Cloudy wine, what the funk?

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C loudy wine, what the funk? People still assume clear wine means better wine. Bright, polished, see-through. Cloudy, on the other hand, feels like something went wrong. Like the bottle was mishandled, stored badly, or rushed out before it was ready. That reaction makes sense. We’ve been trained to read clarity as quality. Beer, spirits, even water follow that rule. Wine just quietly inherited it. Most natural wines aren’t filtered or fined before bottling. Filtration is a cosmetic step. It strips out yeast, grape solids, and sediment to make the wine look stable and uniform. Clean lines. No surprises. When that step is skipped, the wine keeps more of what it grew with. What you’re seeing in a cloudy wine isn’t rot or spoilage. It’s usually leftover yeast or fine grape particles that would otherwise be removed. They settle. They move. They shift depending on temperature, travel, and time. That’s why the same bottle can look different every time you open it. The reason this ma...
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What We Drink When the Weather Turns

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Weather, Wine, and the Brighton Habit


Brighton and Hove’s weather has a sense of humour. Sun in the morning, sideways rain by lunch, and if you’re lucky, a sunset before the wind starts howling. You can’t really plan bottle days in advance here. You drink with the weather you’ve got.

When it suddenly gets cold, we grab a chilled red. Not heavy, just juicy and bright, with dark fruit and a little spice. It wakes you up in the cold air, and somehow it feels right in a jumper and a beanie, standing by the railings watching the sea get rougher.

When the sun breaks through, even for half an hour, it’s pet-nat time. Fizzy, refreshing, a little wild. It makes it feel like summer, even if you’re still wearing a jumper. Crack one open, hand it across the table, and you get that cheap, perfect kind of joy that sticks to your memory.

When it rains and doesn’t stop, that’s when a textured white comes out. Something with grip you can sip slow while the storm does its thing outside. It works just as well with fish and chips as it does on its own. Let the flavours unfold while the sky keeps doing its thing.

Brighton weather keeps us guessing, but there’s never a wrong time to open a bottle. The trick is choosing one that works no matter how fast the sky changes.

— Reza, La Cave Noire Journal

La Cave Noire opens soon in Brighton & Hove. Join the waitlist →
lacavenoire.co.uk

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