"Ken Anderson" > wrote in message
news
> We have a small commercial vineyard/winery in the area that has produced a
> cloudy Pinot Noir. The vintner claims that this is acceptable, and he
gives a
> number of reasons for the wine's condition. I think justifying a cloudy
> commercial wine sounds suspicious. Is it possible to NOT view cloudiness
as a
> defect? Or is he pulling the wool over folks' eyes?

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