it (that is, if you're certain that the bottle you hold needs to be rid of the sediments in it). If you want to learn more about wines, then you might also want to check this: 'Gary Vaynerchuk's Blogging at the Wine Library'

He's recently gaining popularity from his works and programs named Wine Library Television. Hope it'll help broaden you and your friends' interest for wine-tasting experiences.

Cheers!

Nothing wrong with crossposting