Tuesday 7 June 2016

Divine Wine


            This post is for any of our wine fanatic followers. Even though we lack some information on the history and background of today’s post we still wanted to highlight the following artifact for interest’s sake.

            The artifact that we want to share with you is a wine filter marked, “The Paragon Filter, Crown Filter Co. Glasgow”. This intriguing artifact seems to have come from abroad, as it is also marked “Port-Dundas, Glasgow, Pottery CoY.” Unfortunately, like many artifacts in our collection, we don’t have a history of where and when this artifact was used. It can be hard to know everything about artifacts donated to the museum, as many times the donor is a descendant of the artifact’s original owner and they only know to whom it belonged. So, we can’t always tell you a complete story for this reason, but we’ll do our best to fill you in with some other details about this wine filter.

            Port-Dundas Pottery Company started in 1828 and closed in 1932 after having various owners and going under the name of James Miller & Company for some time. The company, from what we can find, manufactured beer bottles. It’s assumed that while in the business of beer bottle manufacturing, Port-Dundas Pottery must have taken up wine filter manufacturing as well. (We have attached the link below where we found this information and it includes some specifics for those interested.)

            While we had trouble coming across any information pertaining to this particular wine filter, we thought it fitting to share a brief reasoning as to why filtering wines takes place. Filtration is not only for removing the cloudiness from young wines, but it is also important in controlling the microbes (yeast and bacteria) that are in the wines that could ferment if not removed. Not that we are wine-making experts by any means, but our research tells us that filtration can clarify a young wine faster than fining can. This process is important for having a wine that is not only clear, but stable and won’t change hugely while in storage overtime.


            While our wine filter is missing its cover and also the filtration part from inside, we have attached a link to a Paragon Filter we found for sale online to give you an idea of what it would have looked like in its prime: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/the-paragon-crown-filter-co-glasgow-stoneware

            We hope you find this artifact as interesting as we did! What we think makes it even more fascinating is that wine filtering still takes place today (unlike rug beating), and so even though methods and equipment may have advanced, filtration - a historic process in wine-making - is still necessary.


http://www.enologyinternational.com/filtration/filtration.html

           

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