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While perusing the back of a bottle of Australian wine, I noticed that egg and milk were among the ingredients. What are they used for, do they stay in the wine and, most importantly, do they affect the taste?

鈥� Egg white 鈥� for its albumen 鈥� and milk 鈥� for its phosphoprotein casein 鈥� are used to clarify wine. The process of removing tannins and proteins to keep wine clear is called fining. Attempts to clarify wine are as old as winemaking. Other traditional agents are isinglass, from the dried swim bladders of fish, and ox blood, horse gelatins, seaweed and clay. As someone called Grapegrower states in the fascinating blog (), 鈥渁lmost any protein will work to some extent by binding to others and forming the solid deposits鈥�.

Those who regard unfined or unfiltered wines as superior to clarified, stabilised ones might want to think again. Like any cloudy 鈥渘atural鈥� alcohol, they contain a mix of polymerised tannins, phenols, proteins, yeast cells, grape skins and other hangers-on that could give you a hangover. There鈥檚 more on fining in Jordan P. Ross鈥檚 article 鈥溾�� ().

By the way, US navy cooks traditionally cracked a raw egg into brewing coffee to clarify the joe.

Toshi Knell, Nowra, New South Wales, Australia