WTN: '00 Aldo Conterno Nebbiolo D'Alba and a question??

Took this bottle to a cooking class that allows wine the other night, having had good experience with this bottle previously and have stored this lovingly for quite some time. I have never seen so much sediment in a wine. Mistakenly I did not decant, but as the night wore on it became apparent that it would be necessary. Decanted into a pitcher and then back into the bottle, but this did not help. It required a coffee filter (more than one) to eventually rid the wine of the problem. Maybe this was the bottom of a barrel? But once rid of the annoying sediment, the wine was classic Nebbiolo, with a heady nose, rich, almost Port-like intensity, no signs of breaking down, and very pleasant with grilled pork chops over fennel.
My question is: was the coffee filter the best way to rid this wine of the sediment? Or do any of you have a better way?

Richard
It's a reasonably practical solution in general situations. There may be concern about any bleaching used in the filter paper, but I doubt much impact on the wine will occur. Tea strainers may be an alternative option, depending on their design.

At home I have an attractive wine funnel (a gift from the brains of the operation), which has a little filter basket (like a tiny tea strainer). However to get a finer filtering, I insert a small piece of muslin under this filter basket. This tends to remove even fine (but not the finest) sediment.

regards

Ian

Richard and Ian,

I find that coffee filters (those that I buy here in Belgium) are very efficient for holding back the sediment but that they give a faint taste to the wine.

I haven't found a both efficient and tasteless system. My funnel's filter and tea strainers are too coarse to stop anything but large lumps of sediment or cork.

Does sediment really bother you? I have just squeezed as much as I can out of a lovely bottle of Ch.Talbot letting the sediment settle in the glass. I sometimes think that the last drop mixed with sediment is the best in the bottle as if the sediment is providing nourishment.

I have been informed from across the table that ladies tights might do the trick! Preferably unused.

In my experience, one should first let the bottle sit upright for a day or two. Then decant the wine off the sediment slowly so as to not stir up the sediment too much. As you get to the final 10% of wine when decanting, you may need to stop so that sediment does not get into the decanter.

If you have already mucked up the wine by pouring a couple glasses, decanting will be too late to stave off the problem. At that point, you can try the coffee filter method. Coffee filters should be unbleached. But filters have a tendancy to get clogged up from ther ultrafine particles.

A wine funnel screen, like nylons, is much coarser than filter paper, so some fine grained sediment will get through. The purpose of the funnel screen is "just in case" a clump of bigger sediment or cork fragments happen to be in the decanted wine.

I think several layers of rinsed cheese cloth is the best thing to line a funnel with when the bottle has had the sediment stirred up. Rinse cloth with distilled water so it does not alter the taste of the wine. Wring it our to remove the water, and spread a few layers into a wide funnel (not a wine funnel, which tends to have a skinny tube and smallish opening. I use a regular cooking funnel in most cases, rather than a metal wine funnel.

In my experience, one should first let the bottle sit upright for a day or two. Then decant the wine off the sediment slowly so as to not stir up the sediment too much. As you get to the final 10% of wine when decanting, you may need to stop so that sediment does not get into the decanter.

I usually have no problem with most wines. I find that "standing up" a bottle is not even necessary. I'll take a bottle from the rack and pour into a Pyrex measuring bowl, then as I get close to the end, I'll watch for sediment and usually leave the last 1/2 Oz. in the bottle to discard. Then I rinse the bottle and invert. Then after a few hours, I will pour back into the bottle, catching the fine sediments at the end of the pour.
But this wine was so cloudy from the start that I thought the wine was spoiled. But as I was able to progressively filter it, it morphed into at beautiful Nebbiolo. I can only assume that this bottle caught the dregs from the end of a barrel.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Hi,

What Bernard says

I also use this

Ciao
Birger

BTW a photo from my visit in 1999

Birger, you look so old in that picture!

Birger, you look so old in that picture!

Oswaldo my friend, it is Aldo Conterno on the photo Amazing personality.

I was there for the first time in 1999 and I was at the cantina of Aldo Conterno. I was looking for a shop to buy some wines, I did not know any better. There was naturally no shop but a name on the door that said "Aldo Conterno", well I pushed the doorbell ... who open up the door ... Aldo Conterno himself. I got speechless and could not say a word, but told him that I was looking to buy some wines. He invited me in and I tasted his new release of his Chardonnay, it was the first vintage. Trust me, I have never been that honored in my life, and approx 35-40 min later I walked out of his tasting room. I had to call a friend telling him I just shared a glass of wine with Aldo Conterno ... I still remember this day as it was yesterday.