Polishing Up

Last week we bottled more Red Fusion and prepared our White Fusion to bottle this weekend. Because we believe in non-interventionist winemaking, we rarely filter our reds. Also, our reds are usually aged for more than a year, so they clarify naturally over time through settling then racking.

However, because most customers don't like any cloudiness in their white wines, we usually give our Chardonnay and White Fusion a lite "polish" filtration. This means we use filter pads with spacious pores to allow all the best aroma and flavor components to pass through, while catching those that make the wine look dirty. The result are brilliant wines that are beautiful to hold up to the light and just look at.

Setting up the filter itself can take some work and concentration, as you can see. Each of the 40 white filter pads must be oriented perfectly, then the whole filter assembly is screwed shut as tightly as possible, or wine will leak all over the floor or squirt out the edges. That's why it's really nice to have a guy that weightlifts regularly as my assistant winemaker!

Ciao!

Steve