The Auswine Forum

Does anybody know whether either of the following statements are correct:

1. Sediment is very bad for you due the difficulty that the liver has in trying to cleanse it from your body.

2. Decanting through muslin or a fine cheese cloth changes the complexity and flavour of the wine, so hence, one shouldn't do it.

FWIW - Even after letting a bottle sit for a few hours and then being quite careful when either pouring or decanting, I still find that the sediment gets into the glass. I don't know why, but the sediment visually affects my ability to enjoy my wine.

How often do people decant wines through some type of a a filtering process to remove the sediment.

Gianna wrote:Does anybody know whether either of the following statements are correct:

1. Sediment is very bad for you due the difficulty that the liver has in trying to cleanse it from your body.

I didnt realised our liver is a filtering agent

I wouldn't worry too much about sediment clogging the liver, but be careful when eating olives not to swallow the pips as those suckers will get stuck in the kidneys sure as hell.

Gianna wrote:Does anybody know whether either of the following statements are correct:

1. Sediment is very bad for you due the difficulty that the liver has in trying to cleanse it from your body.

2. Decanting through muslin or a fine cheese cloth changes the complexity and flavour of the wine, so hence, one shouldn't do it.

FWIW - Even after letting a bottle sit for a few hours and then being quite careful when either pouring or decanting, I still find that the sediment gets into the glass. I don't know why, but the sediment visually affects my ability to enjoy my wine.

How often do people decant wines through some type of a a filtering process to remove the sediment.

Gianna:

The liver does function as a detoxifier but any sediment that you might swallow is not going to go anywhere near it. All solids have a one way ticket, and it does not involve any blood vessels!

I never decant through any cloth after one memorable experience. Many years ago I took the advice of one wine scribe who suggested using women's nylons to strain out sediment. He cautioned that they should be clean! My ex-wife donated a pair to the cause and I happily poured a now forgotten red through. The smell and taste were exactly what you would expect - dirty old socks. The nylons were clean, they actually had no smell, but the acidity of the wine obviously leached out what my nose could not detect!

She divorced me very soon afterwards!

Mike

I was always told that you shouldn't have Calcium as a dietary subsitute too often as it could give you K stones (eg. in Vitamin C powders). Of course sediment is not in the same category of fineness, but doesn't calcium remain a solid no matter how fine? Doctors, nutritionists, chemists out there?

Sediment is just not pleasant and this presents an even better argument for removal

simm wrote:I was always told that you shouldn't have Calcium as a dietary subsitute too often as it could give you K stones (eg. in Vitamin C powders). Of course sediment is not in the same category of fineness, but doesn't calcium remain a solid no matter how fine? Doctors, nutritionists, chemists out there?

Sediment is just not pleasant and this presents an even better argument for removal

Your kidneys filters your blood and produce urine from excess water. Kidney stones can be produced for a number of reasons - see here. But your blood is not carrying sediment that the kidneys filter out. Your body does not work that way. You adsorb nutrients, fluids from your gut but not in the form of sediment like wine sediment, or calcium sediment. I don't know that wine sediment is digested in any significant way.

Mike

simm wrote:I was always told that you shouldn't have Calcium as a dietary subsitute too often as it could give you K stones (eg. in Vitamin C powders). Of course sediment is not in the same category of fineness, but doesn't calcium remain a solid no matter how fine? Doctors, nutritionists, chemists out there?

Sediment is just not pleasant and this presents an even better argument for removal

The calcium in your diet, unless you are eating pure calcium in the mineral form, is taken into the body usually as a salt and absorbed across the gut in molecular form, ie Ca2+. No solids cross the gut wall. Even Calcium tablets are a salt which is then dissolved in the gut and then crosses the gut wall in molecular form. This is the same for some forms of vitamin C which are a calcium salt, calcium ascorbate, which in solution becomes calcium2+ and ascorbic acid.

Stone are formed in the kidneys by crystalisation of salts, not always calcium, in a situation of high concentration. Similar to making crystals grow in a jar using high concentration copper sulfate solution.

Now I will go and put my sarcasm hat back on because it is much more fun than real science.