Clay is one of the most common ingredients in commercial winemaking.
Winemakers add bentonite to wine, where it binds to proteins and pulls them out of suspension. They settle to the bottom and get removed.
Wine proteins clump and haze when exposed to heat. Bentonite removes those proteins, which is why so many commercial wines stay clear no matter how they're stored.
The obvious tradeoff is texture.
Proteins are part of what gives wine body and roundness. Removing them makes a wine feel thinner.
Whites get fined more aggressively than reds because tannins in red wine naturally bind some of those proteins on their own.
Drinking clay residue isn't the concern. That settles out and gets filtered off. The issue is how the removal of proteins changes the way your body interacts with the wine.
Proteins help your body absorb polyphenols. Polyphenols are the primary reason wine has any health case at all. Remove the proteins and polyphenol absorption drops dramatically, even if the polyphenols themselves are still in the glass.
Proteins also slow alcohol absorption into the bloodstream, which moderates the blood sugar spike that contributes to how rough you feel the next morning.
The conversation about wine additives usually focuses on what gets added, but removal changes things too. Your body isn't interacting with each compound in isolation.
Peony Lane is unfined and unfiltered.
If you can't taste the difference, you'll feel it the next morning.
