When you criticize a winemaker’s wine, you are, in essence, criticizing his cooking. Nearly all winemakers are intensely interested in food: fresh ingredients, gentle techniques, attractive presentation. The same things that go into making wine. Cellars are generally tidy places. The wines move in routine and carefully planned stages through pressing, tanks, barrels, adjustments, bottling. Winemakers shuffle around in the cellar tasting the wines as if they were pasta sauces, waiting a little longer on some, blending here and there, time to finish up on others.
Filtration makes a wine brighter and clearer by removing excess sediment and haze. Some wineries may decide not to filter their wines because they feel that the unfiltered wines taste better and have superior mouthfeel. There is no single correct answer; winemakers decide for themselves what is right for their product. Some red wines are filtered; some are not.
Cooking with wine is easier than most people realize. You can use wine in basting sauces, marinades, vinaigrettes, and other dishes where one might add a dash of lemon or vinegar. It doesn’t take a lot of wine to flavor a dish. Begin with a few tablespoons, let it simmer, and taste it a few minutes later, when the alcohol has evaporated. Like lemon juice, wine has a “cooking” effect of its own, so meats sauteed in wine will cook faster. Be watchful, taste as you go, and have fun.
In a British Columbia article titled “Where’s the Organic Wine?” the author says:
“Do your wines contain sulfites? My friend is very allergic and she’ll go into shock if she drinks wine containing sulfites.”-
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