Cold Stabilization

Cold Stabilization, Tartrate crystals and Wine
Some aspects of the wine community are strictly about appearance. Labels do not affect the flavor of a wine at all, yet they can often be a big part of the purchase decision.

Cold stabilization
From EncycloWine
Cold stabilization is a process used in winemaking to reduce tartrate crystals (generally potassium bitartrate) in wine.

Cold Stabilization: This procedure is usually performed after fermentation, when the weather is slightly below freezing. Putting the wine into a refrigerator is an alternative.

Cold stabilization
Cold stabilization is a process after fermentation used in winemaking to reduce tartrate crystals where the wine is chilled to near freezing point for a couple of weeks. This causes tartaric acid to crystallise out.

Cold Stabilization: A technique of chilling wines before bottling to cause the precipitation of harmless tartrate crystals.

Cold Stabilization: Chilling wine before bottling to precipitate sediments (potassium acid tartrate crystals).
Complex: A wine with numerous odors and flavors, each one usually rather subtle.

Cold Stabilization: A clarification technique in which a wine's temperature is lowered to 32° F, causing the tartrates and other insoluble solids to precipitate.

Cold stabilization - A technique that causes wine to drop tartaric acid crystals due to cooling to low temperatures (28 to 35 degrees) for a period of up to two weeks. This procedure is usually used only for white wines.

Cold stabilization - A winemaking process where wine is chilled to near freezing temperatures for several weeks to encourage the precipitation of tartrate crystals.
Corked - A tasting term for a wine that has cork taint.

Cold Stabilization
Chilling wine before bottling to remove potassium acid tartrate crystals or other sediment from the finished wine.
Compact
A descriptor used to describe a wine that is intense but not full.

Cold stabilization may be considered an adjunct or enhancement to racking. This process removes excess tartaric acid that, if untreated, might later form potassium bitartrate crystals, which can show up in wine bottles or on corks.

Cold stabilization may also be considered a form of racking. This process removes excess tartaric acid that may form potassium bitartrate crystals, which can show up in bottled wine or on corks.

Closure
The device used to seal a wine bottle, usually a cork.

Cold Stabilization
Chilling wine before bottling to remove potassium acid tartrate crystals or other sediment from the finished wine.

Cold Stabilization: The process of removing excess potassium and tartaric acid under chilled conditions as Potassium Bitartrate to prevent its precipitation in the bottle when chilled.

The most common example is "cold stabilization" which is used to ensure that tartaric precipitants do not appear in white wine once it has been chilled and then warmed again.

Cold stabilization
Cold stabilization means chilling wine prior to bottling it. This process crystallizes tartaric acid in the vat, so that these ugly, but harmless, crystals don't appear in the bottle.

This process, called cold stabilization, turns excess tartaric acid into crystals. Some wines are not cold stabilized, as some winemakers who feel this somehow reduces the quality of a great wine.

Because some uninformed consumers worry when they find these in their wine, many producers subject wine to low temperatures before bottling (a process called cold stabilization) to precipitate the tartarates out.

See also: Stabilization, Fermentation, Wine, Grape, Taste