Unfined and unfiltered

"Unfined and unfiltered" has become a shorthand for careful, low-intervention winemaking, and it is often used by producers who are indeed making wine that way.

It is not a statement about quality, and it does carry consequences the buyer should know about.

Fining binds and removes specific things — protein that would haze, harsh tannin, unstable colour. Filtration physically removes particles, including, at fine enough grades, yeast and bacteria.

Heavy filtration can strip colloidal material contributing to texture, and can remove aroma. That effect is real at the aggressive end and much less reliably detectable at the careful end.

Not filtering leaves a wine microbiologically live. That is exactly what some producers want and it is also how bottles referment, throw unexpected sediment, or develop Brettanomyces character.

Unfiltered wine is more sensitive to storage and transport, and more variable bottle to bottle. Neither is a defect; both are consequences.

Sediment in an unfiltered wine is harmless and expected, and it is a good reason to stand a bottle upright before opening.