Cloudy commercial wine

I have been to a vineyard in Oregon that also produced a cloudy Pinot Noir, they said it was "unfiltered" I said so are all of my wines and they don't look like this. I declined to sample or purchase. For some reason I think they are trying to emulate the brewing industries move to unfiltered wheat style beers. LOL!

The guy is definitely better at producing wool than wine. Cloudy is an unappetizing defect for any winemaker

Ray

I wouldn't buy it. I won't give a bottle of wine away if it is cloudy or has sediment (other than a dusting), but I know first hand, not everyone is as particular. BUT for a professional, gee wiz. Darlene

He's certainly trying to. He has to _sell_ it of course.

That defect - and it IS a defect - justifies a substantial markdown in the price IMO. I bought some Gallo Pinot Noir a couple of years ago that had that problem, and it had been discounted ~40%. I've seen other similar cases, and they were all Pinot Noir.

That problem pops up most often in Pinot Noir because some winemakers stubbornly refuse to bentonite fine their reds. You can get away with that with most reds, but Pinot Noir is particularly susceptible to protein instability problems. A light bentonite fining (~1 lb/1000 gal) would likely have avoided the protein hazing. Filtration would not have addressed that issue, and in fact would probably not have been necessary if the wine had been bentonited before the last racking.

Tom S

defect? Or is he pulling the wool over folks' eyes? <

It will of course detract from the saleability of the wine. It can still taste good blindfolded.

That's a point I forgot to mention. Being cloudy doesn't necessarily mean that the wine will taste bad. If you stand it up until it settles and carefully decant the wine off the sediment it may taste just fine. The trouble is, that's a lot of bother - and you will lose some in the process.

Tom S