Reading Wine – A Tutorial of What’s in Your Wine Glass

We’ve all had the occasion to find a little sediment in our wine now and again. Or maybe you’ve noticed that the wine in your glass is not necessarily transparent, that the wine is cloudy. Depending on the treatments the wine received before, during, and after the fermentation process, a bit of residue in the your glass can be a positive or negative sign.

On one hand, a little cloudiness or sediment can denote a laissez-faire winemaking style. The winemaker, in other words, attempts to retain as much character in the final product by not fining or filtering the wine before bottling it. On the other hand, sediment can be the harbinger of problems. A lot can be discerned from a simple visual tour of the wine you are drinking.

First, pour yourself a glass of wine. It can be red or white, young or old, dry or sweet. The glass should be clean. The environment should be well lit. If possible, have a clean white piece of paper on hand. Next hold the glass of wine in your line of sight. Examine the color: is it colorless, golden, amber, orange, pink, red, purple, or black?
Now tilt the glass at an angle. Position the glass a few inches above the white piece of paper. Examine the rim of the wine where the wine is thinnest. Follow the wine to the center of the glass where the color is more dense. What color is the rim of the wine? What is the color at the center? Do you notice a glossy character to the surface of the wine, or is the clarity kind-of dull? Is there any sediment?

Dullness in the clarity of a wine can be a sign of a hand-crafted product or one with flaws. Sediment can indicate that the wine has not been filtered. Wines that are not filtered typically have some mention of this on the label, it alerts the consumer to potential sediment in the bottle. Most wines produced today are filtered before they are bottled. Prior to filtering they are often fined.