Here is a thought on cloudy wine.

It's perhaps easiest to understand the issue given a little context so here's a bit of background. I've spent years judging in conventional wine competitions around the world - some very famous and others less so, but all surprisingly have the same attitude to cloudy wine. Namely if it's cloudy it's faulty. This is not only false but sadly also means that I have seen cloudy wines get thrown out of competitions the world over just on looks even though aromatically they might be delicious.

Cloudy does not necessarily mean faulty. In fact I would go so far as to say that nowadays cloudy wines are usually cloudy simply because they have not been processed using fining and filtering agents, NOT because they are faulty. Given the arsenal of additives and gadgetry at a winemaker's disposal it is rare today to find a truly faulty commercial wine.

It is true that certain faults can manifest themselves in cloudiness but from there to leap to the generalisation that therefore all cloudy wines must be faulty, is seriously mistaken. It's 'thinking' along the lines of 'I have seen a black swan therefore all swans must be black'. What nonsense.

It's far more helpful to think of cloudy wine like cloudy apple juice or even real ale.

And wine competitions? Shame on you. You should rethink your strategy.

Link to this video blog: www.thatcrazyfrenchwoman.com/node/256