Cloudy after exposure to cold weather?

[Claus R]

I recently bought 12 bottles of the Burmester Vintage 1991 which was shipped to me in cold weather conditions (0celcius - 10celcius, that's 32F - 14F)
I've opened 2 bottles by now, and both have been very clouded. One was opened shortly (1day) after recieving the bottles, the other after a week.

Now, I know some Ports come clouded from the shipper and it may dissappear during decanting, but these -I've read elsewhere- is not supposed to be this clouded, if clouded at all.

Taste doesn't seem to be affected, though - not that I would notice anyway, as I've never had the Burmester VP91 before...

Can this (permanent) cloudiness be caused by the shipping in cold weather? and, if this is caused by the cold weather, can I expect it to dissappear?

Regards,
Claus

[Tom Archer]

Claus,

Wine will become cloudy when chilled, and it is common practice to cold filter white wines to keep them bright.

Vintage port is unfiltered and forms a sediment, and will therefore become cloudy, not only when chilled, but when shaken during transport.

Fear not though! This is unlikely to be a permanent haze. Lay your bottles down for a few months, and then handle them very carefully when you come to decant; gently standing them up for a day or so before you want to open them to let the sediment slide to the bottom of the bottle.

When you come to decant, remove the capsule and cork very gently to avoid disturbing the sediment, and then decant the bottle in a single gentle action.

Alternatively, if you are impatient to drink these, you can also filter the wine through an unbleached coffee filter paper..

Tom

[Claus R]

Tom,

First, what you explain about VP's in general I already got down - but thanks anyway

Second, I hope laying them down for a few months solves the problem.
However, I think this cloudyness is not one caused by shake/transportation - either it's natural in the Burmester VP91 or the only thing I can come up with is prior bad storage or the cold weather, really not going for the prior bad storage as the bottles are bought fra a good rep wine specialist here in Denmark.

When I decant, I always use an unbleached tea filter and a funnel, but the -91-thing is still clouded after going through the filter and also after being left in the decanter for 6+hours, bringing me back to the above - so again I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the natural sediment I've seen already in other bottles...

I've had other bottles of Burmester shipped to me in cold weather as well (the VP99) and it was clouded too, although it dissappeared after 4-5hours decanting

Oh well, guess I'll just have to see how it turns out

Cheers,
Claus

[Andy Velebil]

Cloudy wine, or in this case Port, does happen from time to time especially in cold climates or where the wine gets really cold. When all wine is made it's got a hazy or cloudy appearance at first. One of the benefits of leaving it in barrel (or stainless steel vats) is to allow the sediment to settle to the bottom where eventually the wine is racked off. However, prior to or after being racked off several things can be done to ensure even if the wine gets cold it won't get cloudy.

The most common is fining the wine. This is achieved by adding things like egg whites, casein, or some other things to the barrels. In short, by adding one of these items the fine suspended molecules will attached and fall to the bottom, leaving a clear wine. There are also other large filter type pads the wine can be pumped through where heavy filtering can be done to acheive the same result. Mostly this is done to lesser priced wines that aren't meant to age in bottle. These products need to be "shelf stable" and ready to sell right after being bottle as not many people will buy a wine in a store where they can see it's cloudy, so you can see why this is important.

Vintage Port, while only very slightly filtered to remove the large skins, seeds, stems, etc., is still refered to as being unfiltered. As such it is suseptable to becoming cloudy if exposed to very cold temperatures. This shouldn't cause any harm to the wine other than visually it may not be as appealing. If you warm up the liquid the cloudyness should go away.

Hope that helps.

[Tom Archer]

unbleached tea filter

The paper used for tea bags (if that's what you are referring to) is probably too porous to remove freshly formed sediment.

When a wine becomes cloudy through the formation of sediment, the particles are initially little more than a single molecule; but with the passage of time they generally coagulate to form larger particles that fall to the bottom or cling to the glass.

Some sediment does seem capable of remaining permanently in suspension, but even that tends to meld into tiny fluffy lumps with the passage of time.

Tom