please tell me what cause the sediment in wine?

Question

I have some Australian Penfolds wines, all the bottles have the sediment inside. They tell me it's normal for red wines, but I wanna know what caused it, normally, and what does the sediment mean, while other wines were seldom seen having this. Thanks.

Answer 1

Many of the previous answers are confusing sediment in the wine making process, e.g. lees etc with sediment that develops in the bottle with aging.

Good red wines will drop sediment over time. That is a by product of the aging process.

The sediment is a mix of tartaric crystals, tannins and other products of the complex various chemical changes that have taken place. In red wines they are stained black, and may stick to the side of the glass bottle if it has been left undisturbed, or be loose granules if the bottle has been moved. (in a white wine tartaric crystals look like tiny diamonds or shards of glass)

They are not only harmless but they are a welcome sight since they confirm that it is a good quality wine that has aged.

Before opening, stand the bottle upright for 24 hours to let them settle to the bottom of the bottle. Then open and pour the wine very carefully so as not to distrub the sediment. Or you can try pouring in one smooth motion into another container, leaving the wine with the sediment behind -- this is known as 'decanting'.


Mass market cheap wines have been treated with various techniques, such as filtering and cold stabilization to ensure there won't be any sediment, since such wines are bought by people who see such sediment as a fault and return the bottles to the shop.

Wineries expect that people who pay for an expensive wine with understand about sediment and see it as a good thing.

Penfolds are an excellent Australian producer and their wines should be excellent. Pour with care and you should be in for a real treat.

Enjoy

Answer 2

Sediment In Wine

Answer 3

Sediment in wine is caused by skin and pulp from the grapes. Normally if the wine is properly filtered you dont get sediment. The wine should still be good as long as it is tightly sealed. You can use cheese cloth to filter the sediment out or if you dont have any and want to drink it now a piece of white bread makes a good filter for wine

Answer 4

Most of the sediment in wine, called lees, is caused from dead yeast cells falling the bottom. Some of it is fruit skin and pulp but that is gone in the first few rackings. A racking is moving the liquid wine to another fermenter being carefull to leave the lees behind. You can achieve different tastes by leaving wine on the lees for a certen amount of time.

And if you get a thin layer of lees in the wine bottle after the wine has matured in the bottle you know the fermentation process is compleatly done and the wine becomes very stable. You also know all of the yeast (leaven) is gone. Very important if you are going to use the wine for passover feast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lees_%28fermentation%29

Answer 5

Sediment is normal for red wines so don't worry about it because it won't affect the taste of the wine. It happens because when the winery is filtering it (if they filter it), there's only so much they can remove before the colour starts to alter as well. Some wineries will produce unfiltered red wines which means you are very likely to see that sediment, especially if you have aged it or the winery aged it before releasing it for sale. Sediment tends to occur in older wines but I have seen wines as young as 3 or 4 years old that have tartrates (Tartaric Acid) in the wine. If you see it in your glass, don't worry about them. Some people say they look like shards of broken glass but it's not true at all and they won't hurt you.

Anyway, enjoy that red wine.

Answer 6

The sediment is:
--skin & pulp from the grapes
--remaining brewers yeast
--(sometimes) fining agents used to adjust tannins, acidity, etc.

Some wineries filter their wine as a final step before bottling to remove the sediment, but it's not really necessary.

Answer 7

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
please tell me what cause the sediment in wine?
I have some Australian Penfolds wines, all the bottles have the sediment inside. They tell me it's normal for red wines, but I wanna know what caused it, normally, and what does the sediment mean, while other wines were seldom seen having this. Thanks.

Answer 8

Sediment is natural in red wine you can only filter out so much before you filter out color and flavor. Don't worry its natural. now if white and milky in color it most likely Tartaric Acid which is just a long chain excess acid found in wine that when wine gets to cold will crystallize and fall out of the wine it will look like a white cloudy dust in the bottom of the bottle or in cases wear it was very heavy the tartaric acid will look like sugar in the bottom of the bottle that means the wine was not completely cold stabilized . now nothing is wrong with the wine and tartaric fall out will not hurt the wine or you it just doesn't look nice.

Answer 9

Wine State Of Mind :)

Answer 10

sedimentation is a natural processs that wines go thru were all the trash and sugars accumulate some wines need to be decanted......................the trash also comes from the amount iof tanning