A bit of background on our wines
Handcrafted
Alton Farms Estate Winery wines are handcrafted using 100% locally grown grapes, and processed as naturally as possible. These “au natural” wines develop all their depths of flavour with time and patience. We do not rush our wines out for sale; they have to be ready to drink (and ready to age).
Vegan
We do not use any animal products in our wines. But as we use sheep to maintain and fertilize the vineyard, our wines cannot be classfied as vegan.
Minimal chemical input
We use sustainable processes in both our vineyard and the winery.
During the winemaking, we use grapes, yeast, yeast nutrients and little else. We minimise sulphites, we seldom use clarifying agents, we only lightly filter and we don’t overly chill our wines prior to bottling. Racking and bottling are done as gently as possible, mainly using gravity.
Consumers and wine stability
Consumers have been conditioned that commercial wine is clear, stable and will never change after bottling. This stability also means the wine will have little chance to age or improve in the bottle. Our wine making process leads to wine that can age and mellow (if you can let them), but it can lead to some light sediment and shiny crystals of tartaric acid being deposited in the bottles, so we recommend decanting all our wines prior to drinking, even some of the whites.
Tartrates
Grapes ripen in the summer from a fruit high in acids to one high in sugars and knowing when to pick them is a key wine making skill. Depending on many factors the grapes should still have a nice refreshing acid content when picked. Depending on this initial acid content, crystals of tartaric acid (tartrate) fall out during the various winemaking steps. After chilling (over winter, or artificially by cooling jackets) most of the tartaric acid crystals fall out, taking some of the finer sediments and helping to clarify the wine in the process.
Smaller wineries, like us, might not have chilling equipment and can experience deposition of tartrates out of the wine, when the wines are stored in a cold storage building or in your fridge. Tartrate Crystals are a natural product of the wine, and form when the wine gets too cold. Think of sugar turning into rock candy and you’ll have a good mental image of the process.
Here is a great picture of tartaric acid crystals on a cork, captured by one of our customers. Note the crystals look like small pieces of glass, but if you look closely they are angular due to their crystalline structure, and the pieces don’t exhibit the sharp tips and curved surfaces of broken glass.
As a note of interest the newer hybrid grape varieties such as Frontenac, Lucy Kuhlman, Marechal Foch and some of the others being introduced in cooler climates, have much higher initial acid concentrations and can deposit a lot of tartrates in the bottles. I recently had a concerned customer bring me a bottle of hybrid grape wine (not ours) with a 1/4 inch of tartrate deposits.
Note that the dimple in the bottom of many wine bottles was (likely) originally put in place to allow sediment, such as tartrates, to settle out, solidify, and be less likely to pour out when the wine was decanted.
Sediment
We believe wine sediment (tartrates, tannins and other organics) is natural and important to develop the full potential of a wine, but here are some thoughts from other experts.
For some technical thoughts on wine sediment:
https://magazine.saq.com/en/useful-tips/sediment-in-wine-is-this-normal/
For more information about the benefits of lightly filtered wines:
http://www.vinography.com/archives/2011/01/my_name_is_alder_yarrow_and_i.html
http://sontes.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/understanding-sediment-in-wine/
For more information about some of the world’s great unfiltered wines:
http://www.channingdaughters.com/wine_order/index.php
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/20/unfiltered-wines-ten-lifestyle-wine-unfiltered-wine.html
Again, we believe wine sediment is natural and important. Thank you for enjoying our wines au natural. Contact us at info@altonfarmsestatewinery.com if you have any questions.
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