| Natural Wines: Otherwise known as unfined and unfiltered wines.
What Is Unfined Wine?
To understand what unfined wine is, you must first understand what fining is. Fining is a process by which winemakers add fining agents to wine to remove small solids and improve the clarity of the wine.
Fining agents work by attracting or absorbing small particles in the wine. Those particles fall to the bottom, leaving a clearer wine. Fining is generally the first step to the filtering process, although some wines are fined without being filtered.
Unfined wines, simply put, are wines that have not gone through this process. They will generally appear hazier than traditional wines and may have some sediment at the bottom of the bottle. These wines are generally billed as “natural” wines.
What Is Unfiltered Wine?
Unfiltered, in its simplest definition, is wine that has not been filtered. After the fermentation process, wine is generally filtered through a specialty mesh filter. The process removes any small particles or solids from the wine. Wine generally collects some particles during the fermentation process. This is normal and not harmful. The filtering of wine just ensures that those particles are removed, leaving the wine clear without any sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Filtering is largely considered a cosmetic process.
Filtering, however, does have a place in the wine world. According to wine experts, many wines are filtered to ensure all yeast particles are removed from the wine prior to bottling. Leftover yeast can lead to after-hours fermentation, which can turn the wine.
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