What do you expect when you pour yourself a glass of wine? Apart from finding a taste that you like, you no doubt expect the wine, whether red or white, to be clear and bright and be free from extraneous bits. Most of the commercially-driven end of wine-producers have decided that you, the consumer, wants wines that fits the above description, even if obtaining that is to the detriment of the wine. The wine trade dislikes returned bottles, they eat into profits. If they find that consumers are returning bottles because they find sediment in it, they filter. If consumers are returning bottles because they find crystals of tartaric acid, then they chill the wine to nearly freezing point prior to bottling to precipitate out the crystals. In short you get the wine you want, but is it necessarily a better wine?

Filtering wine is solely for commercial reasons, not for making a better wine. No restaurants wants wine that throws a sediment; it needs decanting, which takes time and expertise, and there's always the possibility that the customer will reject it. Much easier to open a bottle of filtered wine that needs nothing other than pouring and has a lower incidence of rejection. An unfiltered wine is also a less stable wine. More chemical reactions take place in the bottle over time simply because there are more elements present. There are yeasts still present for a start, and they can start up another fermentation if there's any residual sugar left in the wine. It's more likely to go off, and in commercial terms that's another minus point.

Proponents of filtering will tell you that it takes nothing out of the wine, or that if it does it only temporary. After the shock of filtration the wine will recover in a month or so and will age in the same way as its unfiltered counterpart. It's hard to see how this can be the case. Consider Champagne. It starts life as a neutral white wine of little distinction, but long contact with the lees imparts its unique flavour. As the yeasts break down during the second fermentation they leave the wine with a flavour it previously didn't have. The same is true of Muscadet; a plain simple Muscadet will have very little flavour, but if it was made 'sur lie', that's to say left in contact with the lees, it can develop into a good wine that improves in the bottle. To take the opposite case, Beaujolais Nouveau is heavily filtered and consequently lacks flavour and bouquet.

It's possible to do both. Some wine-makers let their wine mature on the lees, which carries a high risk of the wine spoiling, to let it develop complexity and then filter prior to bottling. This system may well represent the best of both approaches.

Wine of the Week

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2000, Farnese

This wine from my hinterland of the Abruzzi has all the body that warm summers impart. Partly oaked, it's a big wine with the intensity of flavours that comes from low yields. It would make a good accompaniment to rich roasts and strong cheeses.

Available Molloy's Off Licenses and Karwig Wines Carrigaline, RRP €11.50